My turn for boat landing rage

I was able to get out on the Croix late Sunday afternoon. I got down to the Hudson landing a little after 4:00. The parking lot at the grocery store (overflow) was packed. But the normal lot had quite a few spots open . What a zoo with everyone trying to get their boats out. I was waiting my turn to launch. Hudson has enough room to lauch 3 boats at a time. Or should have room. There were 2 guys picking there boats up that were in line before me. I let both of them go in front of me. Finally, after waiting about 10 minutes, I’m next to line up. This dude in a pickup truck had backed out his pontoon trailer (after I had already been waiting more than 5 minutes) and he tells me I need to let him go before me so he can “quick” get his pontoon loaded. I tell him no way. I asked him if I am suppose wait until all the boats are loaded before I can launch. He gets PO’d and tries to tell me I won’t be able to launch with his pontoon in the way. I told him not to worry about me launching. His pontoon was on the launch side of the dock. He was blocking another boat that just launched from moving his boat out around the dock. So now we’re down to 2 launch lanes.

I decide to launch up against the other dock, mainly to stay away from pontoon dude. There is a little 14′ fishing boat right up tight to shore on the launch side of dock #2. I was backing my boat in fairly close to the fishing boat. I wanted to make sure there was still room to launch in the middle lane. I had at least 3 feet between my boat and the little fishing boat and could see it clearly in my mirrors. This lady starts screaming at me to stop (STOP, STOP). I got out and walked back to her and asked her… What are you screaming about? Her reply was, I thought you were going to hit my boat. After slamming my door I continued to back in and pulled my boat around to the shore on the other side of the dock. She makes a comment about not being used to people launching so close to their boat. It never dawned on her to move her boat out of the way.

Why is it always more fun to read about these stories when it happens to someone else? It may not sound like it based on my post (rant), but I normally try to go out of my way to be helpful at the landing.

yeah it is an absolute zoo down there with folks being able to park up in the old grocery store lot. makes me avoid that launch at all costs on weekends. used to be you could go out at 6AM and come back around 11 and the parking lot was full and you could pull right out unimpeded.
not any more. they really ought to pass an ordinance on parking in that lot with trailers on. it’s a nightmare.
catch any fish?

I feel your pain Bro, its been 2 very interesting weeks at the landings for me too. I can’t help but laugh most of the time, however it does get very frustrating.

Cheers Bro

Sounds like my yelling match at the local Target store yesterday, and I didn’t even have the boat hooked up.

There is a North Metro lake that has a nightmare launch as well. There are probably about 15 parking spaces for trailers, and they are adaject to the public fishing pier. People fishing at the pier park in the trailer spots all the time, even though there are designated places for non trailers open all over the lot, maybe an extra 50 foot walk from the pier.

Also people who see you waiting in the last parking spot to go over to the launch, then zipping into the last space with their boat as soon as you start launching, thus leaving no place for you to park until they are done with their 15 minute pre-launch ritual. Then you take their spot (which was yours to start with) and they get mad because now they have no place to park.

Good times at the boat launch!

I didn’t yell at you that loud Czech.

Thanks guys, you made me applicate my loading and unloading ramp all the more. I was going to make a rant about getting my feet wet when launching and River Rat Randy’s heckling.

Think I’ll keep quite….for once. I’ve got it pretty good.

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catch any fish?

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No, I think I was bitten by karma last night. At least my beer was cold. It was really a nice night out though. The river was actually pretty quiet after 6:00.

It all boils down to the fact that there are way too damn many people walking this earth. Conflict at the ramps and elsewhere will only get exponentially worse so the only thing to do to keep your sanity is adapt and overcome.

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It all boils down to the fact that there are way too damn many people walking this earth. Conflict at the ramps and elsewhere will only get exponentially worse so the only thing to do to keep your sanity is adapt and overcome.

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Or………….the city could build a huge ramp / parking lot and sell season passes at $100.00 a launch or a daily pass at $15.00 a launch.

Why the DNR doesn’t have a 150 space ramp on Mille Lacs has always baffeled me.

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It all boils down to the fact that there are way too damn many people walking this earth. Conflict at the ramps and elsewhere will only get exponentially worse so the only thing to do to keep your sanity is adapt and overcome.

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Or………….the city could build a huge ramp / parking lot and sell season passes at $100.00 a launch or a daily pass at $15.00 a launch.

Why the DNR doesn’t have a 150 space ramp on Mille Lacs has always baffeled me.

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I’m with you there. The ramp situation on the Croix (both sides included) is ridiculous considering the traffic. Absolutely ridiculous. The fact that Prescott issues yearly passes and Hudson doesnt, either says Prescott is an above avg giving town or that Hudson is a below avarage cheap town.

Go to the bluffs launch. It is so much better!

I feel your pain, yesterday was the busiest I’ve ever seen the croix. The Hasting launch is just as bad and it only has 1 lane so when somebody is taking it up everyone has to wait.

Yesterday I saw:
Guy with a dead battery while he was still in line – did he get out of line, no, did he waive people past him, no. He waited until I came up with a spare TM battery and took his sweet time jumping his boat, didn’t say thank you (although the guy behind him did

Guy in a Pro-V take 13 minutes (yes I was timing him) cranking up and down..moving his truck….wading in up to his chest…talking to another guy….It’s one thing to pull that when they’re multiple lanes and/or not many people waiting but when there’s a line of trucks behind you come on.

A guy tell my wife it was his turn to go becuase she was in the wrong line. Funny thing is he was in the wrong line (actually not even in line) AND he got there after her. I found all this out after the fact – funny he didn’t say anything to me about it when I saw him in the parking lot.

I don’t expect people to be experts at loading and launching but let’s have some curtiousy for one and other.

Oh well at least it’s funny to share the stories on here.

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Go to the bluffs launch. It is so much better!

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After yesterday I decided I am going to. Can you usually get a spot there at 11 or noon on a saturday or Sunday? Can you call ahead and see if there are spots open?

This whole post makes me appreciate pool 2 and being able to get out during the week even more. I won’t deal with crowds and waiting. I’ll turn around and go somewhere else or go home.

dd

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Go to the bluffs launch. It is so much better!

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After yesterday I decided I am going to. Can you usually get a spot there at 11 or noon on a saturday or Sunday? Can you call ahead and see if there are spots open?

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No and No. If it is not raining or otherwise bad weather, thay fill up fast on weekends.

-J.

Yeah, what Jon said. The Bluffs have 3 lanes but usually only one is available because of boats tied up on the dock. The low water doesn’t help anything either. At this point I can only you use the first ramp otherwise my trailer gets stuck, so that makes it even more enjoyable when you sit there waiting for people to move their boats down the dock so you can put your trailer in. For three straight days I had to wait for people to move. There was even one guy who was teaching his boy how to operate the boat, which is a nice thing to do. I was going to offer up my own lesson that when you take your boat off the trailer to move it out of the way so you don’t urine everybody off. I decided with the number of f bombs I would drop during the lesson it wouldn’t be a good idea.

The only advantage I find is when the lot is full and there is a long line of boats waiting to launch, they let the guys pulling their boats go first since that opens up a parking spot.

Ahhhh boat ramp rage get it all the time… think the crois is bad try tonka on a weekend… thats when you really know how many idiots are out there on the waters.

I want to thank the crowd of bass fisherman at Wabasha’s public landing for helping me get backed out through the parking lot as I there were few locations left at 8 am and I had to park in the available open space remaining in front of the beer tent. Rather difficult to back a trailer out of the lot, but fortunately with an empty trailer, one can get out and adjust to make that first back up turn…

The help in the parking lot made all the difference in my judgment of the folks after the number of high speed passes taken by their colleagues on the water during the hours prior to that…

However, I don’t think the beautiful young gal paddling the backwaters just to the north of Lake Robinson through the back waters has forgiven a pair of them yet….

I think the same as is being stated by others earlier in the post… just a simple courtesy by saying “thank you” or “apologizing for some situation” goes a long ways toward keeping everyone in a civil state of mind in the landing congestion. That “me first” attitude that some take with them to the landing really sucks

Wow, I don’t know if I could live up there. My rage at the boat ramp escalates at exponential rates sometimes. Lately it’s been all the idiot wakeboarders and skiers. At least if you read about a death at the ramp around here, you can say you knew who the nutjob was that came unhinged.

Ya Brian I know what you are saying there.If you here about it it was probably me..If I here about it it was probably you…

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Or………….the city could build a huge ramp / parking lot and sell season passes at $100.00 a launch or a daily pass at $15.00 a launch.

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…AND Stadium Seating!!

Speaking of yearly passes I was a little upset when my local landing started charging a yearly fee to launch there. It wasn’t the $30.00 a year that pisses me off, it was the fact that I had already put twice that in their donation box earlier this year. Then they took that down and decided to charge fees. Thats fine and dandy but the donations were not anonymous so maybe they could have given one to us this year and then started charging next year atleast for the people who already donated this year anyway.

I almost always go to a private launch site and pay the fee.
Less headaches that way, there is uaslly someone there to keep everyone in line, and assist those who need it.

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I almost always go to a private launch site and pay the fee.
Less headaches that way, there is uaslly someone there to keep everyone in line, and assist those who need it.

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there’s a reason public areas are free…… plus, I feel safer leaving my rig and stuff in a private lot as opposed to a public

big G

Elitists.

Does anyone know if King’s Cove on P3 let’s people pay to launch? If so how much?

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I almost always go to a private launch site and pay the fee.
Less headaches that way, there is uaslly someone there to keep everyone in line, and assist those who need it.

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there’s a reason public areas are free…… plus, I feel safer leaving my rig and stuff in a private lot as opposed to a public

big G

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In the ideal world, I would have my own boat launch on the Croix .

Since that ain’t gonna happen, and I get to pay over 4K in property taxes to live in the city of Hudson, I’ll continue to try and launch at the city of Hudson launch for 3.00 per time.

I normally don’t get out on the Croix much on weekends during the hot summer months. I knew it would be busy, but it was incredible this past Sunday.

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I almost always go to a private launch site and pay the fee.
Less headaches that way, there is usually someone there to keep everyone in line, and assist those who need it.

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there’s a reason public areas are free…… plus, I feel safer leaving my rig and stuff in a private lot as opposed to a public

big G

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Agreed, seems we hear of more and more break ins at launches now days, not sure if there is more of them, or the web lets us hear about more though.
But I’d rather pay and feel somewhat secure also.

Couple years back we run into a couple that launched a 26 foot or so boat at Cedar lake out west, small lake and I was surprised they got it in…then even more surprised when they just sat there with their boat blocking the launch, we finally yelled out if everything was ok and she responded that yes it was and hubby was just down below changing.
Other guy waiting beat me to it, he yelled back he was putting his boat in and if that pos wasn’t out of the way he was gonna run it over.

They were upset they had to move before he was completely changed.

I was upset because I looking for big rocks to start throwing and couldn’t find any..:)

It is truly the “ME” generation and there is far to many of them.

Al

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Elitists.

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Elitists.

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FIFM…see the ADD thread.