Now it's Spring and the Melt Has Begun

Be careful what you wish for.

Following years of drought and rapidly declining water levels we finally got a real winter. Now it’s spring and the melt has begun. It looks like we’ll have plenty of water in our bay at Fort Peck Lake once again.

Unfortunately, however, I can’t get there.

Lat week the north fork of Rock Creek washed out a culvert on the only road leading to our cabin, taking a sizable chunk of road with it.

Until the road is fixed or the ice melts there’s no way in or out. While the lake is still frozen, runoff and rising water make getting onto the ice difficult so traveling that way is sketchy at best.

A handful of folks in our cabin community are stranded. I feel like one of them although I’m stranded on the outside.

If the ice was off the lake I’d launch our pontoon boat at the dam and motor down the Big Dry Arm to the cabin, but it’s not.

So here I sit monitoring the lake level online, hoping the water doesn’t rise so high the dock floats away before I can get there.

Four years ago we were stranded at the cabin for a short time following a snowstorm. We picked up a couple of snowmobiles to ensure that never happens again.

It hasn’t and the snow machines have seen little use.

Driving home from the lake two weeks ago I noticed a large amphibious vehicle with a “For Sale” sign on it parked next to the highway.

Now I wish I’d stopped. It would have been the ticket to getting back to the cabin.

The melt has only just started. Rock Creek drains country of relatively low elevation and will soon crest, but the Missouri River, which runs into the lake, is fed by mountain snowpack that is still getting deeper.

There will be water in the bay this summer. It just might take me a while to get there.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]