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Green River, Wyoming you embark on Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The
first say two-thirds of the reservoir are in similar surroundings as
what we had been going through. We'd wake early with the fishing
boats and get out on the reservoir as early as possible so as to make as
many miles on the reservoir as we could before the afternoon winds
invariably came up.
One of the days, we started to row down the reservoir early and the wind picked up and started stacking two to three foot waves up heading up the reservoir. We were battling the wind then along with the choppy water. Not a good combination and it took a fair amount of muscle just to get back to shore. Once we were close in to the shore, we worked our way along the shore using the low hills as a windbreak. But there came a time when there were no more windbreaks to be had. So we pulled over, skipped stones, played scrabble and waited for the evening to come (as we expected the wind to subside then). As we waited the wind shifted direction and began blowing down the reservoir as hard as it had been blowing up. We looked to each other and said "let's go". So off we went and made good progress. But as we went along the waves got bigger and bigger and the air grew decidedly chilly. We started to get nervous about capsizing in this cold lake with cold air around, so we pulled to shore. We thought again that the wind would subside as evening came on so we hunkered down behind some sage brush. The wind didn't let up and it kept getting colder. I went back to the boat and got the tent and sleeping bags - figuring we'd get some warmth and shelter until the winds subsided. We climbed in the tent and played some scrabble and snacked a bit when we began to hear plink plink plink on the rain fly. It was snowing. Snowing! The next morning broke clear, cold and still. Perfect weather for rowing.
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