Logic Check - Halls/Bullfrog

Ryan

Ryan

Keeper of San Juan Secrets
I’m trying to figure out the best logistics for our trip that starts next week.

Our houseboat has been moved to Halls. This is an 11 day trip with 11 people, 2 boats, 4 vehicles.

I can’t come up with a GOOD plan of how to get everyone and every thing to the boat, but here’s my thoughts.

Right now there still isn’t access to the Bullfrog slips at Halls. And the “shuttle service” for gear and people sounds like it’s from Bullfrog from the old marina site over to Halls, nothing offered to move your gear on the halls side to your boat?

For this trip we have enough people and gear that at a minimum it would be two trips loading our own boats up with stuff and ferrying it across. By my math, it would likely take over two hours per round trip (starting at Bullfrog launch ramp, 30 minutes to load gear into boat, move truck to parking lot, return on foot to boat. 60 minutes to take boat full of gear across to houseboat in Halls. 10 minutes to unload from bout to houseboat. 25 minutes to return from Halls to Bullfrog ramp to start the process over again).

So my thought is that for our situation it might be best to divide and conquer? Two trucks with boats go to Bullfrog. Two other trucks take as much gear as possible to Halls.

I guess my question is if we go that route, and there is no access from shore to the new Bullfrog slips, what is the best way to unload the trucks at Halls? Can we load carts at the Halls side and transfer those carts to our personal boats to ferry the gear a shorter distance?

Any other thoughts on this?

Also, anyone with experience in the new Bullfrog slips have a suggestion on if it is feasible to stay the first or last night in the slips and not get the snot bear out of us onboard and our personal boats with no break water in place?

I love lake Powell. But this current arrangement while temporary is very frustrating.
 
We'll be there next week, too. So I'm looking forward to seeing the new setup. I have an idea that might work for you and your group. Get someone to bring the houseboat over from Halls to Stanton. I don't know what Stanton looks like right now, or even if there's a safe spot there to pull a houseboat up to the beach near the road? Load the houseboat there, park all the cars, and then away you go! I've seen this done before a few years ago, so hopefully it can work for you.

Tiff
 
Ryan, you didn’t say how many potential boat/car drivers you have. Not everyone has to go from Bullfrog to Halls on both trips. Assuming you really need 2 trips from ramp to the houseboat with BOTH boats.

Trip 1, load the boats while still in the parking lot. I load stuff into every nook and cranny I can find. We also use dry bags for clothing and sleeping bags. DRy goods and misc supplies all go into Rubbermaid containers that can be easily stacked. No miscellaneous plastic grocery bags or open tote bags that can’t be stacked. Launch the fully loaded boats with most of your party, leaving a driver for each truck/trailer at Bullfrog. Have the drivers pull well out of the way. Remaining party makes the trip to Halls and unloads, get the stuff in the houseboat and leave some (most) of the party on the Houseboat to start putting gear away/organizing. Return to ramp with 2 boat drivers and 1 extra driver for a non-truck/trailer vehicle. Call waiting drivers to let them know to head back toward launch line.

Trip 2. Load the boats back onto the trailer and pull out to the top of the ramp. Load remaining gear into the boats and relaunch. Have the driver without the trailers pick up truck/trailer drivers from the old Bullfrog store parking lot. The 3 then drive down to the closer in parking, and walk back to the courtesy dock (as you know individual cars can generally find spots closer than truck/trailer parking).

While reloading the boat seems like work, it’s less work to be able to load the gear from truck bed to boat than to walk it all down the courtesy dock from the side of the launch ramp.. It also helps keep the courtesy docks free.
 
Dworwood said:
I have no idea but what about taking the house boat to bullfrog and do all the loading there and save some trips? Don’t know if that is even feasible but may save some time?
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Dungee said:
This
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Where would you load boats at? The only place I can think of would be to the north/west of the launch ramp which I fear would be a zoo.

Stanton may be an option but most of the recent posts about camping there state that there are few spots to get close to shore.
 
PowellBride said:
Ryan, you didn’t say how many potential boat/car drivers you have. Not everyone has to go from Bullfrog to Halls on both trips. Assuming you really need 2 trips from ramp to the houseboat with BOTH boats.

Trip 1, load the boats while still in the parking lot. I load stuff into every nook and cranny I can find. We also use dry bags for clothing and sleeping bags. DRy goods and misc supplies all go into Rubbermaid containers that can be easily stacked. No miscellaneous plastic grocery bags or open tote bags that can’t be stacked. Launch the fully loaded boats with most of your party, leaving a driver for each truck/trailer at Bullfrog. Have the drivers pull well out of the way. Remaining party makes the trip to Halls and unloads, get the stuff in the houseboat and leave some (most) of the party on the Houseboat to start putting gear away/organizing. Return to ramp with 2 boat drivers and 1 extra driver for a non-truck/trailer vehicle. Call waiting drivers to let them know to head back toward launch line.

Trip 2. Load the boats back onto the trailer and pull out to the top of the ramp. Load remaining gear into the boats and relaunch. Have the driver without the trailers pick up truck/trailer drivers from the old Bullfrog store parking lot. The 3 then drive down to the closer in parking, and walk back to the courtesy dock (as you know individual cars can generally find spots closer than truck/trailer parking).

While reloading the boat seems like work, it’s less work to be able to load the gear from truck bed to boat than to walk it all down the courtesy dock from the side of the launch ramp.. It also helps keep the courtesy docks free.
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I think that would be a minimum of 2 trips for us. And at least 4 hours. Which seems crazy long to load. But maybe that’s the best option.
 
Dungee said:
Pardon my ignorance Ryan but why couldn’t you all just drive to Halls and embark from there to begin with?
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Good question. We have to launch the boats from Bullfrog. And part of my question is how do we load from shore to the Bullfrog slips at Halls as there isn’t access to them from shore.
 
Ryan said:
Good question. We have to launch the boats from Bullfrog. And part of my question is how do we load from shore to the Bullfrog slips at Halls as there isn’t access to them from shore.
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Duh no ramp. Not sure why I’m spacing that.

What about pulling the houseboat up close or near Hobie Cat beach? Loading up there
 
Adding to Powellbride:
Even when the Bullfrog docks were attached to shore we would load the boats and drive to the slip to unload. This was a much faster gear transfer than carts down the slips. And not as hot.
Load your boats with as much gear as you can in the prep lot and as few people as necessary to unload at Halls 2. You should be able to load gear for 11 in 2 boats for one trip and send one boat back for the remaining crew and drivers.
This should take you less than 2 hours.
 
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Another question I don’t have an answer for, how long is the drive from the bullfrog ramp to Halls in the trucks? Drop boats and trailers at bullfrog, drive trucks to halls and load from there then do in reverse when returning. Might be longer, I don’t know how far that is. Man that does make your trip a bunch harder to do.
 
We just completed a similar trip, although our houseboat was still in a slip at Bullfrog. Definitely load all gear at the service dock that is now located at the old Bullfrog Houseboat rental area. You can drive right down to it. It is much easier to load there even if you have to make two boat trips, and the parking for vehicles and trailers is much better. I have not hear that they have even finished a walkway down to the relocated docks at Halls.
 
Dworwood said:
Another question I don’t have an answer for, how long is the drive from the bullfrog ramp to Halls in the trucks? Drop boats and trailers at bullfrog, drive trucks to halls and load from there then do in reverse when returning. Might be longer, I don’t know how far that is. Man that does make your trip a bunch harder to do.
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It’s a good 1.5 hours from one to the other and not a lot of fun with an empty trailer.
 
Ryan said:
I’m trying to figure out the best logistics for our trip that starts next week.

Our houseboat has been moved to Halls. This is an 11 day trip with 11 people, 2 boats, 4 vehicles.

I can’t come up with a GOOD plan of how to get everyone and every thing to the boat, but here’s my thoughts.
Click to expand...

Ryan, I know you know what our group has been going through, but this is a reminder to other houseboat owners that seem to be frustrated with the Bullfrog transition and changes. You could by like our houseboat group and probably 30 others like us and have ZERO access to the lake right now with no fault of our own. This is because Aramark yanked our Buoy contract March 1st without so much as a warning. So we are still high and dry at Offshore Marina's storage. The gut punch is we just installed brand NEW Merc outboards and Lithium battery setup. And it'll just sit there.

Before we lost our Buoy, Bullfrog moved the Bouys out to the Main Channel in 2022 near Halls so we've been kind of dealing with your logistical problem for a few years now. What most of our group did and has done in the past is shuttle out to the houseboat and bring it in to Hobbie Cat beach to load. Now I get it, there isn't the same Hobbie Cat beach as before and it's really shallow there. But I've been running through your same scenarios in my head just incase our houseboat DID get on the water. I'm wondering if there is possibly a "new" Hobbie Cat beach type houseboat loading area. I wish someone with a stout 4x4 could drive down there and see if it's possible, not too soft, steep enough drop to land a houseboat. The area right below the Main Ramp at Bullfrog comes to mind, unfortunately they're trying to scratch out a new temp ramp down there so I'm not sure if you're allowed with that going on. But back in 2022 at 3522' you could drive right down to that peninsula and launch small boats and turn truck/trailers around. There won't be much space for houseboats, maybe 2-3 spots, and if people start doing this and catch wind of it this area could be jammed up.

Has anyone been down there lately? Can you still drive down the Main Bullfrog ramp, down the old asphault road to the peninsula where they are messing around with making a new primative ramp? What kind of temp houseboat anchoring is available next to the Executive Ramp? Will there be more of that available when the Marina completes it's move??

I've done the boat shuttle thing from the Exec Ramp to our bouy and it was NO fun at all. Lots of work and it's hard on a nice boat interior (your Malibu) to load and unload all those boxes and coolers and kayaks and other things. I would say no matter what you do, pair down your "normal" Powell kit of stuff as much as possible so that you can easily do it in 2 trips. I went with 7 total guys in September and had my 23' boat and my friends 24' Sea Ray Sundeck that swallows gear like a whale and we managed to do it in ONE trip. That was pretty sweet, launch the boats, wait for drivers to park trailers, zip out to the Main Channel Mooring ball in a single trip. With 11 people that would be tough, you're probably making 2 trips. Maybe if you're lucky the 2nd trip only has to be one of the boats not both of them??

Good Luck and report back how it works out!
 
What’s the status of the Bullfrog Marina Store? Has it been moved over to Hall’s yet?

If it’s still at Bullfrog, why not send someone up to Bullfrog a day early (late afternoon). Take the shuttle over to Halls, drive the houseboat back to Bullfrog Store and tie off overnight. If you get there after everything’s closed, no one will bother you.

When the crew arrives next day with boats and gear, the houseboat will aready be there ready to load either by land and/or water.

We tied off a pontoon and houseboat overnight at Bullfrog Marina store last September after having to pump-out overflowed rental holding tank (sorry for blurry pic).
 

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