What to Expect at the River
When you arrive at Picacho, let the trip leader know you are there. If you arrive in the wee hours of
the morning the trip leader may not care if you've arrived! Also, you may be in for getting the
lousiest camp duty assigned in the group.
On Friday night the trip leader will post a list of assigned duties, such as preparing breakfast/dinner,
clean up, etc. The list will be in a prominent location, usually down at the dock at the middle table.
Dinner Friday night is on your own. The ski boats will either arrive Friday afternoon or early evening,
or early on Saturday morning. If you're at the dock when they arrive please help to empty the skis, vests
and anything else out of the boats.
Club drivers should be aware of sandbars. When the boat runs onto a sandbar, it will shudder and the
speed will decrease very suddenly. The driver should put the engine into neutral and kill the engine
immediately. Naturally, the skier will be down and, hopefully, they haven't hurt themselves bouncing to
far - ouch!! Drivers should initially take a check ride and check for where the sandbars are. Also,
there's usually a certain amount of reeds in the water which do not cause much harm unless they get wrapped
around the propeller. If this happens, the driver should stop the boat, raise the engine, and manually
remove the reeds. There have been logs sighted that are hard to see because they float just slightly below
the surface of the water.
Skiing begins at sunup and continues until dark. When you get up you can pack up your vehicle and bring
your coolers, skis, chairs, etc. down to the dock for the day. Skiing is on a rotational basis, there is
usually a sign-up sheet for drivers and skiers.
A boatload of skiers should not exceed 5 persons and each skier should ski only one turn per outing. If the boat is away from the dock for an
excessively long time, either people waiting to ski get anxious about their fair share of skiing or they get concerned that the boat has
suffered some sort of problem. But the trip is to relax, have fun, go on floats (one of the many highlights of a weekend) and eat a lot of food!
Saturday night the ski group gets together for dinner at a prearranged group campsite. Skiers provide
their own entree and beverage (not necessarily in that order). The club provides salad, bread, potatoes,
salad dressing and barbecue grills to cook on. Be prepared for a fun evening and late one, this is the party night!!
On Sunday the rangers request that you have your campsite dismantled by noon. Also, If you choose to stay
at the dock after 12 p.m. for skiing you will be charged a day use fee of $5.00