Windblown on Loss Lake

After cruising with the pelicans yesterday on Grass Lake, Dave Finck and I headed a few miles west to visit Loss Lake.  This is another of the area lakes that I have tried to visit once a year, but it had now been two years since my last cruise there.

Upon arrival at the nicely developed launching area, I walked out onto the fishing dock to look over the state of the water on this windy day.  While the surface was riffled with wind, it didn’t look too bad, and we felt no real concern about conditions.

So, we pushed off and moved west down the south shoreline.  Looking out into the main body of the lake, we noticed white caps and wind powered rollers moving down the lake.  Still, those conditions seemed offshore and unlikely to cause us difficulty.  We just continued paddling west with the wind and following waves behind us. 

Before long, we found ourselves racing west with the wind and two-foot waves chasing us.  The wind was driving us down toward the western shore, and in the distance we could see an electric fence along the western shoreline. The wind was too strong and the waves too big to turn away from the shore, and soon we found ourselves onto the shore and jumping out of the canoe to hold it while avoiding the electric fence.

We were unsuccessful in launching the canoe to return into the wind through the waves.  The only reasonable option at that point was to carry the canoe along the shoreline for a couple hundred feet and make another attempt in slightly less windblown conditions.

Dave Finck - windblown on Loss Lake

With great effort, we were able to make slow headway east, back toward the launching area.  This was one of those situations where I would count 100 strokes, check for progress, groan, and paddle another 100 strokes.  It was a challenging trip back, and we were beat with the effort.  It took us about 20 minutes to make it to the west end and over an hour to get back

A few years ago, my paddling pal Jarett Bies told me about he and his wife, Laura, getting windblown on Loss Lake and finding it very difficult to return to the put-in.  I was incredulous and just could not envision that this small lake could become a challenge.  It has always been a slow, tranquil, and contemplative cruise for me, often with a flat calm on the surface.  I am no longer incredulous!  All lakes can turn savage, and paddlers just have to be aware of how current conditions do not always mirror our recollection of past cruises..

Jay Heath at Loss Lake

For a description of past cruises on Loss Lake, the reader can access the appropriate link on the right side of the blog in the area waterways section.

Photographs of this cruise can be found on my Flickr page at the following URL:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157636406138036/