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...........................................--- West of Mile Marker 36 --- ..............................................................................--- to --- ..--- 2 Bays North of Buckboard Crossing on West Shore ---

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............................(Sun -- Jun 26th) ....................)Anchorage --- N 41º 16.095´ ......................................W 109º 34.667´ ....Trip Mileage = 99.1 NM ---- Day's Mileage = 18.5 NM Sailed = 6.2 NM.-- .Motored = 12.3 NM -- Motor-Sailed = 0.0 NM

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We had originally planned on taking out on Monday the 27th as we had to be home by Wednesday but as we worked up the lake on Sunday we began to rethink that. I figured taking out on Sunday was going to be a mess at the ramp since there was a lot of traffic on the lake on the weekends and people would be taking out to go home.

As we approached the ramp at Buckboard Marina where our tow vehicle was we headed in with the idea of going ahead and taking out as traffic at the ramp seemed to be low. Another boat went in just ahead of us and tied up to the dock at the ramp. The husband walked up towards the parking lot leaving his wife in the boat. Their wasn't room enough behind their boat to tie up, so I had to try keeping us in place in the bay behind them using the outboard.

Quite a bit of time passed and he didn't return with a vehicle/trailer or on foot and now a couple other boats came in and were lining up behind us also waiting to take out. It wasn't easy maintaining position even though the wind was light and we didn't like the idea of now having a number of other boats waiting on us as we took out. We aren't near as quick in retrieving the sailboat as most powerboat owners are. With that in mind we left the ramp and headed north in search of another bay where we could spend the night.

The first bay north had a lot of campers in it and since we like secluded anchorages we headed north to the next bay. No one was there and it looked good. The day was still early so we decided to sail around this part of the lake and go in later in the afternoon. We turned the motor off and sailed a little over 6 miles making a couple loops to the other side of the lake and back again. It was quite enjoyable and we were soon happy that we hadn't taken out earlier, silently thanking the boater that had tied the ramp up.

After our nice sail we headed into the arm of the lake and dropped the outboard back into the water and lowered the sails. We then motored into the arm until we came to its end. We started to drop the anchor when I looked up and ...

.... saw that there was an eagle's nest in the cliff face not too far from the top of the mast. We worried about disturbing the eaglet there so moved the boat to the far side of the end of the arm and beached the boat.

We still had a great view of the eagle's nest and probably 200-300 swallow nests that were also located on the cliff face.

We tried to take swallow pictures, but as Dottie say's .....

.... "that is like trying to take pictures of mosquitoes flying by."

We probably took a hundred pictures to get 3-5 pictures that actually had a swallow in the final picture. Next we took a nice hike up onto the high ground to the south of where the boat was tied. We had some great views of the lake and the distant hills on the walk.

Upon returning to the boat for the night we were treated to visits by antelope and deer that needed a drink to finish the day off.

At first they were somewhat cautious of the boat but as long as we were fairly still they would ....

.... summon their courage and work their way down to the water just a short distance away from where we were.

At one time we had 7 antelope drinking just feet from the boat at the end of the arm.

The one above had one of the largest racks I'd ever seen on an antelope and I'd seen a lot of them in all the years I'd lived in Wyoming prior to moving to Utah.

There were also a couple ....

.... of deer that made their way to the water including the skinny one above.

The young golden eagle, who wasn't yet flying also ......

... put on a display for us..

With all the wildlife nearby this proved to be one of our favorite anchorages of the trip and again we were thankful we hadn't taken out earlier in the day.

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