Change in Lake levels

[dooby]

Two photographs to show how much the lake levels have change in the past few months here in Texas. Both photographs are of the local "party cove."

I met a diver last summer whom was making weekend dives under the cove recovering sunglasses. I saw more Oakleys, Ray Ban, Maui Jim's, Aramani and the list goes on and on.

The 1st photograph was taken on 12/10/2006, the 2nd photograph was taken 5/25/2007, it will be interesting to see what the lake looks like this next weekend !!!

[Toadie]

When I was at Eagle Mountain back in March, it was way low.. You had to walk out at least 200 yards from the boat ramp to get to the water. Then after the rain we had at the end of March, and the recent rains, I was told the water rose to the edge of the pavement where they park the vehicles.

Gonna head over that a way and take a look in the next couple of days.

James

[gordiesgirl]

Those floods in Texas are devastating. Stay safe.

[dooby]

No problem gordiesgirl !!!

I was a life guard as a youngster, I have a healthy respect for water....................

Toadie, I have never been around eagle mountain lake, wonder if they have a local "party cove" as well !?!?!?

dan...........

[Toadie]

Well Dooby.. As far as I know Eagle Mountain Lake has only two free publicly accessible beaches. All the others charge for access or are in private subdivisions. One is right outside of Azle at Pelican Bay, and the other is in Azle at Shady Grove Park. The Shady Grove Park is where the water levels were so far down earlier this year. If there are any other free ones, I never heard about them.

Want to know something sad.. I like Eagle Mountain Lake but finding public lake access is very limited. I am used to East Texas Lakes.. They are not as crowded, offer several miles of open waterfront for fishing and such. Eagle Mountain and Possum Kingdom are two of the most crowded lakes I have encountered.. Even Lake Ray Hubbard has better lake access.

At Eagle Mountain, the public beach is always crowded and due to that fact, I hardly ever go there. I normally wait until early morning to visit the area, whenever I do go there, and it normally don't take long to start filling up once the park opens.

Lake Worth has several publicly accessible spots as well, but you have to deal with an overabundance of trash metals. At least at Shady Grove in Azle, they prohibit beer and alcohol. There are some who ignore the sign, but, they will face a large fine if caught.

Tell you another sad fact.. As the bird flies, Eagle Mountain Lake is only about 3/4 to 1 mile away. For me to get free lake access, I have to drive almost 20 minutes away due to the way the roads are laid out. I live outside of Fort Worth, just southwest of the dam over by Silver Creek Road.

The new Texas Civil War Museum is only about 15 minutes up Silver Creek from the house.

James

[dooby]

Lake Lewisville isn't much better, only a couple of "free spots" that I know about, the current park I am working, although free, doesn't see much traffic and my finds are proving that it isn't a poplar park.

The part of the park I really want to work has been closed (you can walk back into the old park) and is way overgrown at the moment, I am hoping someday the corp will open it back up and maintain it again. Should make for some interesting finds !!!

Civil war museum ?!?!?! Have you visited the place yet ???

[Toadie]

Yep.. Guess you can say I have. I helped break ground there when I was Camp Adjutant in the SCV (Was a Camp Adjutant for 3 1/2 years). Was in the Camp just 5 months before I became Adjutant. Turned down offers for Cmdr. several times.. Now I am so glad I did..

Lot of troubled water between me and some of my former SCV camp mates. No disrespect intended to any other fellow SCV members or Camps out there, but the camp I was in got to where it was a joke. We had a Lt. Cmdr. who was constantly overstepping his boundaries. He was a spend thift who went through the account like it was his own and he started making false accusations towards me in regards to the camp funds after he depleted them, etc..... Calling up Nat'l and running his mouth about stuff to do with Regional and all, without having all the facts. Then he was lobbying to try to partner up with another Camp in the area due to the fact it was closer to his house and he had some friends there. It got to where it was really screwed up so I just dropped out of the SCV.

About the accusations, I proved my innocence, and to this day, I have never received an apology of any type from anyone in the Camp or SCV, nor an offer to reimburse me of the monies that I spent out of my pocket to keep the camp afloat and running... It is in excess of $1800.00. (as far as I am concerned, the money part was trivial. It was a pride and character issue when falsely accused of taking the camp's money..)

So, to sum it up my experience with the SCV ended on a rather sour note because of that camp.. You know the saying, "Once bitten, twice shy.." Well, I am not ever going back to that camp. I still may decide to just be a member at large, I dunno, if I renew my dues at all. I haven't renewed them in 2 years.

Anyways, after they got the building built, the UDC moved a lot of stuff from the old museum to the new one. Nice building and nice displays along with several prestige artifacts, and some not so prestige of course.

James

[dooby]

Sorry to hear about the feud, Toadie !!!

But I have to agree on the once bitten !!!

I got out to the lake last night for an hour or so, there are areas under water that haven't seen water in 7 or 8 years..............Hoping to get out today and take some more photographs after last weekends rain

[Toadie]

Took the kiddoes swimming at Shady Grove last night. There is maybe 6" of beach from the edge of the grass to the waterline. Was gonna detect but beach was very crowded so we decide just to let the kids swim. However, they tore down a lot of houses about 5 yrs ago along Jacksboro Hwy to expand the hwy. Then just let it all grow up. Now they have a road crew dozing the roadbed and opening up some sweet spots to detect in. I plan on hitting that area this evening, except it goes east for about two miles. Guess it will give me more area to hunt.

This on the south side of 199. There are spots on the north side the partially excavated as well. Mainly around the culverts and all.

James

[dooby]

Let me know how it goes, Toadie !!!

Our lake parks are almost entirely underwater now, boats are now tying up to the picnic pavilions and fishing !!!