On 2/08/2011 4:34 PM, Don Foreman wrote:
Lake Minnewaska is higher than most have ever seen it. My good
neighbor Scott called me on Friday to tell me that my boat was
floating off the lift. I had a wedding to attend on Saturday (not
mine) but weather was benign so I figured I was OK going up Sunday and
that proved to be true. I was going to trailer up my boat and then
lash the dock decking down against waves. Weather in MN never stays
benign for long.

Turned out my good neighbors on the other side were up, so we had a
hell of a good time socializing -- and I did get my boat off the lift
and trailered up.

There was a storm early Sunday morning. I pretty much slept thru it.
I had a window open and got rained on, so I closed the window and went
to a dry bed on the other side of the cabin to finish sleeping. It
ain't like there's never been a thunderstorm before.

Turns out it was quite a storm I slept thru other than to shut the
window and move to a dry bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQKPceBFqU

My dock got disassembled by high water and big waves, so did Ted's.
We managed to retrieve all of the parts of both his and my dock,
working together in the lake up to our necks at times. Inconvenient
to be sure, but no significant harm done. We were lucky. I'm sure
glad my boat was safely trailered the day before.

We got off easy. Ted had some tree damage that will need professional
attention, but no big deal. On the south side of the lake there were
lift canopies ripped, lifts and boats and docks flipped, damaged
boats left in damaged trees. State Hwy 28 was under water by the
fairground in Glenwood.

Power was out so we couldn't even make coffee, and condx made going
fishing out of the question. So we cleared out our fridges into
coolers and went home. We each and both could have made coffee
without electricity and subsist indefinitely if we wanted to. We're
both quite experienced at primitive camping, old enough to prefer
more comfort.

Nights with no lights were more fun when I had a partner.

I may be dockless for the rest of the season. Old timers say the lake
will continue to rise for a few days and it won't go down anytime
soon.

That won't materially impair my enjoyment of my cabin. I can launch
and retrieve my boat at the marina, no prob. Done it hundreds of
times. The key part of enjoying my cabin is fellowship with family,
friends and amazingly good neighbors. The neighbors treat me like
family. They were very fond of Mary and they knew she liked me.

Planned family guests won't have much luck fishin' off the dock since
there won't be a dock, but they never did much of that anyway. We'll
have a good time. Swimmin' is good to excellent.

Hokay, I'm checked in.



By the look of that video it was real lucky you got your boat out in time!