Lake Powell 2015

[Tim]

OK it is not sailing or the ocean but I have to post something to show why I am not up there with Frank where I would like to be.

Our drive down to Lake Powell was pleasantly uneventful. I guess I had allowed three days travel but did it in two, arriving a day before my reservation. That turned out to be no problem we still managed to get the coveted ?C1? RV site at Wahweap.

Temps were in the 90?s and we ended up spending three days prepping the boat and seeing if any other C-Brats showed. Finally Sunday the 13th we could stand it no longer and launched in the morning. This was my first ramp launch with the C-Dory, and it was relatively pain free. We knew we had a few days of possible Storms ahead of us so we wanted to find a good safe anchorage which we did in Gunsight Bay.


We had our three point anchoring which kept us secure but nervous during the gusts that came from all directions. For the first day most of the cells passed to our south, but the second night culminated in an extraordinary hour long 360* light show in the middle of the night.




When it looked like things were settling down the next day we moved on up lake to Labyrinth and Face canyon, finally finding a wonderful ?niche? anchorage in Face which turned out to be our favorite site of the trip. We paddled our kayak up to the end of the slot canyon only to be waked, or I should say ?washing machined? by jet skis in a narrow part of the canyon on the way out. (no photos too busy hanging on).



After two days at Face we headed up river into the Rock Creek drainage, there were three arms to it and after checking them all out we settled on an anchorage that had great views but but somewhat exposed to boat traffic going by. 



The next day from Rock Creek we headed up river to Little Oak Canyon to meet up for the C-Bras get together. The lower lake level made it a little difficult to actually find the spot but we did. The C-Brats are a great bunch and we immediately felt welcomed.



Little oak Canyon provided not only a great beach for the group, but good hiking further up the canyon.



After a great couple of pot lucks we took off again on our own to check out the Escalante River. On the way up the Escalante we went into the ?Cathedral in the Desert? arm and as we were coming out we ran into Jay and Jody and we fell in right behind them towards the end of the Escalante.

Though the water was shallow and muddy, the island provided a great beach to camp on.


We stayed two nights, first night sharing it with Jay on Hunky dory, and Jody on Voyager.

We took the kayak down to explore into Explorer Canyon.

The next day they went on up lake, but Steve and Diana on Constant Craving and Brent and Dixie on Discovery rolled in to share the spot the next night.
From there went up to Iceberg Canyon with expectation to go to Halls for water and ice the next day, but we ended up liking the spot so much we stayed for a couple of nights.




From that point we decided to just go back by Dangling Rope for supplies and find another anchorage down river. That isn?t always so easy to do because the lake is so packed with houseboats towing multiple ski boats, jests etc. And just to make it more interesting one of them decided to abandon a ski rope in the middle of the channel which on leaving early we narrowly missed turning off the engine just before it wrapped on the prop. We ended up in Dungeon Canyon with an adequate but shallow beach anchorage.



I had been noticing a decrease in the cooling system indicator stream since the Escalante and when we left Dungeon, it was almost non-existent. We had been planning to stay on the lake through the weekend to avoid the crowds at the ramp, but decided to head on towards the Wahweap and pull out. As it turned out later the decrease was just because of a plugged stream indicator, but the retrieval at the ramp which I had been dreading having never done it before went surprisingly well. Unfortunately having not expected to take out therefore not making a reservation for Friday the campground was full so it was earlier enough we just packed things away while in the parking lot and hit the road making it to Barstow the first night and home the second.

[Frank]

WOW!!

It never ceases to amaze me that there is SO much beauty in nature.....and so varied!!

Amazing pics! Awesome scenery!

Great boat to see it in as well

Good report.....awesome looking cruise!

[CharlieJ]

Very nice. And for sure a well traveled boat. It's been in my yard also  ;D

[lance on cloud nine]

Yes! Lovely photos! Thank you for posting them.