Weekend Adventures

On Saturday, I joined Jarrett and Jay to paddle the Big Sioux River near Flandreau, SD. My friend, Arne Lund, also joined us from Lincoln, NE. I got my new boat on Friday, so Arne was soloing the tandem.

The put-in was quite muddy.

The wind was fierce at times, requiring strong paddling.

Arne practiced the proper, "going over the dam" technique just in case ;)

Seriously, paddlers and other boaters need to be aware of low head dams.

The paddle ended up being about 10miles long; the course can be seen below.

Saturday was a great paddle, despite the wind and a bit of rain. A good time was had by all. On Saturday night, Arne and I camped at the Big Sioux Rec. Area. The campground was very nice; we are considering the same for the Split Rock cruise this fall.

On Sunday (today), we took Jay's advice and paddled Split Rock Creek at Split Rock Park in Garreston, SD.

We paddled about 2.5 miles on Split Rock creek.

The next big Olympic sport... kayak limbo!

More pictures can be seen in the below slideshow.

Oahe Days Weekend

The first time I tried to post this I managed to lose all the text, so I will quickly try this again.

I went paddling during Oahe Days here in Pierre last weekend and saw this float plane.

I also managed to do a short hour paddle with a member of the Pierre Kayak Club and a couple of guys he was taking out with him.And then last Sunday, I went out paddling with my mom and Scruff spent part of the time riding in my parents kayak.Maybe I should take up poling in my tandem?!

a deer and not much else

Took a short paddle between the causeway and dump island last night. It was uneventful except for a deer coming down to the river for a drink (on La Framboise Island).

Happy 125th Bday Pierre

This week marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of Pierre. There were fireworks scheduled for after dark, but before the sun completely set I managed to get out on the water and capture this picture.

A few pictures of the fireworks display:

The Bad River 14 Days Later

Before I get to the Bad River, here is a picture I took of a guy out in his inflatable kayak on Sunday.On Monday, a friend and I checked out the mouth of the Bad River. And what a difference from last week! The river was calm.

But there was evidence of the high flows last week. Like the debris caught on the bent/column of this railroad bridge.

Upstream

Yesterday I went kayaking with a newbie/friend who first went out in his new boat with the Pierre Kayak Club in May. We just put in at the causeway and paddled upstream a ways.

On our way upstream, we took a couple of detours. The "A" marks a canal system in the Marion Gardens development. A new canal system for a future development was just put in to the north of it. With a high of 80 degrees, the river was busy with personal watercraft, fisherman, tubers, and just people lazing on their pontoon boats.

We admired some of the expensive houses along the river; this one has always been one of my favorites.

Another site I like is this Tiki bar on someone's private dock. Though it's never open ;)
Also, in all of m Missouri River paddling, yesterday is the first time I passed underneath the railroad bridge while a train went by overhead. I was proud of Scruff, the sound didn't seem to scare him.

Ended up paddling just over 7 miles yesterday. But that wasn't all. I completed my trifecta. I ran in the morning (~4 miles) and I took my mountain bike onto La Frambiose Island for a couple of loops. I didn't have my gps along but I did about 7.5 miles on the Island plus the ride to the Island and back home, which totaled at least 5 miles.

A sad day in our sport...

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,70476

I don't have any other details, but it goes to show, much like Jarret's recent post, that we need to be careful when rivers are near flood stage. Like my previous post said, myself and another kayaker considered the Bad River on Friday evening until we saw it with our own eyes. We abandoned the idea because of the high flows and high turbidity coming into the Missouri.

Catchup

A quick catch up on myself since this blog has been quiet as of late. I spent a week in New York state to attend a friend's wedding and then visit NYC (when in Rome... er NY!). Sorry, I wasn't able to do any kayaking while there... oh well.

I have hit water the past three days though. On Friday, myself and one other member of the Pierre Kayak Club decided to see how far up the Bad River we could make it (after all the rain). We abandoned the plan after seeing that the river was still running extremely high and fast. Instead we dinked about in the Missouri.

I spent Saturday scouting out a put-in/take-out at twin bridges, where medicine creek empties into the Missouri River. I didn't feel like putting in off of riprap, so I paddled near Farm Island and saw a couple out in a paddle boat.

Sunday was another dinking around day. I paddled along the Pierre side of La Framboise Island and saw couple of people paddling a canoe.

Also, I found out my new boat should be in by the end of July. The cost of getting what I want... down to the color, I suppose. I figured about that long anyway.

The pictures: