A Few Days on the Water at Rollins Lake

A few days at Rollins Lake, the reservoir on the Bear River down near Colfax — far enough below Truckee that the pines change and the mornings come up warm. We trailered the boat down and made a real trip of it in mid-June, before the summer crowds fill the place.

The water is down some. The launch ramp runs a long way past the dock now, and there's a wide band of rock and dry ground between the sagebrush and the shoreline. Didn't matter much once we were out. The lake breaks into coves between forested hills, so even with a breeze on the main body you can find flat water somewhere.

Most of the time went to towing the tube. Two kids on it at once, hanging on longer than I expected through the chop. Mornings were the other half of it — the coves hold still until the boats show up, and one small island sits out in the middle of ours like it was placed there.

Tube's still drying on the trailer.