Morning Guy Blog

For Early Risers Who Wish That It Could Be Morning All Day

For Early Risers Who Wish It Could Be Morning All Day

Green Electric Boat (sort of)

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Can an electric 12-volt 1-hp trolling motor with a 100ah battery push our 4,500-lb. boat to that distant island (2-miles) and back? That was the bet. And we won. In fact, it pushed us along at 1.5-knots (nice trolling speed) for 5-miles, and it still had juice remaining.

We never fired up our very thirsty 4-barrel 250-hp Mercruiser. First time. And we feel virtuously green because, as everyone knows, electricity comes from the pixie dust raised by the stomping golden hooves of dancing rainbow colored unicorns.

Okay, we used a lithium battery. But still, that’s a lot of barge to push through the water.

We would now call it an e-boat, if WWII history had not already taken that name.

Hanging on tight to the might of 1-hp!
There’s a showoff on every cruise, it seems.

 

Failure To Launch

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Stone art on the shores of Flathead Lake.
I’ve been waiting for 8 months. I knew from past experience that I could launch the boat when the level of Flathead Lake achieved 3′ below summer’s full pool.

Wrong!

Either I miscalculated or winter storms have pushed the shoreline rocks higher. I think the latter. Anyway, not enough water for launch. All I accomplished was a broken trailer taillight and an unintended swim in very cold water (while searching for the taillight pieces). We did salvage the outing, however, with picnic at a nearby park.

Falling in the freezing water of Flathead Lake was the second shock of the day. The first was filling the 60-gallon boat tank with premium gas at the new, post-Covid prices! We may be outfitting the boat with long paddles.

Matching Relics: ’95 Econoline Pulling ’96 Maxum
Searching for my trailer's license plate in Flathead Lake.
Looking for taillights in all the wrong places.

Looking towards Glacier National Park across Flathead Lake.

Snow Aplenty

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Distant view of snow covered Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana.
Maybe this is why Flathead Lake is re-filling so slowly this year. Lots of snow in the surrounding mountains, still. Here are photos of the Glacier National Park plow team.

Going-to-the-Sun Road spring snow depth, Glacier National Park, Montana.Spring snowplowing on Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Wanted Dead Or Alive!

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Flathead Lake squirrel stowaway. Montana.
Have you seen this squirrel? Brown, furry, dark demon eyes, long whiskers, sports a sailor hat. If so, please report him to the nearest Coast Guard facility. Do not be fooled by his small stature and attempt to approach him. He’s no ordinary squirrel. He has sharp, pointy teeth!

Sinbad the Squirrel is wanted for chewing his way through the cover canvas of our boat.

The furry perpetrator further vandalized the boat by building a nest in a life-jacket and, well… generally treated our boat like his chew toy.

We happen to have a strict no-squirrel policy, so Sinbad is now wanted for the counts of an illegal break-in, chewing-on-entry, setting up residence without a live-aboard permit, and attempting to be a stowaway squirrel.

No baby squirrels were involved in this incident (yet).

The Slow Melt

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Low water level on Flathead Lake Montana.
I’m anxious to get out on Flathead Lake, but the water is still a bit thin (7 feet below full pool). Even if I could get in the slip, I would need a ladder to get in and out. We need to get those snow-packs melting in the mountains.