“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

Monday, August 29, 2011

Paddling Forgotten Waters

The governor lifted the boating ban on the Missouri River near Pierre today. Obviously, I had to get on the water... water that I have not paddled since May. I parked on a side street near the American Legion cabin and carried my boat through a hole punched through the levee for storm water drainage.

I paddled downstream along the Pierre shoreline to the end of La Framboise Island and then back upstream to the causeway. The only major damage through this area was to the causeway, which was significant (see videos). I ended up covering 6.2 miles.





Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Into Farm Island...

I won't go into great detail, but over the past week I have managed to paddle in and about Farm Island on a few occasions. The fingers/inlets into the island I have always enjoyed exploring are even more interesting when I can travel further up them and jump between them by paddling through tall grasses. I have also paddled through the main campground area a couple of times. Also, near the causeway, there is a small inlet that is now much larger. When exploring it, you now can hear water rushing over the causeway somewhere among the trees and you have to constantly fight the a strong current to keep from being pushed into trees/strainers. I am still far from done exploring the area; hopefully I will have more to share later this week.





View Farm Island August 2, 2011 in a larger map

From 2011-07-30

From 2011-07-30

From 2011-07-30