“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

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Lazy Paddles

Sunday was a beautiful day, but I was short of time due to other commitments. I managed to get out for about half an hour. Which isn't too bad since my house is only a mile from the causeway. A few pics from the day:


I also got out yesterday after work. I felt obligated to go out when the high hit 81 degrees! Again, I wasn't out very long, about 45 minutes. I did take Indy out for the first time this year though. He did OK, but he is not like Scruff was yet. Scruff was fearless in his jumping into the water while Indy is happy to lay on my spray skirt the whole time. He gets in the way whenever he tries to sit up. We need to work on him sitting further forward on the deck or dust off the tandem. A few pics:


And lastly, we came across the fabled Missouri River rock gardens... the dam wasn't releasing enough to make them at all similar to real rock gardens though!

From 2010-03-30

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Paddleswap.com

I found another site to find used gear or sell old gear: http://www.paddleswap.com/index.html Besides their own listings, they also show paddling.net classifieds and ebay listings.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

March 21 Cruise

Chuck and I met at the causeway at noon today for a paddle. It was 40 degrees with the forecasted high to be over 50. It is 58 degrees as I type up this blog. The winds were calm and the sun was shining. First we paddled over to the Bad River for a look and it was flowing decent and was very dirty.
From 2010-03-21

We then continued downstream along La Framboise Island. We noticed a few people fishing from the shore of the island. A week or two ago, an ice jam on the Bad River broke and there was plenty of debris downstream from it.

From 2010-03-21

From 2010-03-21

In the next picture, notice how low Chuck's boat is sitting in the water... more on that later.

From 2010-03-21

We continued down to the end of the island and turned around and headed back upstream since the other side is still frozen. There were a few times on the trip that either Chuck or I heard running water. On one of the occasions we discovered a "waterfall" coming down the west river bluffs.

From 2010-03-21

When we got back to the causeway, Chuck checked his stern hatch and found a fair amount of water! The gel coat repair he did last summer apparently didn't hold up.

From 2010-03-21

From 2010-03-21

I didn't take my gps along today, but from past experience I figure we did between 5 and 6 miles. I had hoped for a glimpse of the fabled La Framboise moose. Best we could muster was a bald eagle. Click on any of the pictures to go to the Picasa Web Album to see more pictures.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Canoecopia 2010

Last year, a fellow South Dakota paddler, Ryan S., went to the paddling expo in Madison, WI known as Canoecopia. He raved about it so much that I had to go with him this year to check it out myself. It was fantastic! Shiny boats, cool gear, and great presentations filled up the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. We both sat in many boats and both had favorites, Ryan liked the P & H Scorpio LV and I liked the Current Designs Storm GT. My favorite presentation was by Kevin Callan, a Canadian paddler and writer, that I consider the canoe version of Rick Moranis. He is hilarious. There was also a fitness paddling presentation from Olympian Greg Barton and a presentation of stand up paddle boarding.


I am actually currently looking into making a CD Storm GT into my own boat :) Also, Folbot is having a 15% off sale until March 22nd.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

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

Thursday, March 4, 2010

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.

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