End of summer fun

The long Labor Day holiday was wrapping up what many were calling a good summer of outdoor recreation for Nebraska.

The overall assessment comes despite drought-depleted reservoirs in the western part of the state and outbreaks of toxic algae in several lakes and ponds.

Drought took Lake McConaughy levels to about 20 percent of capacity by this weekend. However, Nebraska's biggest lake still had enough water for boating, fishing and other water recreation. It also had an abundance of beach, thanks to the near-record low lake level.

That apparently did not draw the traditionally large number of Labor Day weekend visitors but Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Lake Superintendent Mitch Gerstenkorn said attendance was not far off of year-ago figures.

"It was pretty good I guess," he said Monday. "It's been a good year. Our numbers are definitely down with the lake lower on capacity. The holiday weekends have dropped anywhere from 1 percent to 5 percent. This one was down 1 percent from last year.

"That's not real bad, but if you look back three years, when the lake had some water in it, the numbers don't look as favorable," Gerstenkorn said. "Our daily visitation was about 25,200. That made the weekend total right around 101,000 this year."

There is a lot of beach exposed, however, and he noted many people enjoyed that because they were able to spread out.

"The biggest problem we have is we have limited boat ramps. We don't have anything reaching the water now," he said. "It makes it difficult for people to get boats in and out of the water."

Elsewhere around Nebraska, park supervisors reported nice crowds.

"We've been very busy here," said Two Rivers Superintendent Fred Witte. "We had an awful good spring. In April we had good weather and usually we have snow and all that. We had a real good year this year."

All electric hookups at campsites were filled.

Parks officials in eastern Nebraska said this summer hasn't been as hot or dry as in past years. Campgrounds still have lush, green grass.

In the Panhandle, some places even got a little shower over the weekend. One to three inches of rain fell in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, but it didn't fend off campers near Courthouse and Jail Rocks.

"It got a little drippy," said Lewis Laboray of Kimball, who along with about 30 families camped for three nights at the Camp Clark Raiders Fall Rendezvous near Bridgeport. "You just throw the rugs out the next morning and dry them out."

The weekend also had six lakes still on health alert status due to algae. Two were the popular Carter Lake in Omaha and Pawnee Lake west of Lincoln. The Lower Big Blue's Natural Resources District's Swan Lake, near Tobias, was also notified last Thursday that it was over the algae limit after previously being notified that it was under. The lake has had algae problems for much of the summer, said J. Scott Sobotka, land resources specialist of the Lower Big Blue NRD.

"We're hoping it clears up, and hopefully it's just a problem this year," Sobotka said.