Desert Dory - Lake Powell 16-21 May 2020
- Thread starter Desert Dory
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Desert Dory
New member
tennawalker":22ozkcuf said:We met you just as you were headed to Bullfrog. We were the burgundy CD out for our maiden voyage. Guess what? We are now a C-BratYour boat looked great.
Hello tennawalker,
Great to see you on here and even better to have seen you out on the lake, and, what better place to do your maiden voyage! Being a Powell virgin I was just in awe of the whole place.
Also, your Dory was beautiful!! The burgundy is probably my favorite color on these boats.
I hope your trip was as awesome as ours was and would love to see you post up a thread about your adventure. They're a friendly group here and I'm pretty sure everybody would love to read about it.
If you PM Mike (Tyboo) he'll get you set up with an album where you can store your pics so you can post some up here.
Also, please forgive me as I didn't get a picture of your boat on the water when we ran into each other. Not sure what I was thinking there
Cheers, Allen
Desert Dory, Agree with the spotty coverage. We have a Verizon hot spot or cheap phone, just for remote areas where AT&T would not work!
The Garmin InReach is a great tool. Glad it worked for you in an urgent situation!
If you are a ham radio operator, there is also an open 2 meter repeater on Navajo Mountain: W7WAC. Repeater ID: 49-218, Downlink: 146.96000, Uplink: 146.36000
The Garmin InReach is a great tool. Glad it worked for you in an urgent situation!
If you are a ham radio operator, there is also an open 2 meter repeater on Navajo Mountain: W7WAC. Repeater ID: 49-218, Downlink: 146.96000, Uplink: 146.36000
easy does it
Member
Good point about the kayaks. We are in our mid seventies just starting out our boating career, our lives are rather boring compared to my younger days. We watched the movie "forks over knives" We are creating our own "Blue Zone" plant based diet and and lots of exercise so the C-Dory is really our floating base. At our age it is either GET REAL about lifestyle changes or go down the tubes! We believe we are adding 6 years to our life. My wife is vegan, gluten free, aniti inflammatory diet. but nothing is going to stop us from achieving our dream. I bought her a food dryer and she has been busy all week. I have a lot of freeze dried foods for myself. The point is don't let disabilities or other issues keep you off the water!!!! We added a short piece pvc pipe secured with stainless steel hose clamps to the chrome rails, and then attached the yakima tower base from our car to the pvc pipe. (this allowed the bars to be high enough to clear the top which goes up in the middle) that way we did not have to drill holes to attach the base for the yakima high towers and we could use what we already had. I was going to use some 96" bars for our floating circus but realized I could not walk around the sides with those so used some 48" with Hully rollers they just clear the canvas. I then mounted a roller bar of 1" pvc across the back with a larger piece covered with foam to make a roller bar into the water by the main engine. These are large 50lb kayaks so I come off the top with the hully rollers onto the back roller into the water and visa versa. I guess I will stack one SUP on top for an early morning paddle because the water is still cold. Is satellite phone a good option?
Desert Dory":1b9bhotz said:Well, my very first LP trip is done and all I can say is WOW!! What a place!
Me and a buddy of mine had been planning to go to Powell for a few months and, after a couple week delay for the CV19 closure, we were off and running the morning of Saturday, May 16th.
After the 7 hour drive from my house in Tucson we launched at Wahweap at 3pm that afternoon. Up the lake we went, ending up just past Dangling Rope before finding a little cut to spend the night. Just enough beach and out away from the main lake and wind.
After a great night on the boat we woke the next morning, had our coffee and breakfast, and set course for Halls Crossing. After stopping there for some gas my buddy wanted to keep going uplake. Not what I had in mind (can't see it all in one trip), so I reined him in and told him "No! We're going back downriver to Escalante!" We poked around Annie's and a couple other places and ended up in Iceberg Canyon where we spent the second night.
Day three we headed into the Escalante arm and poked around there for a bit until we got to the end of Willow Creek Canyon. Spectacular! It was a bit early but, we called it a day, raised the engine, pulled the boat up as far as we could go and spent the night up there at the end of the canyon.
A bit later that evening a guy in a rental houseboat tried to get up to a beach across from us and totally grounded the boat on a sandbar. They were safe, undamaged, and in a really nice spot so I told them to hang there, enjoy the spot, and we'll get word to the marina ASAP.
VHF and cell phones were useless so I ended up sending a message with the Garmin inReach to my wife asking her to call Bullfrog marina the following morning to see if they would send someone out to assist. Bullfrog said they would try to get someone out Tuesday afternoon but they were concerned with the wind forecast (gusts 40+ on the main lake body).
Long story short, the rental guy said they Bullfrog never came out so they ended up spending about 6 hours Wednesday morning digging the boat out. They did finally get it off the bar and spent the last couple days of their trip at another location. Once it was over they said it was quite the adventure.
After leaving Willow Creek we poked around the rest of the arms in Escalante and made the mistake of heading down lake Tuesday afternoon during the 40+ mph wind event. It was "Sporty" to say the least and, although the boat handled it fine, we made it a short distance and decided to duck into the cut where the sunken boat is. Spent night four there at the sunken boat.
The next day we hit Reflection, Rainbow Bridge, and a couple other places before stopping at Dangling Rope for gas and ice.
Pulling in to Rainbow Bridge we had the place to ourselves, at least until right before we left. Pretty sweet.
After leaving Dangling Rope we headed down river for night five. We wanted to be fairly close to Wahweap as we were leaving the next day and had a long drive back to Tucson. We found a nice little spot up in Last Chance Canyon to spend our final night.
In conclusion, being my first trip to LP, all I can say is WOW! I can't wait to get back there!
Cheers, Desert Dory
Desert Dory":3jqfo6da said:Well, my very first LP trip is done and all I can say is WOW!! What a place!
Me and a buddy of mine had been planning to go to Powell for a few months and, after a couple week delay for the CV19 closure, we were off and running the morning of Saturday, May 16th.
After the 7 hour drive from my house in Tucson we launched at Wahweap at 3pm that afternoon. Up the lake we went, ending up just past Dangling Rope before finding a little cut to spend the night. Just enough beach and out away from the main lake and wind.
After a great night on the boat we woke the next morning, had our coffee and breakfast, and set course for Halls Crossing. After stopping there for some gas my buddy wanted to keep going uplake. Not what I had in mind (can't see it all in one trip), so I reined him in and told him "No! We're going back downriver to Escalante!" We poked around Annie's and a couple other places and ended up in Iceberg Canyon where we spent the second night.
Day three we headed into the Escalante arm and poked around there for a bit until we got to the end of Willow Creek Canyon. Spectacular! It was a bit early but, we called it a day, raised the engine, pulled the boat up as far as we could go and spent the night up there at the end of the canyon.
A bit later that evening a guy in a rental houseboat tried to get up to a beach across from us and totally grounded the boat on a sandbar. They were safe, undamaged, and in a really nice spot so I told them to hang there, enjoy the spot, and we'll get word to the marina ASAP.
VHF and cell phones were useless so I ended up sending a message with the Garmin inReach to my wife asking her to call Bullfrog marina the following morning to see if they would send someone out to assist. Bullfrog said they would try to get someone out Tuesday afternoon but they were concerned with the wind forecast (gusts 40+ on the main lake body).
Long story short, the rental guy said they Bullfrog never came out so they ended up spending about 6 hours Wednesday morning digging the boat out. They did finally get it off the bar and spent the last couple days of their trip at another location. Once it was over they said it was quite the adventure.
After leaving Willow Creek we poked around the rest of the arms in Escalante and made the mistake of heading down lake Tuesday afternoon during the 40+ mph wind event. It was "Sporty" to say the least and, although the boat handled it fine, we made it a short distance and decided to duck into the cut where the sunken boat is. Spent night four there at the sunken boat.
The next day we hit Reflection, Rainbow Bridge, and a couple other places before stopping at Dangling Rope for gas and ice.
Pulling in to Rainbow Bridge we had the place to ourselves, at least until right before we left. Pretty sweet.
After leaving Dangling Rope we headed down river for night five. We wanted to be fairly close to Wahweap as we were leaving the next day and had a long drive back to Tucson. We found a nice little spot up in Last Chance Canyon to spend our final night.
In conclusion, being my first trip to LP, all I can say is WOW! I can't wait to get back there!
Cheers, Desert Dory
Desert Dory,
Thank you for sharing your adventure and photos. Looks like you had a great time and the scenery is spectacular. We hoped to do the west coast of Vancouver Island this year but Covid-19 put a stay on that. We hope to try again next May but if we cannot, I think LP would be a great alternative. I wonder what interest there would be for C-Brats to share time together on the water at LP in May of 2021? Anyone interested?
Thank you for sharing your adventure and photos. Looks like you had a great time and the scenery is spectacular. We hoped to do the west coast of Vancouver Island this year but Covid-19 put a stay on that. We hope to try again next May but if we cannot, I think LP would be a great alternative. I wonder what interest there would be for C-Brats to share time together on the water at LP in May of 2021? Anyone interested?
DayBreak":3631mzht said:
Historically the lowest levels of the year are usually April- May, and highest are late June- July. But the yearly levels are more important.
Each elevation has its own features. If you want to use the Castle Rock cut 3580 feet plus 2' for good luck would be the lowest lake level acceptable. You can go thru Antalope Canyon if the cut is closed.
The Canyons are all different, and short cuts may not be available. A lot of eyeball navigation...but after about a dozen trips there, you get to know what is going to be open and what is not. The current lake level is about 3592 feet. So Castle Rock cut would be open. You can google this information.
It is nice to have a top map of Lake Powell, and that helps give the elevations of the water vs profiles of the canyons. It is always a great place to go! We love it.
Desert Dory
New member
Hey Gary,
I'm sure just about any time at Powell is a good time. Dr. Bob has a lot of experience there and makes some very good points about fall vs spring and the water levels. Depending on what kind of chartplotter you have you can make adjustments for the varying water levels to help keep you out of trouble.
On my Garmin I set colors for varying depths/zones once I figured out what the "actual" water level was when we got there. An example would be a Dark Blue for water depth between 300 and 500 feet. If I had some kind of emergency and HAD to travel at night, keeping the boat in the Dark Blue would pretty much keep me in the main lake channel and out of trouble for the most part. Having said that, DO NOT travel at night on Powell unless you absolutely have to.
Our trip in May was perfect as far as weather, and the water level was 3601 and climbing. Predictions for 2021 don't look as good for the water level so fall may be the best bet.
My wife and I were supposed to go to Powell for a week on 13 Oct. Then, due to a family emergency, we got delayed and weren't able to leave until the 23rd. We missed our weather window as a front moving into the Powell area on 26th was forecasting a high of 42 and a low of 31 starting that Monday, and not getting a whole lot better for the days following. That's a little too cold for these desert dwellers.
The Mrs. suggested Havasu as plan B and that's were we ended up going. The same front threw out some nasty 35-45 (gusts to 60) mph winds but the temps were much more bearable. Had to hunker down in the same spot for Sunday and Monday nights (snugged up behind Issacs Rock on the Colorado River) but, we made it thru the worst of it and ended up having a great, first trip to Havasu.
Be sure to post up what you end up deciding to do. We may be able to make it up there again.
I'm sure just about any time at Powell is a good time. Dr. Bob has a lot of experience there and makes some very good points about fall vs spring and the water levels. Depending on what kind of chartplotter you have you can make adjustments for the varying water levels to help keep you out of trouble.
On my Garmin I set colors for varying depths/zones once I figured out what the "actual" water level was when we got there. An example would be a Dark Blue for water depth between 300 and 500 feet. If I had some kind of emergency and HAD to travel at night, keeping the boat in the Dark Blue would pretty much keep me in the main lake channel and out of trouble for the most part. Having said that, DO NOT travel at night on Powell unless you absolutely have to.
Our trip in May was perfect as far as weather, and the water level was 3601 and climbing. Predictions for 2021 don't look as good for the water level so fall may be the best bet.
My wife and I were supposed to go to Powell for a week on 13 Oct. Then, due to a family emergency, we got delayed and weren't able to leave until the 23rd. We missed our weather window as a front moving into the Powell area on 26th was forecasting a high of 42 and a low of 31 starting that Monday, and not getting a whole lot better for the days following. That's a little too cold for these desert dwellers.
The Mrs. suggested Havasu as plan B and that's were we ended up going. The same front threw out some nasty 35-45 (gusts to 60) mph winds but the temps were much more bearable. Had to hunker down in the same spot for Sunday and Monday nights (snugged up behind Issacs Rock on the Colorado River) but, we made it thru the worst of it and ended up having a great, first trip to Havasu.
Be sure to post up what you end up deciding to do. We may be able to make it up there again.