Piute Res., 5/28, 5/29, 6.9M and 5.7M, 135L, 104L, and85L

[kenonstott]

I was agonizing Friday over wind reports. I wanted to see some new Wyoming lakes but I wanted sailing wind too. Finally it occurred to me to look at the temps instead of the wind. That sent us south fast. Piute was mid 80’s and mostly sunny. Saturday was supposed to be 20 mph by noon but it took until 2:00 to reach 17 and 5:00 to reach 20. That left some time for kayaking and biking then very sweet sailing most of the afternoon. Sunday was supposed to start at +20 but was 17 all morning. But I was having a blast and was near worn out by noon. Jim arrived at lunch just as it had died back. But he was the lucky charm as it was blowing +20 within a half hour of his arriving. The 2 of us sailed until 6:00 fully powered on small gear. Woke up Monday to some rain drops. That cleared and the front came through. Sunny and light north but at 12:00 I realized the 15 to 25 North predicted wasn’t going to come before I had to leave.. Both Saturday and Sunday we had to retreat to higher ground as the wind blew waves under the motor home and hitting the sail trailer (at least we can laugh now about me standing in the water tightening the sail so I can last another 10 minutes in the hurricane and having Penny darn near have to hit me to get me to turn around and see the motor home floating away. Too much sailing intensity). The internet said Piute was at 70% capacity but it is 100% full and ripping over the spillway. There is no beach and the only camping spots were small spots at the end of each road going down to the lake. Also, due to the flooding, there were lots of boards and logs to dodge (at least until the high winds came and blew all the driftwood onto the beach). I went down hard a couple of times when I hit long thin branches I couldn’t see. Probably 10 other times I had to go down to take trash off the fin. Still, in spite of some trials, an awesome weekend of sailing.