All,
The Horsetooth Hole at Inlet Bay shouldn't be much.
The post to Coloradokayaking.com was made in August of 2003--back when we had the reservoir drawn down for a rebuild of its four impounding dams. During that time, the elevation of the reservoir was dropped about 70 vertical feet.
Today, the reservoir is at an elevation of about 5328 feet--at least 40 or so vertical feet higher than the reservoir would have been back in 8/03. Also, we are only running about 18 cfs into the reservoir, today. The summer season is over, so for the rest of this month and probably part of November, water will be going out of Horsetooth and not much will be coming in.
Through the winter, the water level will stabilize. Water levels will start going up again (depending on weather conditions) in the spring, typically in April, with the high water mark the beginning of May.
As for the Poudre--it's up through north Ft. Collins most likely because of the releases from Horsetooth to irrigators and other water users. We are releasing about 560 cfs from the reservoir right now. I don't know how much longer the releases will be at that rate, but no more than two weeks, is my guess.
If you'd like more information on Horsetooth Reservoir and how and why it is operated this way, just give me a holler (970) 962-4326 or e-mail me.
I'm also kind of curious to know if the hole/wave in Inlet Bay is any good now that the reservoir is back to normal operations. If you all would let me know come spring, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!
--Kara