My first kayak trip on Lake Mead taught me a quick lesson in scale. I thought Lake Loudon was a big lake. Mead dwarfs it.
For some reason, I decided to put in on the north shore of Mead instead of near Boulder City. I was wanting to avoid a trip across Hoover Dam, which can be a pain when there’s traffic, and I also wanted to explore a bit. I settled on Callville Bay, which isn’t too far from here. But I was wondering why I couldn’t find much on kayaking up there.
Now I know.
I put in at the marina there before 7 a.m. on Sunday. It’s a nice facility, but launching the kayak was a little tricky. The area near the boat ramp is rough. In fact, it looks as if the boat ramp itself is pretty rough as the’ve extended it numerous times t chase the drought-depleted waters of Mead. But I set off, out of the bay and after surveying my options I decided to head southwest, mostly to keep the sun at my back and because I could see chunks of shade in the mountains up there.
It wasn’t long before I spotted Sentinel Island. I started paddling toward it. And paddling. And paddling. It was a lot farther off than I’d realized. It started dawning on me how big the lake was when I noticed how tiny boats motoring along the south shore appeared. Just crossing the lake