Blizzard Sale

Well, today is the annual Blizzard Sale at Wegner Auto in Pierre. I went down for my customary free hotdog and drooled over the next pickup I want. I then decided to do a little paddling, since I have not been out this February yet and the temperature was set to break 40. I was sit here typing this blog entry, I see that the high today hit 46 degrees. Not bad at all. The causeway is still a little bit frozen in, so I went over the Ft. Pierre boat ramp to launch from. Another sign of how nice it is: the ramp was plenty busy with local fisherman. I launched and paddled upstream for a little over 30 minutes, turned around came back. I was on the water for approximately one hour. A slideshow of a few pictures I took:

First Paddle of 2011

At work this morning I was keeping track of the temperature. When it appeared obvious that the high would be 40 degrees, I took the afternoon off to go paddling. After gathering my gear, I headed down to the causeway. The dock on the causeway boat ramp has been removed and chunks of ice litter the ramp and the riprap adjacent. I headed upstream using a "new to me" paddle I recently won on eBay. It is a Flyer #3 wing paddle. Essentially, a wing paddle is another paddle type mostly used for sprinting or endurance racing. More information can be found at http://www.fastkayak.com/wing.html.
I paddled a bit upstream, taking pictures along the way. After, maybe half an hour, I turned about and headed back downstream. I tried to wait for a large chunk of ice to hit a pier on the railroad bridge, but I grew impatient and continued on. I am not sure about the wing paddle yet. The website is correct in that it can add to instability, but I could feel potential when paddling correctly with it. More paddling/testing is needed :)
And on to the pictures...

First ice of the year.

The forecast for yesterday was mid 40s, so I decided to take the afternoon off for a bit of paddling. As some of you know, I have been very disappointed in winter paddling gloves. Every combination I have tried have kept my hands dry, but not warm. The last couple of years I tried the NRS Hydroskin gloves and NRS Reactor gloves. A couple of weeks ago, I tried the Hydroskin gloves with NRS glove liners and still nothing. So, yesterday I wore the Reactor gloves with the glove liners.

After loading the CD Storm GT and some gear, I proceeded to the causeway. I considered going around La Framboise Island, but it was a bit windy, so I launched from  the gravel area near the American Legion cabin and headed towards Dump Island (between La Framboise and Pierre).

On my way down, the gloves performed very well. When I was about 200-300 feet from Dump Island, I noticed the water around the island looked a bit odd ...and shiny. Thankfully I did not go around La Framboise, because the river between Pierre and La Framboise has began to freeze. As I tried to capture some decent pictures of the ice, the wind pushed me into the "ice field". I had to claw my way out with both my hands and my paddle. My hands did get cold on my way back to the Legion, but the Reactor gloves with the glove liners has been the best option for winter gloves thus far. The high in Pierre hit 51 degrees according to NOAA.

From 2010-12-09

From 2010-12-09

From 2010-12-09

From 2010-12-09

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

January Paddle

I took a couple of hours of annual leave to go paddling with John Adler today. The high today was 40 degrees; the wind was calm. It had been two months since either of us had paddled thanks to a bitter December. John's every month streak ended at 3o months and I missed the second straight December. I managed to leave my gps in my pickup but John had his and said we covered about 2.5 miles. I also came to the conclusion that neoprene is great... I stayed plenty warm on the water.

Second March Paddle

The weather gods sure have been fickle lately. The forecast for Friday was mid 40s but John and I were lucky to have 30 degrees. This weekend was forecast to be much colder and snowing, but today was sunny and the high was 53 according to NOAA. John and I met at the causeway at 2:30 PM and began to paddle down stream along La Framboise Island. On the return trip we came across Chuck, who couldn't make it at 2:30 PM. We then all headed back to the causeway. John and I had about 4.5 miles and Chuck was close to 1.5 miles. Some pictures below.

 Boarding Party:

March

Well, I wanted to get out paddling on Wednesday when the temperature broke 50 degrees and the wind was miniscule, but neither John nor Chuck were game. I couldn't make it out on Thursday due to a seminar at work. But as of Thursday, today was supposed to reach the mid 40s, so John and I planned to take time off to go paddling. As the morning progressed and the temperature held around 32 degrees I was getting worried. But John and I, being the hardy South Dakotan's that we are, chose to go out anyway. Besides, this weekend is only going to be worse weatherwise. We met at 2:30 at the causeway and as we prepared to launch, John checked the temperature and it had DROPPED 2 DEGREES.! I think the temperature was 29 - 30 degrees while we were on the water. But John got his 24th straight month in and we both experienced something new... ice forming on our paddles, paddle leashes, and other gear! We ended up paddling for about an 1 hour, 20 minutes and covered about 3.5 miles. Some pictures below.

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:

 

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:

Winter Paddling

Just a quick post to make the eastern SD readers of my blog jealous. The Pierre Kayak Club got on the water this afternoon. I am not sure how far we went but we spent about an hour on the water.  I can't find any confirmation of it, but the temperature was in the mid to low 30s. The weather sites had said a high of 36-38, but NOAA claims we never hit 30. Oh well.
A few pics: