11/01/01 Paddling Lone Rock (West):
Well, I finally got to paddle the southern part of Lake Powell for the first time. This morning didn't look good with the temperatures in the 40's and the wind still blowing 10-20mph from the west. About 11am the wind let up and I launched the kayak right away. Actually the wind had shifted out of the east about 5mph by then.
I turned left from the Lone Rock Camping Area. This direction dead ends not too far away but I still wanted a chance to paddle it. Lone Rock sits directly across from the camping area. It's about 75 feet high and wide and is surrounded by water. Silverish beige bluffs stand behind it while red sandstone bluffs are off in the distance. This is about as pretty a camping spot as you'll find anywhere on the water.
I poked around in all the little nooks and crannies for an hour or so and then found a channel leading off into a canyon for half a mile. Much of this rock looked like old lava flows, kinda rounded, like giant cow patties. I found another channel flowing back into some larger cliffs.
By the time I was ready to come back, the wind from the east had picked up to 10mph with lots of 1 foot wind waves to contend with. I didn't bother to put the spray skirt on and hardly got wet at all. Lone Rock west is a pretty nice half day paddle.
11/02/01 Paddling Lone Rock (East):
Moderately heavy winds from the west through the night and up till 10:30am. Then they seemed to switch to the east again as I launched in that direction. Of course, my day wouldn't have been complete without getting stuck in the sand this morning. I extricated myself without too much difficulty though.
I paddled past Lone Rock towards the Wahweap Marinas. The entire way I had red, sandstone bluffs in view off in the distance. Up closer, were the silvery beige bluffs. This was just a nice, enjoyable paddle with some great views the entire way.
2.5 hours brought be to sort of a T. A large bay leads off to the left while a channel goes past the marinas into some red, sandstone hills on the right. I turned towards the bay, not so much to paddle it but to see what it looked like and if it would be worth doing tomorrow. Looks like I'll give it a shot. A whole new set of bluffs sit on the far side of the bay. I could see a green buoy over there and a couple of houseboats came out while a couple of power boats headed in.
11/03/01 Paddling Wahweap Bay:
50's, slight wind still blowing at 10am as I launched from Wahweap Bay, a few miles from where I'm camped. I paddled 1-2 miles across the bay and just poked around the bluffs for a couple hours. I found another large bay behind the bluffs, different from yesterday's.
A blue heron, the first I've seen in a while, went honking overhead. Under the water I found several small forests of some kind of dead plant. I assume they were there when the Colorado River was dammed and Lake Powell created. Passed over several large carp that appeared to be nesting. They'd scoot off as I approached but immediately came back to where I had chased them from.
11/05/01 Paddling Wahweap Bay (North):
Yesterday I drove up to the turn off at Big Water and headed into the backcountry. I went 8-10 miles along a pretty good dirt road. A lot of ATV's were out on that Sunday morning. Lots of tracks and trails over a moonscape type landscape. I followed the road out of BLM land back into the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The road led through canyons, under ledges and past caves and grottos right up on the road.
Eventually the road came out on a bay somewhere across from Wahweap Marina. It led off along the side of a sand dune so I stopped well away from that, got out and walked the rest of the way.
Got a little bit of rain last night, lasted almost 10 minutes. In the 50's with a bleak, New England type sky this morning but no wind. 50%-60% chance of rain today. Launched anyway from Wahweap Marina at 8:45am. 35 minutes took me across Wahweap Bay to Padre Bay. I was going to head towards Rainbow Bridge put just paddled across Padre Bay and puttered around and then came back.
11/06/01 Paddling Wahweap Bay (Northwest):
Paddling across Wahweap Bay again this morning the sun became to much for me as it blasted me on the side of the face. I made a screen from a bandana to shield me from the intense rays. Once I worked out how to keep the front corner from hanging in my face, it turned out pretty good.
I thought I was headed towards Rainbow Bridge but apparently ended up in Warm Creek Bay because I ran out of water after 2.5 hours of paddling. It was nice though; lots of canyons, buttes, bluffs, bays, coves, inlets and hidee-holes.
11/09/01 Paddling Wahweap Bay (Northeast):
Two days of high winds kept me off the water. This morning the winds had diminished to 5mph out of the east but big, dark, ominous looking clouds threatened overhead. So I could either do some chores in Page or go paddling anyway.
Halfway across Wahweap Bay the rains came. My limited experience with storm clouds in southern Utah showed little rain actually fell from mean looking clouds. The rain would usually be dumped on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, not too many miles away. 10-15 minutes is about all I've seen it rain here... until today. A moderately heavy rain fell on me for a good 30 minutes. I kept paddling, expecting it to stop but it didn't.
I hadn't thought to bring the Gortex jacket and just had a nylon jacket. It was keeping the water off me pretty well but I put the PFD on to add another barrier. I already had the spray skirt on for a change. It was cold enough for me to put my gloves on too. The only boats I saw were all heading in. Maybe they knew something I didn't.
After an hour or so I reached a confluence and turned right. Right into a 10mph wind. I paddled down there a half mile or so before wind waves began building. At least the rain had stopped by this time. Looking at the sky I couldn't see it getting any clearer. The temperature seemed to be dropping also. So, I gave up and turned around.
Part of the way back I had the 10mph wind in my face and it rained most of the way back too.