Old Road at Rush Lake

[Rick McClain]

Hi,
I hope I can save someone else some trouble with this post. I went to Rush Lake yesterday, and entered via the road by the corral. As I started to leave, I realized that the entrance from the lake, via the road that has its upper end just past the barbed wire fence and cattle guard and its lower end heading up through the tamarisks, was most convenient since it was right in front of me. Boy was I wrong (as usual). I got about two thirds of the way up and came to a very small and short fence. This wouldn't normally pose a problem, but I had my SHORT sailboard trailer in tow. I'm pretty good at backing a trailer, but wasn't about to try to back all the way down to the lake again with that short trailer in such a deeply rutted road. It's hard enough to get up or down the road moving forward, straddling the ruts and changing sides numerous times. BUT, the other option wasn't easy either. Turning around out in the sage brush. I almost had to totally jackknife my trailer to get it off the road backing up; then I almost got the front end of my van stuck on one side of the road, my rear end suspended by the other embankment and my wheels off the ground. I had to disconnect my trailer while the hitch was sitting on the ground and tried to lift the tongue in order to spin it around. I couldn't do that because the rear end was held up by sage brush; not good for a guy that just had back surgery. Well, after doing some major damage to some very valuable sagebrush, I finally managed to get the trailer around, so I got back in my van and proceeded to turn it around. Take my word for it, turning an 18 ft. van around in a deeply rutted, 10 ft. wide roadway is not easy. Wheels get suspended in air very easily and it's hard to get traction that way.
Now all I needed to do was get my trailer back down to the roadway from the embankment without it running over me as it came down and then turn it down the road and get it to stop before it ran over me and into the back of my van. I learned that dropping the tongue of a trailer into fairly soft sand acts as a pretty good brake.
Well, as you can see, I finally made it back to my computer; but I highly recommend that you not try to get away from the lake using that old road that you enter by heading up through the tamarisks. I hope that it has a better, more visible closure at the top, but I didn't check.
That road closure has probably been mentioned here before, but I hadn't seen the posting, so maybe someone else hasn't either and this will keep them from making the same mistake.

[Craig Goudie]

So did you sail, or have you turned?

-Craig

Hi,

That road closure has probably been mentioned here before, but I hadn't seen the posting, so maybe someone else hasn't either and this will keep them from making the same mistake.

[hedquista]

i was there last season when the ranch owner was closing off the south entrance exit to the beach. He was kind enough and just said that the only access would be on the north side of the beach. sorry you had the trouble

[Rick McClain]

Well,
I was willing and prepared to try either one; but there really wasn't enough wind to sail and I was foolish enough to think that I wouldn't be the only rookie trying to learn to fly a kite in light winds and safe conditions, so I couldn't launch my kite by myself. So I did neither one. Just flew my stunt kite all afternoon...but I did get better at that!!!...and I got in some great practice inflating a REALLY LARGE kite. And I never even thought to wade out and see what the water depth is !*X@#¿* Oh Well.