One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: May 25, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1989_0816_LakePowellReprise.htm)
As much as Lake Powell was a fine locale to absorb nature, Lake McConaughy was an equally nice place to party. I spent a weekend on the northeast shore at Martin Bay with about 30 other people. It was the Alternative Singles Group's annual outing there.
McConaughy was a reservoir on the course of the North Platte River, filled in the 1930s. It was a big lake! Some numbers: It was 22 miles long, 2-3 miles wide, and 150 feet deep near the dam, which was about three miles long -- and mostly made of sand! Local elevation was about 3250'. The shore of the lake was a fine, white sand from erosion of the native rock. The surrounding country was rolling pasture and farmland northwest of the small town of Ogalalla, Nebraska.
I took half a day off from HP Friday afternoon and left the plant at about 1300, with my toy sailboat (a Super Snark) on the roof of my Datsun. Along for the ride was Kay Wenninger, (I wrote at the time:) who some of you might remember. We drove out and back via Colorado 14 through Sterling to I-76 and I-80. It was quite a pretty drive this time of year: Rolling meadows, lots of yellow sunflowers and green fields. What the grasslands lost in complexity of terrain, they gained in horizon-to-horizon panoramas. Out there you could become lost in the clouds without leaving the ground.
The 214-mile trip to Martin Bay took us about 4.5 hours with stops. I couldn't do much better than 70 with the boat on the roof. Incidentally, going through Sterling, all the fast food places were on Colorado 14 several miles west of I-76.
The people from the singles group camped among scattered cottonwood trees just below a dirt road on the north side of the bay. It was several hundred sandy feet from there to the water because the level was unusually low this year. I got stuck trying to drive down to park with the others. I learned quickly to be very careful driving below the highest shoreline. With 4WD though you could easily camp right on the beach, wherever it is, as many people did.
Even with the water low the lake was huge. I dragged my Snark out to the water and sailed Friday afternoon, most of Saturday, and again Sunday morning. The winds were generally firm but not strong, and steady; good sailing weather, except a couple of calm hours Saturday afternoon. Thunderstorms in the distance, but none bothered us. I gave several sailing lessons, and spent five hours going across the lake and back, over two miles each way. Friday evening I watched the sun set at the far end of the lake, glowing orange off a spectacular wall of receding cumulus.
The water was cool but not cold. Swimming was refreshing and invigorating. The lake was a deep green color, with visibility only about four feet. There were some huge carp swimming around. On an exposed sandbar across Martin Bay there were some small sand cliffs. It was great fun running and jumping down the hill and plunging into the water.
In the evenings we built cookfires in sand pits, and sat around them later talking. The moon was just past full, so it rose late. I had fun setting up binoculars on a tripod and observing and showing off Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Vesta.
Kay and I left at 1230 Sunday to be back in town for the evening. We watched the mountains rise into view past New Raymer below stupendous anvil clouds... What a mellow weekend it was.
(Next trip report: 1989_0828-29_UncompahgrePk.htm)