In The Shadow of Longs Peak
North Sterling Reservoir
12 June 2020 - 14 June 2020
12 June 2020 (Friday)
We left Longmont at 1:45. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive, so we arrived at 4:14 or so. The wind was kicking up a bit as we arrived but settled down by 8 PM or so. For supper, we had the usual sushi and cocktails, which we augmented with peanut butter crackers. I did not have much breakfast or lunch so now am making up for that!
How nice to be outdoors!
13 June 2020 (Saturday)
Our first of 2 days at Sterling. Our plan for today is to paddle so I get up at 7, make coffee, and get dressed for paddling. Gary makes an excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs with onions and sausage links. Just enough, not too much.
David pulls up at 8 am. It took him about 2 ½ hours to drove from Boulder.
We do not have a paddling plan, other than to put in at the south boat ramp. The lake is broad in length, not so much in width. It is not on an open plain like Jackson, but instead tucked into a fold of the earth and edged in cottonwoods, not cliffs.
There is an arm on the west side of the lake, toward the south end, which is today’s destination. It’s a nice longish paddle, lots of red-winged black birds, gaggles of geese, pelicans, an owl and many smaller birds that I do not recognize. And cows. We paddle and paddle, go around a corner, see more water, and paddle some more. Along this arm, many of the banks are open fields with grass at the water's edge; in some places trees are at the waters edge; and in some places the water has taken over the trees. There are no cliffs or rocks but there are bluffs that wander into the distance and no gorges though there are grass filled coulees.
Finally it seems like we are nearing the end of the arm as the water shallows and carp stick their tails out as if to block our way. Gary continues until he can go no further and backs up. We all turn around. Once back at the mouth of the arm, we stop for lunch with cows for companions.
Our plan was to circle around the south boundary but the wind is picking up so we hopscotch across trying to stay in the lee of the wind (which never quite happens) but we do finally get to the east shore and turn north toward the boat ramp. Finally we see the parking lot, the dock and the cars….we are there!
A fun paddle with good wind practice.
David heads back to Boulder after the paddle. Gary and I head back to camp. It seems like we are in for a dozy of a storm so we make dinner early, this time gumbo from the freezer with added shrimp.
Once we are done with dinner, I crawl into the tent, read for a bit then fall asleep. Gary stays up and watches the sky in the distance. Its pretty hot so we leave the fly open. We sleep well.
Sunday 14 June 2020
We are up about the same time as yesterday. Gary makes breakfast, we do dishes, pack up and head to the north marina.
There is another arm, this one laid out in a northwesterly direction and on the north side of the lake. We paddled this arm before, the very first time we came here, several years ago.
The north boat ramp itself is on the east side of the lake, tucked into a cove lined with a scattering of trees and hemmed in by coulees and bluffs, similar to yesterday’s outing. We paddle across this cove, around a point, then across the mouth of another cove and another point and finally we are in main channel we turn north. The arm we want is more westerly so we head in that direction, and as always, follow the boats. It’s a bit windy already so we stay along the south shore which is in the lee of the wind. It seems like this arm has more cottonwoods along the edges as compared to yesterdays.
We reach the end. It’s a wide area but we do not investigate all possibilities since it seems like the wind is picking up.
On the return, again we stay close to the south shore which is still in the lee. I take a reading: the wind is 8 mph with gusts to 15. And this is somewhat protected.
We continue, the wind and waves picking up as we go. For now, we are headed diagonally to the waves but as some point we will have to travel cross-wise.
We are nearing the opening of the arm, paddle diagonally to the opposite bank, paddle into the wind, the turn downwind, and again, and finally we are in the last cove and at the ramp.
Another good day out with lots of wind practice!