Annual Holiday trip with Grandkids

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Pegasus

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We're on the water for our annual winter grandkids trip. We've done this trip for many years - just Cindy and I, and however many grandkids can make it. The trip is always from just after Christmas through New Year's - this year from Saturday 12/28 through Saturday 1/4. WW regulars may recall some of the snow photos from this period on several trips over the years, including us sledding down the red rocks of Padre Canyon on 8" of snow a few years ago and a parkour shooting course a couple of years ago in shorts T-shirts.

This year the trip includes Cindy and me, two of our grandkids and two of their friends. The weather, so far, is better than we expected, with nice sunny days, although pretty cold (lows in the lower 20's highs in the low 30's so far). But we are having a great time. I'll post more photos as the week goes on, cellular data permitting!

p.s. - winter rules!! We were cruising through Padre Bay on the way to either Kane Wash or Padre Canyon on Sunday for our first anchorage stop, and we saw what looked like another boat in Padre Canyon, so we chose Kane Wash - winter rule #1, you don't want to crowd your fellow winter boaters this time of year by anchoring in their canyon! (on closer inspection, the boat we thought was in Padre Canyon was actually a scientific anchored barge collecting data)

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Great photos! Dad and I did a fishing trip the first week of January about 7 years ago. I think we saw something like -15* in Green River. Temps at the lake were what you describe. That is the trip that convinced me to put a kicker on my last fishing boat. We never saw another boat once we left Bullfrog. Filled the boat up every morning, and if we used the same gas pump at the marina, you could tell no one had filled after us. Kind of cool. Kind of spooky.
 
Here are some additional photos of our New Years' trip to close out this thread - I wouldn't normally post pics of a just a regular trip, but being wintertime, I hope they help fellow WW's with your LP fix.

We camped in Kane Wash for a few days, hiked Cookie Jar and explored, then cruised up to Rainbow Bridge. What an awe-inspiring place to visit, especially when you are the only people there. We anchored overnight in a small alcove near Dangling Rope when it got dark far sooner than we expected (having stayed longer at Rainbow than we thought we would). We saw a group of 7 kayakers and their camp up near Last Chance - they are the only people we saw anywhere on the lake all week. Overall, a fun trip, no boat issues, stayed safe and warm and out of trouble.

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FYI to you fisherman, I kept my eyes on my fishfinder pretty diligently while underway, and I didn't see any signs of striper schools anywhere at any depth. I even adjusted my sensitivity so see if I was just missing things. There were also no fish seen in the back canyon bays where you could easily see +25' deep to the bottom. Not a carp, a catfish, a SM/LM or striper or anything else. It seemed almost like a dead sea to anything in the water.
 
Pegasus said:
FYI to you fisherman, I kept my eyes on my fishfinder pretty diligently while underway, and I didn't see any signs of striper schools anywhere at any depth. I even adjusted my sensitivity so see if I was just missing things. There were also no fish seen in the back canyon bays where you could easily see +25' deep to the bottom. Not a carp, a catfish, a SM/LM or striper or anything else. It seemed almost like a dead sea to anything in the water.
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Yep! That describes our unusual fall and winter in 2019. Fat fish laying on the bottom groaning because they ate too much. Maybe if they go deeper the increased water pressure shrinks their stomachs and they are able to swim again. I am just kidding here, but this is a way different year for catching fish. I will go out next week and see if anything has changed since my last trip when we were finding fish on the graph at 130 feet. We actually caught a few to prove that those marks of the graph were stripers and they were very deep. We may have to deploy ocean fishing tactics if they stay down that far. Anybody been halibut fishing in Lake Powell? Maybe this year is the time.
 
Wow, this really gets me thinking...maybe I'll haft do this trip one of these Decembers--trouble is, I'm usually in the Rio Grande Valley then. Thanks for the great pics! Looks like you had wonderful weather!
 
Doug, that is a very nice dingy in your pics. Do you pull that behind Pegasus or lift it aboard? Might be just the thing for Lady Miriam.

Could you comment on the pros and cons of having a dingy with your cruiser at Lake Powell.
 
ScottF said:
Doug, that is a very nice dingy in your pics. Do you pull that behind Pegasus or lift it aboard? Might be just the thing for Lady Miriam.

Could you comment on the pros and cons of having a dingy with your cruiser at Lake Powell.
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ScottF, Our dinghy is the best investment we've ever made in a boat. We call it our "adult JetSki". It is the safest and is the most fun you can have on the water legally:giggle:. I've been in some HUGE storms in it and feel safer than I do in any other boat.

We pull ours behind our cruiser which works great. In your case, it would likely fit on your back platform where your jetski currently rides, but if it didn't fit there, towing it is easy and with floating tow line, you can maneuver forward and back with the boat there without concern as it is just a big bumper boat. It's great for big cruisers to use once up lake to search for anchorages.

The size you choose is important and depends upon what you want to use it for. I had a 3.6 meter (11 ft) one for a few months and it was too small/unstable. I traded it for a 4.0 meter (13 ft), huge difference in stability, and it is perfect for exploring and cruising at 20-25 mph, handles 4 adults, but can still get back into the tight slot canyons. If exploring deep slot canyons isn't your thing, a 14' would be nice, but the added 4-6" of width begins to limit how deep you can go into such canyons. Lastly, make sure you choose one made of Hypalon, not PVC. Hypalon is UV resistant where PVC degrades quickly in the sun. My dinghy is a 2003 Avon SE400 Deluxe with a Mercury 40hp EFI engine and it is still going strong with 950 hours. And these newer EFI engines sip fuel - we just spent a week exploring numerous canyons far from camp and used 6 gallons of gasoline (of the 11-gallon tank) the entire week.

They are not as inexpensive as you might think they would be. A new 2020 dinghy similar to mine fully rigged is $27k-$30k. In 2003, I paid $12k (the boat was $8k and the engine $4k). A great online dealer of many brands of dinghies is Defender Marine Outfitters or www.inflatableboats.net .

Let me know if you'd like any further information.
 
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