10/23 More Hensley Lake

Today I got my bike out and rode around the campground.  It is very empty because of the time of year and also because the lake level is so low.  Here is the huge "boat ramp to nowhere."  If you look carefully, you can see the dam in the distance and the water intake tower.  The water level would have been low anyway, but they drained it further to enable them to work on the pumps in that tower.  Once the rains come in the winter and spring, the lake will fill up again.

I rode over six miles on the highway to the opposite side of the lake where the maps showed something called "Vista Point."  The road was asphalt and there were almost no cars.  It was so quiet I could hear them coming a long time and they just pulled around me because there was no real shoulder to move to.  Nice ride. 

Here are the photos of the other side, with arrows showing my campsite in the distance. (I should have made the arrows bigger, but they are there if you look carefully.)

Kind of sad to see such an empty lake. Most of the rocks in the middle would normally be covered with water. 

One of the things I have seen in several waterfront campgrounds in California, but also in Idaho and in Washington, are the life jacket loaner stations.  Note that they have both adult and child-size versions.  People are kayaking and canoeing here even if there is not much water available.  The ranger told me that even once had a program where they traded new lifejackets to people with ones that had holes in them or were getting too old to be safe.  I suppose it saves them a lot of rescues.