Today's water looked to be flatter and calmer in every way compared to the last multi-mile trip we did. A minor breeze from the N/E meant we'd plan to paddle against it on the way out and have a helping hand on the way back.
We had planned to put-in inside the Painted-Rocks housing development but there has been a fair amount of construction in the last few years which consumed the vacant lots that used to allow water access. Next best was a level-B road ending in the water a couple miles away. We were hoping to go near the highway-14 bridge, so this tacked on well over a mile of paddling but it turned out to be a great put-in location inside a deep tail-water.
Corrine rockin' her Alpacka.
The destination slowly but surely gets closer. The small cut in this bank on the left side of the picture (grassy looking area) is where we would have put-in if we could've gotten into Painted-Rocks. It looked like it would've been a slightly crappy hike down to the water while carrying gear, anyway.
Looking over to the opposite side of the lake, I realized that a natural beach we've camped on before really isn't too far away from here, maybe an extra 3/4-mile. May have to try and make use of that this year yet.
Nathan, Sarah, and Corrine making a break for shore, leaving me out here to fend for myself. I also noted that red boats are really popular.
Cody was out getting in some jet-ski action before the weather turns to freezing-to-death mode.
Making me some nice waves to tackle.
The lake is currently at normal pool, so the rocks really show off how much erosion they get from the water.
Red-boat group photo!
We found a couple areas where stone had been quarried out of the hills some time ago. I walked on some of the ledges and this whole thing would be pretty easy to climb around on with a rope. Each of the cuts is about 5'-6' high.
Nathan thinking about making a break for the bridge?
There's a small cave under this cliff. It kind of made me want to start looking for mud to build a pueblo city across it. I could almost stand up in the taller parts of it.
See? Basically the same thing, just needs to be scaled down a little.
We made it back to the "ramp" and headed out. As is typical of the weather around here, about the time we wanted to turn around and paddle back, the wind had shifted to N/W so we got to run into a headwind the whole second half. It never got too bad but the 4-miles we did was plenty for me, only having a couple long paddles total under my vest.
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