Rockin' Split Rock

I've been seeing many Facebook posts about paddlers gaining glory on Split Rock Creek and could not sit idly by. So, I took this weekend to get out of Pierre and do some paddling and camping near Sioux Falls. A college friend of mine, Andy, recently relocated to Mitchell for a new job, so I invited him to come along. This will be his second stint paddling my Perception Carolina 14. I, obviously, brought along my Current Designs Storm GT for myself.
On Saturday, it ended up being just the two of us paddling. We launched from McHardy Park in Brandon, SD (above the rapid) and paddled Split Rock Creek to the confluence with the Big Sioux River and then on to the Highway 42 bridge. It went great and, after the rapid in the park, was a quiet cruise. We covered a little over 8 miles. After finishing the cruise, we returned to McHardy Park to get another run on the rapid. Ryan S. ended up meeting us there and offering to shoot some video of us running the rapid.

Saturday night, Andy and I met up with Roger D. and camped at the Big Sioux Recreation Area. On Sunday we would double the paddlers from Saturday. Ryan met us at the campsite and we decided to do a longer version of the cruise some paddlers have been doing on Split Rock Creek through Palisades State Recreation Area. We began at Split Rock Park in Garretson, SD and finished at 259th St. near Corson, SD. We had some quite rough water to navigate, but everyone had a blast and no one swam. We covered a little over 10 miles on the cruise.