Elwood ramp

I had to go to Lex yesterday for a part for the car to get it running, so I used it as an excuse to go out and check out Johnson and Elwood, of course. Johnson still has a lot of ice on it. From what I could see, it was mostly covered.
Elwood was about the same, mostly covered for as far as I could see.
But what I really wanted to see was the boat ramp situation at Elwood….and it doesn’t look good. I can’t really tell because of the ice, but it looks to me like you won’t be able to get a boat in there very long, if you can at all now.

I know Daryl is always saying you can’t chase water downhill forever, which is true, but I’m seriously thinking about spearheading a deal where maybe we could get a load of gravel over there and get it spread out. I’d have to see who I could get ahold of to clear something like that, and I know one person I’d like to visit with is Dan Ferguson, the guide over there, because I know when they built the ramp you see here, he donated the use of a loader to build it (I’m thinking that’s what he donated, I know he had a big part in it), so he would know a little bit more about it than I do. I just don’t know if it would be worth it or not because I don’t know how much the rock would disappear in that muck over there. But if you had 20 guys donating $10/piece, you’d be in the neighborhood for a truck full of rock (I’m going to call on those prices too, probably tomorrow). So these are some things rolling around in my head right now. Let me know what you think.

You can count me in for a donation towards some rock. Even though I live in the eastern part of the state I would still like to be able to get out there and fish that lake.

Chris

I’d send you $20, but I think you’ld have to talk to the powers that be first.

My suggestion would be to use “3 inch aggregate”. Essentially 3″ white rock. That will pack down a LOT better than gravel and last longer, bear weight better.

Todd

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I think you’ld have to talk to the powers that be first.

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Yup, I think so too. Think I’ll try to get some phone calls made in the next couple days to see what kind of hoops would need to be jumped thru. I’m on it….

I sure hope you can get something worked out with them Brian! You da man!!

Good Luck Brian Keep us posted

As a roofing contractor, I have access to a lot of 3″ river rock. I have appx. 3 truck loads sitting here at my shop that I would be willing to donate. I hope you have some luck with the “powers that be.” I’m looking forward to see the path this takes. Go get ’em!
Bill

I too would be willing to donate money and TIME.

WELCOME DoubleJ

Bill, that sounds real good, and very generous of you! I know last time they put some some kind of fabric down so it wouldn’t sink so bad into the mud, so I’m curious about that too. I know some of this will stick, but I know some of it will sink, too. Where are you located?

Great to have you over here, JJ! I also may be putting some time in over there, because I know there may be some shoveling involved! I don’t have a tractor or a blade, but I bet with a couple guys, shoveling wouldn’t be all that bad either.

Ya, it may take some time, too. I’ve got all this next week to focus on it as well, so I’m going to see what everyone has to say, and see what they come up with. The biggest reason I’m doing this is because there’s a very VERY good chance that no water will be put into Elwood this year.

i think it was at one or more of the refuge lakes, and a ramp at devils lake that had a sort of metal gate for the ramp it worked really well as long your trailor didn’t go off it. but with a tractor you could lift it and move it around, and it shouldn’t sink into the mud a whole lot. maybe even put some rock under it for some more support

Lunkerman,
THAT’S RIGHT!! I forgot about that!! I think maybe you were the one on another forum that told me about that last time. How do you find out where something like that could be acquired? That would work real nice too, possibly…..water goes further down, just move it out, if ya can. Very interesting idea…….

Brian I would also be willing to help out any way that I can money or labor,

At Kanopolis in KS, they are using aircraft landing mat for there base on the low water ramp. Not sure where to get any but bet it is going to cost some $$$$$$$$$!

Brian, I’m in Kearney. I would be willing to help any way I can. I just hope something can be done. Keep us posted. It’s really awesome your are willing to spearhead such a task. GOOD LUCK!!!!

Hey Brian,
I’ll be out there in a couple weeks. I would certainly be able to help out also!

Sounds cool!

I’m still makin phone calls to see what can be done, so it looks like it could be a slow process, but I’m still workin on it.

Brian I’m in for $$/labor just let us know. Thanks

this is something like what i was talking about, just a large steel grate

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who said they could help out, it’s great to know that a nice sized group of people have the same interests. Unfortunately, I think at this time, we’ll be putting the whole thing on hold, maybe permanently.

I’ve been talking to some people and trying to find out everything I can, and it really doesn’t look good at all, people. I was at The Reverie on Friday afternoon and visited a little bit with Elsie, the owner/proprietor (hopefully I’m spelling her name and have her status correctly listed). She was pretty upbeat when I got there, saying we’d get water. It was in the Kearney Hub (newspaper) that Elwood would be bought by NGPC and water would be bought as well. I told her I doubted that was true, but she was about to call Brad Newcomb at the Kearney NGPC office, so I hung around for a little while.
She said that when they extended the ramp the first time, they got around half their money back, and she didn’t seem to thrilled with it. Said you had to jump through all kinds of hoops and get permission from people who you didn’t even need to contact in the first place. But when she got off the phone with Brad, she was not happy, and I couldn’t blame her. Brad told her that there would not be any water for Elwood this year. The information about NGPC buying the lake, and water, was false, and as predicted the tri state agreement has really screwed a lot of things up. The only other piece of info was that he said there could be the possibility of NGPC relaxing the fish regulations on the lake towards the end of summer. I would not be one bit surprised if they did do that, because that lake will be starting to show some big signs of being in major distress.

So that’s the newest in news…..and it sucks. Plain and simple. It’s one of the best lakes in the state, without question. I’m going to try to get out there as much as I can this year, because there may not be a next year. Sad…..real sad.

Thanks again to everyone, and I’ll definitely keep you all updated, if anything finds its way to the surface.

Brian

VERY SAD!!

What could they do if a truck load of rock mysteriously showed up one night?

GOOD WORK B. This BLOWS

If a truckload mysteriously showed up one night….I like it!!! The biggest problem is just watching it sink into the muck over there, it’s real spongy. Elsie said the fabric was the most expensive part. It’s the first thing you put down, I’m guessing, so that the rock sits on top of it and doesn’t sink in so bad.
I’m real sorry guys….it just doesn’t look viable at this time. At the rate the water will soak into the lake bottom, we could be chasing the water down the hill quite a bit. I really hope someone finds a loophole real soon in that ‘agreement’ so we can get some water in Elwood.

How about we nuke KS

ill go for that. but reading the bad news about makes me want to cry

Did you ever get a chance to talk to dan ferguson!

This is sounding more and more like a news story. I just might have to talk to our news director and see if we can start stirring the pot. Any ideas?

Stir the pot, tap on the glass, feed the animals, it all sounds good to me

Stir that pot up Chad!!!

I’ll go out to my woodshop and even make a BIG ARSE wooden spoon to stir that sucker!!!!

Go for it Chad; would love to see them squirm over letting Elwood die. Get some good footage.