How long is your trip to get to your boating destination?

[OnTheWater]

25 minutes to the wet slip at the Boardwalk Marina at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. Beautiful lakes in Northern Idaho...but, cold (48.5 today).

 

[txav8r]

Dang, that is as magnificent as Augusta!

 

[biglar155]

The lake is 90 minutes away but the boat is stored indoors about 5 min from the house in a rental storage unit.

We drive up to Oshkosh to launch which is about 70 miles. So from the time we leave the house to the time we're wet it's at least 90 minutes when you factor in stopping to hook up and load up. Sometimes we stop at Wal-Mart along the way for snacks etc so that can extend the travel time.

If we got out more than 8 - 10 times in a season the distance would become painful, but since we don't have all that many chances to use it, it doesn't add up to much.

There ARE places we could store it up that way but I like having my baby close to home. It's much easier if I want to go putz around on it.

 

[Zeus2013]

10 minutes to the ramp, 1 hour if I head to Port Jeff.

 

[Dough]

3-1/2 hours from St Louis to my camp on Lake Barkley. Upgraded my storage this year from a carport, to a much nicer, and bigger pole barn! But please, dont spread the word TOO much, all the st louis people drive that long to get to the Ozarks, and i love my huge lake with very few people on it!

 

[Suchawittygal]

Only 20-30 minutes to Perris, but I want to go to Havasu.

 

[RiverRat]

The couple lakes I hit during the week and some weekends are within 10-20minutes, Most weekends we head out to the Mississippi on pool 9 about 3.5 hrs out.

 

[jdonalds]

I know Powell is a long way @jdonalds , if we can make it one year, I hope you can too! I see it as a big gathering! What fun that would be!

Ray Roberts is 1 mile from the house, but the ramp is 10 minutes on a paved but bumpy turning road. My favorite anchorage is 10 minutes down the lake at 28 mph. But my cruise speed just increased from 28 on the old boat to 32 on the new one. But best cruise is only 3.26 mpg vs 3.41 mpg on the old boat. BUT...WOT burns less on the new boat at 2.43 mpg vs 2.26 on the old boat. AND...I can set the same speed the Dawg did at WOT and get even better mpg's...

Powell is 885 miles from our house. That's just too far for us, especially since we have a beautiful and quite large lake 9 miles from home. Powell is unique and it certainly would be great to boat there but it won't be in the cards for us.

 

[txav8r]

Powell is 885 miles from our house. That's just too far for us, especially since we have a beautiful and quite large lake 9 miles from home. Powell is unique and it certainly would be great to boat there but it won't be in the cards for us.

@jdonalds , John, I know it is a long, LONG ways. You may have been on Powell before so you have that box checked...I have not. But if a group can make it there from all over, I am hoping that maybe you might find it doable. It is 1010 miles for us from Texas. Convincing Clara that this is a worthwhile endeavor will be a challenge. I know that most won't take trips that long, and I am included in that group. But for me, seeing that magnificence in my lifetime would be grand. So I am hoping that if enough of the gang can make the trek, maybe you would join us too!

 

[PEARCE]

We have several lakes that are within an hour from home, but we prefer a certain one for our close to home day trips. We are a little more than 2 hours to Texoma, which is a hotel stay and 2 days on the water on those trips. We are little more than 3 hours to Broken Bow lake and again that is a hotel stay and 2 days on the water when we go. We keep our boat in a garage at home so we trailer everywhere.

Two summers ago we spent a week on Table Rock and it was a 6-7 hour trip. It's a beautiful lake and area to explore.

@txav8r I'd be in on trekking to Powell. Just say the word.

 

[Gym]

1.5 miles to the ramp on Green Pond then .2 miles to Nantucket Sound after that either 5 miles to Waquoit bay, 7 miles to Martha's Vineyard, 5 miles to Woods Hole or 7 miles to the Elizabeth Island chain. Lot of choices keeps us close to home.

 

[jdonalds]

@jdonalds , John, I know it is a long, LONG ways. You may have been on Powell before so you have that box checked...I have not. But if a group can make it there from all over, I am hoping that maybe you might find it doable. It is 1010 miles for us from Texas. Convincing Clara that this is a worthwhile endeavor will be a challenge. I know that most won't take trips that long, and I am included in that group. But for me, seeing that magnificence in my lifetime would be grand. So I am hoping that if enough of the gang can make the trek, maybe you would join us too!

Mel, It would be great to have a gathering at Powell. Perhaps if we win the lottery. Oh yea.. you have to play to win. Guess that leaves us out.

Really it is just one of those things that isn't going to happen for us. If I put a 10 item Bucket List together Powell would be on the list, but perhaps not in the top 5. These days it is more about visiting siblings and taking the 4-year-old to Disney World. Money is limited and Powell would eat too deeply into the budget. Just the 885 miles @10mpg and $4/gallon would be $354 each way just for tow vehicle gas, not to mention a hotel stay on the way. We could camp but the hot setup is to share the cost of a houseboat but those suckers can run $7,000 a week!

It would be grand to meet you and others though.

 

[txav8r]

I won't be counting out getting to meet you John, I understand the limitations of distance and the costs of it. As I approach retirement, my perspective changes dramatically, I was just laying in bed before I got up considering some of those things this morning. It crossed my mind, that if a person retired or retiring were to want to buy another home, and didn't have cash in hand, they might not qualify! And at that side of life, the logistics get much tougher than they were at 35 years old. We sold our previous home, moved to an apartment, and commuted 45 miles each way to the job site while we built our current home (11 years ago). All of the work we did in addition to GCing the job was enormous. I could still GC another one, but doing all the labor is beyond my desire now. It is the same with a big trek like Powell. You have to carve it out of your budget because a week on a lake that big might be a challenge at our age without decent accommodations. However, handling that big houseboat, towing our 240, and everything that goes with it, might just be a bigger issue than even camping!

I am hoping that when I am up in the SFO area for a long layover, I might be able to sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and shake your hand one day John!

 

[Papa]

We drive two hours to the lake house. Then it's just a short walk to the boat house. It's like going on a mini vacation. Well worth the drive and gives me time to shake off a piss poor week.

 

[KXCam22]

My local launch is 5-10 min away from my house on the Thompson river, and then about 15 min downstream into Kamloops Lake. By mid-august the water is too low so I trailer about 30min to the lake launch. Cam.

 

[BigN8]

10 minutes to Marina. 5 minutes to uncover boat and drop it in the water.

 

[jonw9]

We used to drive 1 hour each way.
Now the longest part of the commute is waiting for the lift to lower.

 

[sysinu]

We have 3 lakes we go to mainly. our nearest is a larger shallow lake (Utah Lake) which is about 35-40 minutes each way, but flat roads mostly. Then we go to another that is up a canyon about 1.5H up and 1H back. And then we have LP which is 6-7H drive each way.

All the talk of a potential getting together at Powell would be exciting . If it's off season, I might be inclined to take our houseboat out of the slip if there's enough shared interest.

 

[gthh]

Canadaugia Lake is the closest lake for my boat size. It is 60 miles away but it takes about 1.5 hours to get there. I envy the Jetter's that only have 15 min or less. I trailer my boat down State 20 to the lakes.

 

[96Pirate]

I've only taken the boat to Falls Lake which is approx 20 minutes from my house.

I plan on taking to Kerr and Lake Gaston this year. Both of those are between 45-60 minutes.