By Mike Harris
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer
County supervisors, County Regional Parks officials and the Lake Gregory Company have taken the first step in what promises potentially to be the biggest change Lake Gregory has seen in decades.
At its June 25 meeting, supervisors unanimously approved using $300,000 in funding from California’s Division of Boating and Waterways to begin studying the feasibility of creating a new non-motorized boat launching facility at Lake Gregory, including studying how to improve the lake for kayakers, stand up paddleboarders and other non-motorized boat users.
The proposed grant funding would complete the design, permits, and establish an engineer’s estimate of construction costs to replace the lake’s primary non-motorized boat launch facility.
The improvements would include installing a public low freeboard boating float, constructing a new boater restroom, improving the entrance roadway into the facility, increasing the number of single vehicle parking stalls for cartop launching, adding at least one vehicle-trailer and one accessible vehicle-trailer parking stall, installing lighting and project signage.
Boating and Waterways Commission members completed an official visit to the Lake Gregory non-motorized boat launch facility (NMBLF) on Dec. 6, 2023, as part of the commission tour.
At Lake Gregory, the boat docks for the rental boats – such as boats visitors use to go fishing, out on the lake for touring the lake and the new Duffy boats – are based at the boat docks near the South Shore beach.
But the area where boaters can launch kayaks and paddle boards is not that great.
“It’s a planning grant from the Division of Boating and Waterways to explore what it would take to make it usable for the public, including boat launch systems and maybe a second driveway in and out. Maybe even new restrooms,” Nathan Godwin, Lake Gregory’s general manager, told the Alpine Mountaineer.
“When we spoke with Department. of Boating and Waterways about current conditions and what we want to do to help kayakers and paddleboarders, they told us to dream big, shoot for the moon, so that’s what we want to do,” Godwin added.
Lake Gregory Company, the concessionaire at the lake, is in the fourth year of its 15-year contract with the county.
For one thing, the road that leads down to the boat yard is a narrow, single lane road. The area at the base is where the public used to be able to park, but that area is now used for employee parking, he said.
The improvements to expanding kayak and paddleboard use, Godwin added, would make Lake Gregory accessible to those who enjoy those sports all year round.
“For one thing, we need to expand the road for two lanes, or add a second road,” he said. “We want to add boat launch systems for kayaks and new restrooms. The boat docks are not in terrible shape. Looking at options to do maybe one float a time, one dock at a time, to make improvements.
“We are missing a place for day use users to launch kayaks and paddleboards and do it without having to get their feet in the lake to launch,” he added.
Getting the grant to begin studying what is needed to improve conditions for non-motorized boat is just the first step in what will be a multi-year effort to make improvements happen.
“This $300,000 grant will help us see what can be done and what it would cost,” Godwin said.
No money for the study came from the county.
“I think we are looking at maybe at least $1 million and, once we know what needs to be done to improve Lake Gregory, there are other state (DBW) grants to apply for,” he added.
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