Kayaking on the "Great Lakes" of CO
I saw the west slope CBT project reservoirs referred to as Colorado's Great Lakes on a Sea Kayaking club's website. The main three lakes are Grand Lake (the natural lake), Shadow Mountain reservoir, and Lake Granby (by far the largest of the three). So apologies to anyone from the actual Great Lakes regions, as these are clearly "puddles" in comparison, but CO does not have a lot of water, so it's about as "great" as CO can muster when it comes to lakes.
These lakes were built as the main part of the west slope collection system for the Colorado Big-Thomspon project, and their main function is to provide a supplemental water to supply to NE Colorado (pipeline right under Rocky Mtn National Park). This relates to what I used to do as a water resources engineer, and we will stop right there, before I venture too far into "water world".
I kayaked for four days on the lakes, one day on Grand and Shadow Mountain, and the other three days on Lake Granby. It was good to get out on the water, with typical mornings being very calm, with winds predictably kicking up late morning and afternoon, with the ubiquitous chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Weather can change very rapidly, and crossing any of the lakes in the afternoon, brings the risk of going from fairly calm waters to whitecaps in minutes (I know - this happened to me twice).
Being out mid week left the lake mostly to myself, with a few other boaters out (houseboats, "speedboats", and a few sailboats. I am starting to get fairly proficient at taking the kayak off and on the car. Speaking of the car (that's my 2000 Honda Accord) - it just turned 200,000 miles on the way to SW CO for my backpacking trip, around Saguache, CO. If things get grim, I guess I can always try my hand at selling Honda's as I am a walking/driving advertisement for Hondas. The Accord is the best car I have ever owned, with basically nothing (or close to nothing) going wrong on the car in 11 years and 200,000 miles (big knock on wood). As I have said for the last several years, the plan is to drive it to the wheels fall off, and then go out and buy another one.
Ah yes, pictures.
These lakes were built as the main part of the west slope collection system for the Colorado Big-Thomspon project, and their main function is to provide a supplemental water to supply to NE Colorado (pipeline right under Rocky Mtn National Park). This relates to what I used to do as a water resources engineer, and we will stop right there, before I venture too far into "water world".
I kayaked for four days on the lakes, one day on Grand and Shadow Mountain, and the other three days on Lake Granby. It was good to get out on the water, with typical mornings being very calm, with winds predictably kicking up late morning and afternoon, with the ubiquitous chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Weather can change very rapidly, and crossing any of the lakes in the afternoon, brings the risk of going from fairly calm waters to whitecaps in minutes (I know - this happened to me twice).
Being out mid week left the lake mostly to myself, with a few other boaters out (houseboats, "speedboats", and a few sailboats. I am starting to get fairly proficient at taking the kayak off and on the car. Speaking of the car (that's my 2000 Honda Accord) - it just turned 200,000 miles on the way to SW CO for my backpacking trip, around Saguache, CO. If things get grim, I guess I can always try my hand at selling Honda's as I am a walking/driving advertisement for Hondas. The Accord is the best car I have ever owned, with basically nothing (or close to nothing) going wrong on the car in 11 years and 200,000 miles (big knock on wood). As I have said for the last several years, the plan is to drive it to the wheels fall off, and then go out and buy another one.
Ah yes, pictures.
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