Hoped to do this off my favorite campsite in the famed mountain Dillon Reservoir. Sadly, with the prediction of micro burst storms over the water for the weekend, I changed plans to stay locally. Bored by the reservoir near my house, I decided to do the 45 minute drive to Horsetooth Reservoir – bigger water, but also open to powerboats.
Lesson learned, never let your 4 am brain convince you that your 2 pm trip planning brain the day before was over cautious– stick to the plan and get up and be out of the at the time originally planned– get on the water by sunrise.
I got on the water 40 minutes later than I should have. It didn’t really matter for the first 5k – the water was still, surroundings quiet and there were even a few deer taking drinks at the shore. It was quite pleasant. However, the return became challenging with speedboats with wake boarders and skiers buzzing by, some as close to me at 40 meters (It’s a big lake, they had no reason to be this close other than ignorance).
I paddle on a Hala Inflatable Straight-Up carbon – all-round board, so it doesn’t cut through waves, it rides them! So most of my return 5k was spent getting off my track and turning the board to face the waves head on.
Last 1k was the most frustrating, I hoped to get a good sprint in. Sadly, I managed to be next to a speedboat with a beginner wake boarder, every 20 strokes or so, I had to deal with the waves of a boat starting full throttle to then stopping quickly to get then fallen rider reset and try again.
Well.. I got it done. Was pleasantly surprised by my time and happy to have persevered and learned valuable lessons on the water.
ChrisGrackWilson