May 27, 2021

I dropped the boat in the water this week. I backed into the lake and waited until the boat slid off the trailer and my wife held Serendipity on the dock. I pulled ahead to go park the truck and trailer. But the truck and trailer held fast. What the? I put my Chevy Dually Diesel into four-wheel drive and pushed down the throttle. With a shake, the trailer surged forward and I was freed. But I could hear the trailer skid behind me. I jumped from the door of my truck and went to look. My front tire on the trailer was pushed back.

I stood there and held my head in dismay. I obviously damaged the trailer when I forced the trailer up out of the ledge that had formed in the launch in downtown Peachland. There I was blocking the boat launch and stuck… The guy that was waiting to launch his boat came to help me look. We decided I needed to crank up the boat trailer and remove the front wheel in order to get my trailer rolling. 

The stranger helped me remove the wheel and I was able to drive out of the way. Thankfully I have a second trailer for the boat. 

For late May I couldn’t believe how low the lake was.  I didn’t notice there was a drop-off in the boat launch especially when the lake level is low.  Even though there was a sign… I hate it when that happens…

My damaged trailer is the smallest piece of the carnage caused by the lake being very low. The worst victim of the lake being released so much is the Kokanee fishery.  In the last few years, there have been floods and they didn’t want to risk more flooding this spring so officials let down the lake in early February. Except it was a big over-reaction and now the price will be high. When they released the water south of Okanagan Lake they failed to take into account that Kokanee lay eggs in the shallow sands. Fish eggs don’t do very well if they are no longer underwater.

Now the snowpack has melted and there has been almost no rain for most of April and May. Could this be a year of drought? It certainly is a year where reactions to problems can go too far…

After the last fifteen months avoiding a viral storm, it is time for a real storm. Nature has a way of taking care of itself. I hope that the rain comes soon and fills up our lake. Although nature does take care, man has a way of messing that up. We need June rains to come to keep away the fires of the summer. The last thing we need is a smokey summer to oppress our beautiful valley.

My trailer damage was easily fixed. Unfortunately, the damage to our environment is not so easily repaired.

Come on mother nature… let it rain.