March Paddle

I very rarely, if ever, have a regrettable paddle. I am not sure if today's paddle was regrettable but it was close. Just before noon, I went for a run with my dog and it was nice enough to wear shorts. The temperature was right at 40 degrees (F), which happens to by my paddling threshold. I loaded my boat in anticipation of going to the causeway at 1:30. After I loaded the boat, the sun, which had been peeking through clouds all morning, disappeared behind more clouds. I decided to continue with my plans. Once out on the water, the wind also picked up, getting into the teens (mph). For the most part I stayed plenty warm between my WaveLite liner, wetsuit, and splash gear. On the other hand even with my new gloves, my fingers were getting very cold. Thus, I only stayed out for about thirty minutes and covered just 1.5 miles.

From 2010-03-07

From 2010-03-07

From 2010-03-07

Pierre Paddlers

Any locals to the Pierre - Ft Pierre, SD area that happen to paddle kayaks, canoes, or whatever, please join the email group I set up through Google. John Adler has moved (though still trying to sell his house) to Hot Springs, SD to run a KOA campground. Instead of taking over his Kayak Club Yahoo group, I decided to create my own because I prefer Google and I liked the idea of including all paddle sports in the name. The idea is to share when and where you play to go paddling so other members can join you if they want.

Subscribe to Pierre Paddlers

Email:

Visit this group

Tshirts

Someone asked about my Pirates of the Missouri Tshirt at the recent South Dakota Canoe and Kayak Association winter conference. Well, there is a link to the right for a Printfection Store. That is where I set up an online store with shirts with the POTM logo.

http://www.printfection.com/piratesofthemissouri

January Paddle

I took a couple of hours of annual leave to go paddling with John Adler today. The high today was 40 degrees; the wind was calm. It had been two months since either of us had paddled thanks to a bitter December. John's every month streak ended at 3o months and I missed the second straight December. I managed to leave my gps in my pickup but John had his and said we covered about 2.5 miles. I also came to the conclusion that neoprene is great... I stayed plenty warm on the water.

Beautiful November Day

Well, Friday was such a beautiful day that I took the afternoon off to go paddling. I just did my routine trip around La Framboise Island. The wind was calm and the temperature was in the mid 70s F. I covered the 5.75 miles in an hour and a half, averaging just under 4 mile per hour. Some pictures from the cruise:The water was very low.

Farm Island in November

In part due to the wetter than normal weather in October, I only got on the water once during the month. This weekend was beautiful, so John and I decided to get our November paddle in yesterday (Sunday). Even Chuck was able to join us!

We put in at the main Farm Island boat ramp and continued down and into Farm Island.

We covered 4.8 miles and finished in time for me to get back into town to catch my Panthers game and the Vikes/Packers game :)

Off Topic - Backpacking to Deer Haven

I spent this past weekend backpacking with boy scouts in the Badlands. As many of you already know, I volunteer with my old boy scout troop. Another adult and I took three scouts backpacking in the Badlands. We found a route on the Backpacker magazine website. It began from the Conata picnic area and went up to spot called Deer Haven. Pretty much a group of trees and grass accessible only by scrambling up one of the crumbling dirt formations common to the Badlands. The route is actually a 22 mile loop that I would like to complete next summer either with the scouts or on my own. Having limited time, we just went up to Deer Haven over the weekend.

We arrived Friday evening, packed about 3/4 of a mile in and setup camp. On Saturday morning, we packed up again and headed to Deer Haven. We did have a few miscues on the way. The first was when I was paying more attention to the location of Deer Haven than the route (on my gps). We ended up adding about a mile paralleling the route but on the wrong side of a formation. The second miscue was my gps refusing to give a direction; this was resolved when my gps lost signal and immediately gt it back. Once we made it to the top, we took some to rest. The original plan was to camp at Deer Haven, but we wanted a shorter hike in the morning so we could get back to Pierre sooner so we planned to hike back down. Once we were off deer haven and a half mile away, I noticed that the tent on my pack was missing! So, one of the scouts and I hiked back (without packs) to retrieve the tent. Luckily, we did find it.