Every Season We Haul Out More and More...
The Third Annual Anchor Rodeo (part 1) at Lake Whatcom
Every summer, Andy and I jump into Lake Whatcom at one of its busiest spots; a favorite for boaters, swimmers, and paddle boarders. While most folks are out here to enjoy the water, we show up with a different mission: hunting for the inevitable golf balls, lost fishing gear, and all sorts of debris that settle on the lakebed. But the real prize? Recovering cut away or abandoned anchors.
This year marked our third annual Anchor Rodeo our annual mission to pull up abandoned anchors and clean out the underwater mess that piles up each season. We do this twice a year- once at the start of summer, then again at the end just so we can see just how much stuff accumulates over a single season. It’s hands-on environmental stewardship, and while it keeps Lake Whatcom cleaner, we also hope it gets people thinking about the impact we all have on our waterways.
What many forget, locals and non-locals, is that Lake Whatcom used to be a logging lake. Back in the day, timber operations sent thousands of logs floating across these waters. Over time, a many of them sank and now rest starting around 30 feet down. To us, in some parts of the lake the bottom is littered with these massive, waterlogged logs. Drop an anchor here and odds are, it’ll get hopelessly snagged. When Andy and I find an anchor wedged tight between old timbers, we can almost hear the echo of a boater’s curses as we cut it free.
In just three years, out of the same spot, we have hauled up about a dozen anchors…and we’ll see how many more we bring up at the end of summer.
⌚️ #watchfam: DOXA 300T Cussler the perfect companion for a day spent hunting lost anchors beneath the surface.