“Spend as much time as possible on mountains, in small boats, or otherwise out in the weather; if you never get wet, cold, exhausted or scared, you won’t properly appreciate being dry, warm, rested and safe.” ~ Peter Jay

"I’m an adventuring river rat at heart. Put me on a floating piece of driftwood and I’m happy." ~ Christina Glauner

"There’s folly and foolhardiness on one side and daring and calculation on the other." ~ C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels

Sunday, September 20, 2009

BSR - Lake Alvin to Klondike

I took Friday off and drove down to Sioux City for a Young Dubliners show.
The show rocked. After staying the night at a motel in Vermillion, Indy (my dog) and I headed up to Sioux Falls for a Scheels fix and then to join up with the SDCA crew for a cruise on the Big Sioux River.
We met at the BSR access near Lake Alvin and paddled to the access upstream of the dam at Klondike, IA. As a note, some time in the future, the dam will be made passable with riprap, etc. Should be a lot of fun once that happens. The trip was quite enjoyable. All the participants spread out a fair bit. Indy was getting a little bored during the first half of the trip, so I let him swim/walk along the boat a couple of times. Kind of a trolling motor! He really seemed to enjoy it; plus it took a lot of energy out of him. He behaved very well for the remainder of the trip; laid nicely on the deck/skirt. Nothing else too exciting to post; we did not see much for wildlife. plenty of cattle in on spot and a few small birds. I spent a bit of time chatting with Jay Heath along the way and he should have some good pictures of Indy and me. My gps read about 8.1 miles. Some pictures below; they did not turn out the best as it is a bit difficult to deal with a dog and a camera while paddling. Should be better once I start taking Indy out in my tandem.
And my favorite picture of Indy and me from Jay's Flickr photostream...

Monday, September 14, 2009

Bad River Expedition

On Sunday, John and I paddled up the Bad River reaching further than I have ever been. Further yet than where Chuck and I made it to in June. The day was windy, but the bends and high banks of the Bad River kept most of the wind off of us. We ended up covering about 8.2 miles.
Also, I went out for a short paddle on Saturday evening. A few sunset pictures from it.