“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, February 8, 2009

Two

Wow, I went paddling once during the first month of the new year. Today I made it twice for February! Hopefully I do better than this later this summer :)

Well, today I went paddling with Chuck since he missed out on Thursday. Nothing much to report. The officicial high was 50 degrees (NOAA) and the wind was 18 mph. Almost too windy for a winter paddle, but it wasn't too bad on the water. Only occasional white caps (not continuous). 

We didn't do much. We put in from the Ft Pierre boat ramp and paddled down to the Bad River, then crossed over to La Framboise Island and paddled up towards the highway bridge, bacl over to the Ft Pierre side and downstream to the ramp. We were on the water close to an hour.

A few pictures from the outing:

 

Thursday, February 5, 2009

February Paddlin' Hooky

The forecast for today was close to 50 degrees and calm, so John Adler and I took annual leave to go out paddling. It was a gorgeous day to be on the river. The high hit 54 around 3pm according to NOAA. John measured the water temp as being 34-35 degrees. We took off from the causeway and headed downstream along La Framboise Island breaking small chunks of ice along the way. The small channel running between the island proper and a sand bar was, obviously, iced in... as well as the Pierre side of the island. After reaching the end of the island we turn about and headed back. We spent nearly 3 hours on the water and traversed roughly 6.8 miles (my gps read 6.7 and John's read 6.9). In all, it was a great day for paddling!

From 2009_02_05



John's pictures: