First let me say, what a great source for small lake information. I wish I had found this months ago. I'll fill you in on what we have going before I ask my question.
We just finished the dam construction for our lake in mid October. The damm is 25' high (above The original ground level) and 660 feet long and the lake should be approximatly 13 acres. There is a hole 30 feet deep and 200 feet wide in front of the dam. We have cleared approximatly 75% of the lake leaving tree cover in both shallow and deep water areas. We have tried to clear a recreational area for wakeboarding/jet sking and still leave plenty of fish structure.
I bought a dozer and have been finishing the clearing and clean-up myself. We removed all the tree's, cleaned up all the trash (limbs/roots) that would float and pushed about 40 24" red cedars out into the deep water areas. Cut chanels, built humps and a nice island with the dozer.
I had a friend give me some telephone poles to use for piers to build the dock with and we saved 80 or so of the big cedars to saw up for lumber to build a pavillion and dock structures from.
It started raining just after we completed the damn, but not untill two weeks ago did we start to worry. Everyone said figure on two years to fill it up so I thought at least I had all winter to get my stuff done. We've had almost 20" of rain since mid October. Yesterday we still had 10' 4" to go to reach the spillway. Tuesday Night we had all the poles cut, spots marked and had a pole truck come out to set the poles. We had a little 0.2" rain that afternoon and the driver was afraid he'd get stuck so he said he would bring a track drill out TOMARROW and set them for us. Last night we got another 6.5" rain and when I went out to the lake today it had risen another 5'. 4 of the 8 pole locations are now underwater so there goes my well laid plans for a supported dock.
I have done several searches regarding floating vs supported structures. We don't get any ice to speak of here so that method is out. Let me bounce this plan off you and tell me if it sounds plausable.
My original plan called for 8 posts. An 8 x 30' dock with 4 posts down each side. I think I still me be able to set 4 of the 8 sites since I still plan to have the track drill out to set the cedar poles for the pavillion. My original construction was going to be all natural cedar above the telephone poles. I can build the first section like planned and then rig up a temporary support to hold the next section up during construction. Build 2 metal plates with a pipe that a piece of drill stem will slip through and bolt one to each side of the end of that section. Slip the drill stem through the pipe and do the best I can to hammer it into the ground. The run a bolt through the pipe and drill stem to hold it in place. Then repeat it all with the next section. Has anyone ever attempted anything like that or am I reaching too far? I could always fix the end and float the other hinged, but I'd prefer to go fixed and level.
I don't have much time to make my decision before my 4th hole will dissapear so I appreciate and ideas you guys might have. I had 2 30' poles that were supposed to go on the end of the dock to run a zip line off of for the kids, I can set the pole on the bank now but it just won't be the same. Just run the line over the end of the dock
The pic's should be there now
