Since we had bought a trailer, one of the places we were going to camp with it this winter was Canyon Lake. Well... wouldn't you know it they decided to lower the water level by almost 100 feet at this time so they can perform maintenance on Mormon Flats dam.
Not ones to miss such an opportunity we decided this weekend to check it out. We drove up there this morning around 08:15, and parked at an area where we have fished in the past. We started making our way down the steep crumbly sides of the lake when Mike stepped on a rock outcrop that gave way and he almost did a butt slide down the hill. in the picture below the white circle is around the chunk of rock that gave way.
He slightly damaged his camera and his pride. luckily he didn't break anything. He did scratch his back, left arm, and left hand.
Once we determined that an ambulance was not needed we continued with our explorations. The first thing we noticed was the lack of underwater vegetation, the large number of beer and soda cans, and lots of fishing line. We headed for the bridge you cross over to access the lake. here we found the buoys and their weights that marked the entrance.
The next thing we came across was these enormous cracks in the sediment at the bottom of the lake. The crack are 1 to 4 inches across, and 3 to 10 inches deep.
You had to be careful walking across them as they were very mushy and if you stepped in the crack you could twist your ankle quite severely. The next thing we came across was a jeep that had apparently ran off the road or had been pushed into the lake. No human remains were found inside.
We found a motorcycle but there wasn't much left of it. The really interesting stuff was found under the bridge.
We found 2 newspaper vending machines...
The bolt from a rifle...
and a small safe.
The safe had been shot at least twice, and someone had managed to rip a hole in the bottom. Some of the contents of the safe were still inside (remnants of porno magazines). Chris also found a 20 pound anchor (which he carried out). We then hiked back out and went to the section of the lake where there is a floating pier. They had removed the floating pier at some point and all that was left was part of the walk way.
This is the view of the second bridge (we didn't hike to it because there was water under it).
Some interesting things we found in this area was some broken up fish habitats, the junk under water where we had lost our drop shots, a fire extinguisher (discharged), some extra fresh squishy mud, and 2 cans of unopened soda (coke and sierra mist). We opened them and they were still carbonated. We left and were going to go to Mormon Flats dam but half way there we came across an ominous sign warning of all sorts of dire consequences if we went any further.
Some of the other things we found in the bottom of the lake:
Lots of sun glasses with one lens missing.
Many children's fishing poles.
Lawn chairs.
Sleeping bags.
Broken or complete, but rusted fishing poles.
Parts of fishing reels.
Flashlights.
Places where bags of trash had been sunk.
A bicycle.
Tire Rims.
Tires.
Concrete weights.
A "fun saver camera" (fun not saved).
Clothing.
A boat ladder.
A "Diver down" flag.
Some kind of old computer or phone switching equipment.
Oars.
A warning sign to not "stop on, loiter, fish, or dive" off the bridge (we set this up in the mud below the bridge).
A ham bone.
Diving suit slippers.
Swim fins.
A child's toy camping lantern.
Car/Boat batteries.
The unidentifiable rusted remnants of another car from the 50's or 60's (it had round jet engine style tail lights).
We overheard 2 women who were walking around with their dogs under the bridge say that someone they knew had lost a wallet which contained about $1800.00 in the lake in that general area (we never saw a wallet).
Alan - Who was in town but otherwise engaged.
