West Canyon

Thursday, April 17. Back in the canyons, cell service is pretty much non-existent. On the main lake channel, if in line sight with Navajo Mountain, where the cell tower is, cell reception is limited. Fortunately I’ve had enough cell strength at times during the day in the main channel, to get a call off to Rosanne, and to upload the previous day’s photos. The winds that have come up in the afternoon, tend to die down at night. Last night was another calm night with a low temp of around 55F. Today it was a little cooler, and only got up to 72F. This evening is forecast to be 44. The Webasto Heater will be running tonght! After departing Labyrinth Canyon this morning, we made a quick pit stop at the floating toilet in Padre Bay. For those of you that have never been to Lake Powell, or seen one, I added two photos. They consist of two toilets, a pump out station and also a dump table for porta potties. There are several located in various locations on the lake. Continuing on, we turned into and explored Face Canyon. This one was very narrow much of its length. The Boaters Guide to Lake Powell, mentions that this canyon is best seen when water levels are below 3,600 ft. We are at 3,558, and the canyon did not disappoint! Long stretches with less than 15-20’ of width. And the walls tower a couple hundred feet above us! We are dwarfed by the tall canyons. While Little Joe and Mystery Girl turned around just a couple hundred yards from the end, I elected to go all the way to the end. In between the narrow towering walls, and with wind pushing me farther in towards the shallows and mud at the end, it was a bitch to get turned around. I should have just backed out to the wider spot to turn around. My mistake caused a canyon sandstone rash to my bimini top. Our next canyon to explore was West Canyon, where we are now anchored/shore tied near the end. This canyon is much more open. The winds came up and were blowing again this afternoon, making for another tricky job of getting anchored and tied up to shore. Once again, I just bowed in and tied lines off my stern at an angle to shore. Much easier than trying to bow anchor and then back in with the winds pushing you sideways! Also, many times here the river bed is sandstone, and unless you catch a rock ledge, or find some mud or thick sand, the anchor won’t hold. (And if you do snag a rock ledge, hope you can get your anchor up. For this reason, occasionally I will use a trip line if I think there is any possibility of snagging my anchor…) Yesterday I had to make a couple attempts to get my anchor to hold. Today it was Mystery Girl’s turn to make several attempts before getting a good set. Looks like the wind is bringing in a cold front, as the next couple of days the high temps are only forecasted in the mid 50’s.En savoir plus