I drove down from St. Paul on Saturday morning and the boat launch near Hok-Si-La was overflowing with trucks and trailers parked on the shoulders of highway 61 for a couple blocks in each direction. The public ramp on the south side of Lake City was just as busy. So I headed for the Lake City marina to avoid the hassle of rigging and launching in the all the mayhem. There were still a few open parking spots at the marina, vehicles can be left in the lot over night (so long as a trailer is attached), and the fee was $9. Unfortunately their ramp seemed pretty shallow, I was unable to float my Com-Pac 16 off the trailer (it's a little taller than the factory one), and I had about half the jeep underwater. Pulled back out and let others launch while I got my 5' tongue extender rigged up, and I was able to float the boat off with the extended tongue. It didn't look like the river was low, so I am kind of surprised by how shallow the launch was. When I was pulling the boat out, a large open bow runabout was loading up next to me. His trailer (rollers) were mostly out of the water and he was really gunning it trying to get the boat onto the trailer. I don't know if this is typical for the ramp or not. While I was waiting to launch I chatted with Philip who was setting up his Corsair 28. After seeing my failed first attempt to launch, he insisted on helping the second time and held the boat while I went and parked. Nice guy, and it was well appreciated.
Sailed south for a couple hours, then the wind died around 3:30pm. Fired up the motor and got down to the southern shore. Still plenty of day light left, and I thought the wind might kick back up, so I through out the anchor and did a little swimming and reading. No wind kicked up, and I was getting a little tired of bobbing up and down, so I decided to get out of the lake and see if I could find a place to anchor for the night in the Chippewa River delta. I tried tucking in directly behind the sandbar that forms the southern shore of the lake, but it was a no go. A fisherman was back there in a small aluminum boat, he warned that the water was no more than 1' deep where he was, so that was no good. The next place I checked was the Chippewa River itself. There were two fishing boats in the actual river, but it looked pretty shallow. I slowly started motoring in, felt the rudder knick the bottom, felt the keel bump something, turned hard to starboard and gunned it back toward deeper water. Got back into the main channel, pushed my rudder back down, and decided to head back out to the main lake to anchor. Checked the weather radio, possible thunderstorms overnight. I still had enough time (and gas) to motor the 8.5 miles back to Lake City, avoid a night of uncomfortable rocking and rolling, and avoid becoming a lightening rod. So, I called it a day, motored back, and drove home.
Lessons: The public ramps in Lake City, in the summer, on a Saturday morning, are pure mayhem and overcrowded. The Lake City marina is relatively cheap, had enough parking, but the ramp was pretty shallow. Anchoring in the Chippewa delta will be tricky unless your boat draws less than 1'.
Overall, not a bad trip, but I think I am going to check out the northern parts of the lake next time.
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