Scouting Muskrat Cove
By Richard Frye, Capt. AH
Yesterday Chris and I drove up to Lake Arthur to meet with Moraine State Park manager Dan Bickel. It was good to see him. I helped him build his PDR last year at one of the "hatches" as they are called. A super nice person that from what I have seen and he is going WAY OUT of the way...bending a lot of rules to help us Puddle Duckers! Like I said he is a great guy!
He gave us the tour of Muskrat Cove and showed us where we were going to be parking the travel trailer that is just a hundred yard or so from the main camping area. He showed me the path that the boats will travel to get at the water's edge and said that they might even make a new beach just for that purpose. Mike Instone, #599 from Ohio will be parking his teardrop next to our trailer. He's someone you will like and is a retired fireman. I'll have my teardrop trailer there too as an extra.
I might bring the Venture 17 over and drop anchor there in the cove. Somebody can sleep on it! A nice landing is only a hundred yards away.
The sun came out right after I took these pictures. You can't see all of it but the camping area is much much larger. I couldn't get it all in the picture without going a hundred yards back. It's nice with more tables coming. There are about 40 there now. It will easily hold 80 to 100 tents. The landing is good with nice bathrooms there as well.
I launched the Portabote there yesterday after we got done to play with the outboards. I had always used the old 6 gallon tank that was fine but wanted to downsize to be more compact. Anyway...then I tried to start the Cruise N Carry and it wouldn't make a sound either! Gas smelled like it was turning to varnish! But it's only been in there about 3 months and inside too! A feller at the landing told me that gas only had a shelf life of about 6 weeks unless I put some Sta-Bil in it! Never had that problems before when we had real gas that wasn't corn fed! I hate friggin motors! Give me SAIL AND OARS any day! Can't beat a good set of oars, they start every time! hehehehe
If the wind is from the west, it's dead on us and it will require a hard beat out of the finger to reach the main part of the lake. We could remedy that by pulling PDRs to the windward side and they should be able to get out easier then. This is for less experiences sailors. If they've sailed their boats for a while they shouldn't have any trouble.
This is where the Portabote might come in handy! I'll put the 9-1/2 on for that! Horsepower limit is 20hp. But John will have a chase boat there too and probably several others that live near the lake will have their small powered boats there for emergencies. Lot's of folks fishing yesterday too. I'll send a picture of main camping area later. IT has a flush toilet there but it's inside of an outhouse type building. Really looks the part.
We also had lunch at a restaurant call Michaels that was good home cooked food, and has a lounge next door only about 2 miles down the road on US 422 East. She wanted to eat and I wanted to play in the water! Guess who won! Heck I brought a sack full of granola bars, some saltine crackers, and a can of sardines and in Mustard Sauce too!
She and I... mostly her will be checking out the area for other places of interest like restaurants, shower places, places the ladies might want to go....she will do that while I'm sailing. Showers will be available over at the Pleasant Valley Beach area and they are nice. There is a McDs, Subway and Pilot right there off I-79, not far from the park, all at the Pilot fuel stop. Bear Run campground is nearby but a ways from the lake. I'll get the mileage later. I think it's about 4 miles or so but I could be wrong. I'll check to be sure and send a full report to you that you can post later when the time is right. There are also lot's of mom and pop places too...like the place where we had lunch yesterday. We told the owners about the big event and they got all excited. It's a lot of business for the locals as well!
They will be opened up in a couple of weeks. They have dates here to go by before they turn the water back on. All places are winterized. I'll get a good picture of where WE will have the R-Pod and teardrops later on. We left to go see the boat entry place and Dan told me that his crew was going to widen the path and put down a load of gravel. I meant to go back and get a picture of our campsite, but it was getting late. I'll get it later. Fair winds...... R