“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, November 18, 2012

Breaking In A New Boat

Last weekend, while Matt, Cory, and I were hiking and camping in a blizzard, Roger Debates was up in the twin cities getting a new boat from Midwest Mountaineering. He ended up with a CD Storm GT. Well, this past week he decided he needed to break it in on the Missouri River. He found a spot on aerial photos that we could put in at just upstream of Chamberlain and the plan was to take out at the Dude Ranch access downstream of Oacoma, The trip would be about 10 miles. Obviously, Matt and I were up for helping Roger break in the new boat.

Saturday was beautiful. 60+ degrees and light wind. We met in Oacoma and BSed a little while waiting to see if anyone took us up on the invite we left on the SDCKA Facebook page. Roger's boat was still pristine despite having been paddled nearly a mile on an east river lake. We then headed to the Dude Ranch to drop off my pickup.

First, we went upstream from Chamberlain to look for a put in. We easily found the spot Roger had picked out off of Google Maps. But, the water was low, creating a mud flat we would have to cross. Next, we went upstream from Oacoma looking for better access. We found one spot, where we had seen people fishing at on our cruise to Chamberlain. But, it also had a mud flat between us and the river. We scouted it a little and after getting a bit muddy and Roger losing a shoe (I was able to dig it out for him) we decided to just put in at the Cedar Shores boat ramp. Luckily, this was the most adventurous event of the day.

We launched from Cedar Shores and made our way downstream. It was a perfect day to be on the water. We stopped near the railroad bridge to strip off some of our unnecessary layers. As we approached the Dude Ranch, there were numerous geese that would get spooked and fly up, but only land a little ways ahead. This probably happened at least 3 or 4 times.
Best pic of the day.
My truck looks good with TWO storms above it.
Making good use of my bed/truck extender.
We ended up covering 6.5 miles and succeeded in breaking in Roger's boat. He ended up with a few new scratches and plenty of mud on the boat!

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1 comment:

  1. Patrick WellnerNovember 20, 2012 at 6:04 AM

    I forgot to mention above, but when we were driving the back roads upstream of Oacoma, I couldn't help but think of the beginning of the movie, Deliverance, when the main characters were doing the same. I was concerned for Roger, to say the least.

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