Kayaking Horsetooth Reservoir

First Leg of Horsetooth Reservoir
Distance: 1.25 miles
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Short kayaking! We were slow because we had Jana along with us. We had a fun day.

Second Leg of Horsetooth Resrvoir
Distance:
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Last night Michael and I did our second leg of kayaking the perimeter of Horsetooth Reservoir. We did between 6 and 7 miles in total. We started at the East Swim Beach and paddled to the West Swim Beach. It took just under 3 hours. I was loving it, but Michael's kayak doesn't have a back rest so he suffered some. He also was wearing his life jacket and wound up with chaffing around his shoulders and a huge blister from chaffing on his hip. Additionally, Michael has a swollen left hand from being stung by a wasp 3 days ago. He didn't complain about that, but it had to make paddling uncomfortable.


The wind was a major factor in our experience. It was wild! So the water was also quite choppy. I only got my camera out in moments when the wind and water had died down because I didn't want to lose it in the reservoir. That also means I didn't get any great photos of the turbulent water we were paddling in. We chose our route based in part on the wind. We headed south from the swim beach in order to have the wind partly at our back. The wind was coming from the NW. It did help move us along.


I was using Michael's cool waterproof floating phone case. It's fantastic! It kept my phone completely safe, and I tethered it to my kayak. I will post a map of our route later.

Third Leg of Horsetooth reservoir
Distance: 2.5 miles

This was the East Swim Beach to Satanka Cove. We got out on the North end of the Reservoir. I think this took us 1 hour to 1.5 hours. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed it a lot. Satanka Cove was full of happy boaters, paddle boarders, kayakers, cliff jumpers, etc!


Fourth Leg of Horsetooth Reservoir
distance: 3.5 miles
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We went from the South West corner of the reservoir down to Eltuck Bay. We did all of the little coves and inlets in the bay and then went across the reservoir to the south swim beach. What do I have to say about this leg? We went from 6-8pm. The wind was against us. It was extremely challenging. There were a lot of boaters, not too many kayakers. Eltuck Bay was like one giant party of happy boaters. Lots of music, sunshine, laughter, etc. When we paddled back out of the cove, the sun disappeared and there were grumpy fisherman not too happy to have kayakers anywhere near them. There were some happy fisherman too! It was especially hard to paddle across the reservoir. It was a little scary because of all of the boaters plus us being so small, paddling hard but slow against the wind, it was getting dark out, and I was extremely happy when we finally reached the swim beach. Michael had an extra challenge today because he had a skateboarding accident a few days ago and still had an injured elbow. Not the most pleasant trip for us, but we did it!