August 18, 2005
Lake Fun
Last weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to Lake of the Ozarks with our friends the Fischers. Once again they own a lake house so we stayed with them and always had a great time, despite the rain. The have a wonderful lake view from their house and a flat back yard:
We brought down a radio controlled boat I inherited from my uncle Sam and had fun Saturday morning sending it forth onto the lake while it was still calm. Mr. Fischer had more fun annoying his dog with it I think, but the rest of us preferred the lake cruises:
And after taking out the small pleasure craft, we set forth in the large pleasure craft to explore the lake. We trailed two inner tubes behind the boat that you could ride in while Mr. Fischer did his best to separate you from your ride. We also found a nice cove to just get out and splash about in. The currents in the cove were strong and erratic as measured by my position relative to the boat riding at anchor as one moment I would be well away from it and another I'd look over to see it looming over me. Having fun is tiring, as can be seen from this photo of two intrepid inner tube riders taking a quick break:
Our further adventures await below the fold:
We didn't spend all our time out on the lake; Saturday evening, after watching an intense storm from the dock, we had some fireworks of our own. I don't know how many bottle rockets were in the box, but there was enough to satisfy all of us. Not only is a tube conveniently set up lakeside to shoot them, Mr. Fischer showed off his bare handed technique, which he could use to shoot the rockets into the lake where they made a most satisfying glurg upon explosion. Their dog also likes bottle rockets so much they have to take care that he doesn't eat them.
And if that weren't enough, Sunday morning we ignored the weather and set forth to find Tunnel Dam and Lake Niagua. After you wind through Ha Ha Tonka Park on Hwy D you just keeping going, and going, until after passing the Dodge pickup minus bed for sale you find Tunnel Dam Road and a Dodge pickup bed spray painted "free". The road starts out as the best gravel road I've been on, but once the going got interesting it often became a red clay road. On several instances we passed heavy earth moving and grading equipment, but none were apparently used on the road we traveled.
Tunnel Dam is a feat of engineering and nature both: in the 20's somebody had the bright idea of using a cave through a large ridge between two sections of the Niagua river to generate hydro electric power. So after straightning the cave and installing a couple of generators, they built a spillway dam to provide 40 feet of water pressure to the turbines and completed the dam in 1929.
After passing the road down to the power generation plant (no public access) on side of the ridge away from the lake you come to a scenic overlook where you can look out over the dam and Lake Niagua from far above or cower in fear of heights. You then drop precipitously down the ridge and wind around in bottom land until you come to the Niagua river and associated gravel bars which based upon the amount and kind of trash is a popular local partying spot:
We pulled over, skipped rocks, looked for crawdads, and otherwise messed around. But we weren't done, so we pressed on towards our destination without really knowing how to get there. Fortunately there are not a lot of roads to choose from in this relatively underpopulated part of the world, so were able to make our way to the dam itself. Hint: follow the signs to lake bypass, not access. Here is a view of the dam from the base:
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There was a lone fisherman, whose Ford pickup had a bed, but who despite the weather was without a shirt, at the pool below the dam:
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We of course made our way to the top of the dam where you could look out over the lake and examine the logs at the top of the dam at your leisure. It was a beautiful view so naturally I'm not including any pictures in the hope that you take the initiative to go there and see for yourself. You drive through a grove of spectacular sycamore trees before arriving at the dam:
That wraps up the picture portion of our tale except for a final farewell:
