The Campfire Trail: July 17 - Resort Adventures

Thursday, July 18, 2019

July 17 - Resort Adventures

July 17, 2019

Day 198 - 167 Days to go
Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost on the Lake (Colombia/Sumatra blend)

Our "parts" boats sitting over dry land now for almost a month

If you've been following the Adventure, You'll know that the biggest part of it this year has been the lake. Usually that would mean dealing with high water, this year its been just the opposite. After a brief, six hour flood in April, we've been putting up with low water. Extra low water beginning just before the 4th of July. The top gates on Powersite Dam, just seven miles downstream from us broke almost a month ago. The airbags that hold them up sprung a leak and they collapsed allowing the top four to five feet of water to escape. It doesn't sound like much but when there is only three or four feet of water depth at the docks, it's the difference between boat floating and boats sitting in the mud.

A couple days ago, one of the local news crews stopped by for an interview and documented our problem for their news broadcast. I'm not sure it helped, but it did bring some awareness to what we've been living with, at least in July. Of course there's really nothing that can be done until the water in the next lake below the dam goes down enough to get repair crews in to fix it.

Until then, I usually know the day before whether the power generation schedule in the lake upstream from us will be releasing enough water to keep our boats afloat. So.... for about a week and a half, we've been VERY CAREFULLY launching our boats out in the morning in barely enough water to keep them off the bottom. By afternoon the water will have raised enough to make it easier to get them back in.

Life at the Lake...…. Always an interesting Adventure!