Lake Travis

[deerfield]

These pictures were taken last week. I drove the rental car down the launch ramp, onto the lake bed, and a hundred feet or so toward the water. Parked the car and walked another hundred feet to the water's edge. A park ranger stopped to chat. The spot from which these pictures were taken would have put us about thirty feet below normal water level. Living in Chicago where nothing like this happens to Lake Michigan, it really was a remarkable sight. The south is desperate for rain. Sure hope it happens soon. Had a great time in Austin. Heard about Salt Lick Driftwood. Good place for barbecue. Maybe next time.

[jpetty3023]

The lakes are drying up fast down here fast Deerfield without a doubt. Were you able to hook up with any maniacs on here while you were in town?

[deerfield]

jpetty - Did not hook up with any maniacs. Time was spent in client dinners, meetings, and office work, except when I played hooky for two hours at Lake Travis. Heard the name so many times from the Texas crew that I just had to find my way there to see it for myself. Lots of stunning real estate around that lake. Big oil money?

[rdlangston13]

rain is a good thang!

[skylar18]

That is my lake...or what is left of it. 51 % of capacity. One public boat ramp open on a lake close to 60 miles long.

When it drops 7 more feet, my marina will not be able to use the lift ramps to get our boats into the lake. I will then call my season over, for the first time earlier then everyone up North. Usually end my season in December. This time I will be lucky to make it through August.

If we get no rain this winter and spring again, we will be totally and completely scre$%^#@#wed.

We had this problem 2 years ago, then got rain to fill it back up. With it happening 2 out of the last three years, people are starting to wonder if this is the new normal.

[you da man]

Travis is down 37ft, 2 years ago it got to 51ft low so it's been worse. Too bad Travis is the main source of irrigation downstream so they have to release water no matter what

[rdlangston13]

i think we need to build desalinzation plants on the Texas gulf coast and a pipline network to the major lakes. when they get low we can turn a pump on and open a valve and fill them back up!

[jpetty3023]

We need to do something brotha, maybe a rain dance or two I don't know. Couple 3 years ago the lake was closed cause of flooding and now this.

[rdlangston13]

i remember in 2006 lake lavon was like 20-30 feet low. you could walk to the bottom of the boat ramp and then walk across 50 yards of dry ground or so before hitting water. i have pictures somewhere of sailboats sitting on dirt with weeds growing up around them. and lots of christmas trees around the docks that people had dumbed. needless to say all the marinas were closed due to the water level. then in spring of 07 it started raining and it rained alllllll summer and the last went from being closed due to lack of water to being closed due to the marina building were filled with water. the parking lot for the marina we used was under 3 or 4 feet of water, they had a flat bottomed john boat to pick up people trying to get to their slip and drive them out there

[chawk610]

We are maintaning here in DFW thank goodness... Lakes Lewisville and Grapevine are doing ok at the moment... Hope Austin / Houston see tons of rain soon!

[rdlangston13]

We are maintaning here in DFW thank goodness... Lakes Lewisville and Grapevine are doing ok at the moment... Hope Austin / Houston see tons of rain soon!

thankfully for me because DFW is doing good my lake (Lake Livingston) is doing good! Yay!

[pickle311]

Travis is a sad sight right now. The Pedernales river where we typically go is completely dried up. No water in it at all.

The real estate you see around Travis comes from a lot of different types. The ones I've met are a lot of oil tycoons, California transplants that sold their homes and made a fortune on them, big business executives, doctors, successful musicians, athletes, and celebs. Just like anywhere else.
I've been in several of those homes and some are unreal. I went in one where going up the driveway, you drive under the pool and hot tub. I literally got lost in their house. He had a room that was a wine cellar and a humidor for his cigars. He said there was easily $250k worth of wine and cigars in that room.

[usaski1]

So where s a good place to go now in ATX with Travis low? I mean theres Lake Austin, we'll always have that, but its over crowded and choppy, the quality is bad. Decker any good? (Walter e Long) I like on a dang lake and can't use it, too low... again... After 09, I thought we'd be good for a long time. Cant believe we are here again... End of july and boat hours have been in the single numbers this year.. I just bought this boat last fall... WTF!

[you da man]

So where s a good place to go now in ATX with Travis low? I mean theres Lake Austin, we'll always have that, but its over crowded and choppy, the quality is bad. Decker any good? (Walter e Long) I like on a dang lake and can't use it, too low... again... After 09, I thought we'd be good for a long time. Cant believe we are here again... End of july and boat hours have been in the single numbers this year.. I just bought this boat last fall... WTF!

And you live on a bad ass private ski lake (I've seen your house)...shame on you

[pickle311]

So where s a good place to go now in ATX with Travis low? I mean theres Lake Austin, we'll always have that, but its over crowded and choppy, the quality is bad. Decker any good? (Walter e Long) I like on a dang lake and can't use it, too low... again... After 09, I thought we'd be good for a long time. Cant believe we are here again... End of july and boat hours have been in the single numbers this year.. I just bought this boat last fall... WTF!


Decker is ok. It's really small and gets crowded easily. It's good during the week and that's where we go in the winter. I hear stillhouse is still ok right now but low. Austin should be nice during the week, or you can go south to Canyon lake. Canyon is pretty much full right now, somehow.

[you da man]

Decker is ok. It's really small and gets crowded easily. It's good during the week and that's where we go in the winter. I hear stillhouse is still ok right now but low. Austin should be nice during the week, or you can go south to Canyon lake. Canyon is pretty much full right now, somehow.

Stillhouse is bad actually. Stumps everywhere, you have to know the lake very well to know where the river channel is or you risk hitting something. The only safe place on Stillhouse is the dam where it's clean...it's a fishing lake so trees were not cleared when it was built so that's why it's do stumpy. Belton lake is still good, only a couple spots you need to watch. Common boating sense applies...if the shore line slopes gently, so will the water under your boat. Weekdays are great on Belton.

[skylar18]

I think we are at the point where Lake Travis and Lake Austin are both great during the week.

They all are pretty much worthless on weekends right now. Lake Austin because only one boat ramp is open to get on Travis, so everyone is going to Austin. Lake Travis is worthless because even though there is a lot less traffic, those boats that are on Travis are creating much rougher conditions than normal. (In my opinion)

Went over the 360 bridge at 3:00 Saturday and saw around 30 boats in that small area of Lake Austin that is visable from the road. Nuts!

[pickle311]

Went over the 360 bridge at 3:00 Saturday and saw around 30 boats in that small area of Lake Austin that is visable from the road. Nuts!

That's just scary. I'm glad my boat picked this summer to blow up because I wouldn't be enjoying the lake with that much traffic anyway.

[jbgp1200]

Yeah a couple years ago Lake Travis was worse and they were relocating the docs at Jonny Fins to the middle of the lake. If your boat was in a slip like some friends of ours, you had to take a shuttle to get to your boat. last month we were in 20 feet of water heading to Carlos and Charlies and BOOM, hit rock and my buddy mangled his counter rotating props on his Cobalt. Travis is too rough for me with a 3 year old in a 20.6 foot boat anyway. Sad that its gotten so bad but we are still out every weekend despite the vanishing water levels. We have been spending two days a week on lake George town and occasionally lake Austin. No one is ever on Georgetown and on a sat/sun morning we have the lake to ourselves. Did spend last weekend on LBJ and that was pretty nice, 1 hour drive but nice none the less.

Despite the lack of rain I still love Austin. Can't beat 9 months of boating every year :)