From a bluff along Soda Bay Road, I took this pic of Clear Lake this week -- like most lakes across the Western U.S., it is full of water, fish and wildlfe -- a great year for lakes.
This is the “Year Of the Lake,” no doubt about that. Clear Lake, California’s largest natural lake inside state borders, is testimony to conditions across California and the Western U.S. right now. The lake is right up to the brim, clear and clean, thriving with big bass and birds galore.
Many lakes will reach peak levels for Memorial Day Weekend and stay high through June and July. As water is released, in most cases, it will be replaced by melting snow, so they wll stay high well into summer.
Some of the latest water levels, as of May 5, 2011:
North State: Shasta Lake (95 percent full), Whiskeytown Lake (95 percent full), Lewiston Lake (95), Trinity Lake (93).
North Sierra foothills: Antelope Lake (100 percent full), Englebright (100 percent), Lake Oroville (94 percent), Bullards Bar (93), Frenchman (88), Davis (88).
Central Sierra foothills: Pardee Lake (100 percent full), Tulloch (93), Beardsley (84), New Melones (82), Don Pedro (78).
Others of note: Black Butte (85 percent), west of Orland; Folsom (80 percent and climbing very quickly), near Sacramento; Eastman (91 percent full), near Chowchilla; San Luis (98 percent), near Los Banos; Cachuma (100 percent), near Santa Barbara; Pyramid and Castaic (both 97 percent), north of L.A.
Wait ’til you see this: My first e-book will be a reinvention of “California Recreational Lakes & Rivers,” with a revolutionary and easy way to navigate an e-book. We’re also working on getting some visuals that will knock your eyes out. When it’s ready, we’ll announce it here first.
For this week’s story about Clear Lake in the San Francisco Chronicle, go to:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/05/SPP91JBTUU.DTL&type=living
Feel great in the next 24 hours: Hike. Bike. Camp. Fish. Boat. Wildlife watch. Explore.
For my book California Recreational Lakes & Rivers, go to:
http://74.220.215.219/~tomstien/books/california-recreational-lakes-and-rivers/
I realize this is several years old, but in an article on sfgate you wrote on July 25, 2004 titled, Mysteries of the deep at Lake Tahoe on , you write the following
Jacques Cousteau is said to have had a brush with something horrific in a deepwater dive in the mid-1970s. “The world isn’t ready for what was down there,” is the quote most commonly credited.
Do you have any documented sources for the Cousteau quote? I’ve read this quote several times (Most of the time to your article) and I’m attempting to document the source.
Thanks
Terry