Safety Boating for Triathlon and Legacy Park to Downtown Greenway

Yesterday morning I met up with other members of the South Dakota Canoe and Kayak Association to provide safety boats for the swim portion of the Wall Lake Triathlon. The triathletes were impressive. Nobody dropped from the race and only a handful needed to momentarily hang onto a kayak to catch their breath..

After the race, Willard Story, Cory Dietrich, Kati Albers, Roger Debates, and I went to Legacy Park to unload boats for a trial run of the upcoming Race To The Falls on August 25th. More information about the race should be available on July 2nd. While we shuttled vehicles, John and Jenn Geyer also joined the group.
Skunk Creek was at 4.6+ on the USGS gage and Cory told me that it is good above 4.5. Without rain, it could get pretty dicey by the end of August. The BSR was definitely low in places yesterday, but Cory told me that the city plans on releasing some water from the diversion dam to help with the race. I think the BSR will be alright and I am already thinking of race strategies. For instance, I may start with my Seven 2 paddle on Skunk Creek where the rocks and shallow water could be more prevalent and switch to the wing when I get to the BSR. Now back to yesterday's trip.
John and Jenn exited the river at the 26th St access, near their home. I foresee a new boat in their future, since Jenn struggles to keep up in her current boat. She did great in John's boat at the Niobrara, so who gets the new boat might be a tossup.
We continued on passing paddlers that were part of a group sponsored by a local bar. Some of them might as well have been using inner tubes instead of kayaks for all the paddling they were doing though.
It was a cool sight to pass from a wooded park area into downtown Sioux Falls on the river. I hope the river greenway area downtown gets lots of use, so the city continues to value the BSR, greenway, etc as the great assets that they are.

We ended up covering 11.7 miles. Map below.

Paddling With The Diedrich's

About a week ago I received an email from Cory Diedrich, inviting me to join him, his family, and his sister on a cruise on the Niobrara River for today. I was leaning heavily towards joining them until Saturday. I let Cory know that I should probably stay in Pierre for a combination of reasons that included the wind forecast for Valentine having 30+ mph gusts. The wind forecast was enough to dampen the Diedrich clan's plans. They decided to join me for a paddle in Pierre.

We decided to depart from the Oahe Marina just below the dam and end at Griffin Park in Pierre. I met them at Griffin Park, where we loaded my boat and gear into their van and trailer. We left my pickup and Cory's sister's (Dee's) pickup at Griffin Park and drove up to Oahe Marina.

We took a leisurely pace to enjoy the day on our way downstream. The high temp was in the mid 90s and the wind was from the southeast in the mid teens with 20 mph gusts, relatively calm for my trips. We made a few stops at sandbars along the way and noticed many buffalo/bison bones and teeth in the water just downstream of the stilling basin. When we reached the causeway boat ramp, we helped Cory's wife, Janey, and his sons, Sam and Aiden, over the causeway as a shorter option to our trip. Cory, Dee, and I continued on around the La Framboise island and back up to Griffin Park. Our total mileage was 11.3 miles.

2012 South Dakota Kayak Challenge

Yesterday, I participated in the 2012 South Dakota Kayak Challenge. After being cancelled due to flooding last year, the race rebounded mightily thanks to the efforts of Jarett Bies, Steven Dahlmeirer, and Cory Dietrich. When I checked the registration numbers on the last day for registration, we had 169 paddlers and 147 boats. Final registered totals were around there; I haven't seen an official tally.

Camping at Riverside Park.

We met at Riverside Park in Yankton, SD on Friday to check in and shuttle vehicles to Sioux City, IA. After riding a bus back, we had a safety meeting to go over the race, procedures, etc. This rounded out with drawings for free swag from Sun N' Fun. We also had a free supper provided by Meierhenry & Sargent L.L.P. Again, many thanks to the many sponsors and volunteers of the South Dakota Kayak Challenge.

Many paddlers, myself included, camped in Riverside Park on Friday night. We did have a thunderstorm come through, but it was well past by race time. A change from the 2010 race was a check in process at the starting line of the river to verify everyone had required equipment.

Our tents just came down as we prepare for the race on Saturday morning.

The weather at the start was winds from 14 mph to 21 mph and temperatures in the mid 50s. By the end of the race, we had winds from 18 mph to 24 mph and temperatures in the upper 80s. In 2010, we faced winds from the 20s mph to the low 30s mph. The start was much cooler this year than compared to 2010; also, overcast. Most paddlers were donning splash jackets to start the race.

Lining up...

Second row of racers... (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)

Roger Debates, Matt Story, and myself lined ourselves up in the second row of racers. As the countdown to the start began, we began to creep our boats down to the water. We were able to do this, because the first row of racers were creeping out into the water. The only rule being that a portion of your boat has to be touching land.

IMPRESSIVE!  (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)   

And, we're off!   (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)

As the starting volley was fired, the first row of racers surged out. Roger, Matt, and I (and other second row racers) slid our boats into the water. Matt and Roger took off without immediately securing their skirts. I was a bit behind, because I first secured my skirt. But, I quickly made up for it by passing them on my way through the mass of paddlers crossing to the south side of the river. Matt, like Ryan Snuggerud in 2010, said I flew past. He had planned on trying to stick with me, but held off of my initial pace. He would not fall too far back though.

Gloomy morning.

I cruised through check points 1, 3, and 4; shouting out my number and receiving cheers as I continued onward. Along Goat Island, between checkpoints 1 and 2, my left thigh developed a nasty cramp/charlie horse. I stopped at checkpoint 2 to stretch, eat a Clif bar, relieve myself, down some Gatorade, and change out the batteries in my GPS. Matt was coming in as I was leaving. From his dad, Willard Story, it sounds like he was 5 minutes behind me at check point 1 and, maybe, 10 minutes behind me at check point 2. It sounded like Roger was about the same time behind Matt.

Roger Debates (left)   (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath) 

As you can guess from the previous paragraphs, I chose to paddle more solo this year compared to 2010. I did paddle briefly with a few other folks along the way. But, my goal was to minimize getting out of my boat this year. The only time I got out of the boat was at check point 2. Though, I nearly got out at check point 4 to use the facilities. I decided against it and pushed the last 16 miles to the finish.

 (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)

 (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)

Justin Herreman and Paulette Kirby  (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath) 

SUP  (Picture courtesy of Jay Heath)

I am not sure exactly where I finished yet. I'll post it when the official results are online. I think I was 5th or 8th in the Men's Solo Adventure Division. I finished at 6:58 PM; 11 hours, 58 minutes after starting. My GPS recorded 69.4 miles. It is always a good thing when your actual mileage is less than the river mileage; it means that you did a good job cutting the river bends and, in general, reading the river. The only mistake I feel I made was following a couple of boats on the north side of the river near the Clay County Rec. Area. In hindsight, I think the south side would have been the correct choice. Oh well, I still shaved off 1 hour, 55 minutes from my 2010 time. Probably a combination of less wind, better shape/conditioning, cruising through the check points, and a wing paddle versus a euro paddle.

Unofficial Team Flyer!

I've got plenty to think about this summer now. This coming week is mostly going to be consumed in recovering and tapering for the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon on this coming Sunday. But, I think I will try to do some more long kayaking trips this summer. I am very tempted to register for the MR340 in 2013. The two women in the competitive division are 340 veterans and both said that, with the wind, the SDKC was tougher. Apparently, the prevailing wind in Missouri is not a headwind and the wind velocities are not too terrible either (typically).

Some of the pictures are courtesy of Jay Heath, http://southdakotakayak.blogspot.com/

2012 Niobrara River Trip

This past weekend I participated in the 3rd Annual South Dakota Canoe and Kayak Association Niobrara River Trip; this was my second year to participate. The trip is organized by Cory Diedrich. As last week came to an end, it looked like we would have rain for the trip to Valentine, NE/Smith Falls State Park and Friday night, but Saturday/Sunday was looking like low chances of rain with high temperatures in the 50s/60s; low temperatures in the 40s. The wind was forecast was for teens on Saturday and single digits on Sunday.

Road leading out of Smith Falls State Park. This is a huge improvement over Friday afternoon/evening. (Picture courtesy of Cory Diedrich.)

Exciting news! On my way down, the salesman from Wegner Auto called to let me know that my new pickup showed up on the lot. It was all I could do not to turn around! When I turned down the "gravel" road to Smith Falls, I was relieved that the powers that be had left it in similar condition as it was for last year's trip. Actually, a couple of the hills did seem to have been regraded/compacted. But, it was sloppy.

It was still raining when I arrived at the campsite, but Cory had a plan! He had brought along a small dining fly that he had setup his tent underneath; we moved the fly over and I did the same. We BSed a bit as we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. The flotilla would consist of just kayaks, paddled by Cory Diedrich, Sam Diedrich, Roger Debates, Tom Coughlin, Steve Joseph, Kati Albers, Jen Geyer, Willard Story, Matt Story, and me. The rain had stopped and started a couple of times while people were arriving. By the time everyone's tents were up, the rain had ceased for the night.

On Saturday morning, we got up and loaded Cory and Sam's boats onto Roger's trailer. We headed into Valentine for breakfast at a local cafe; Cory and Sam rode with me. After breakfast, we headed to Cornell Bridge to begin the cruise. Luckily, we had no surprises launching this year.

Launching. (L to R: Matt Story, Sam Diedrich, Kati Albers, Willard Story)

Willard Story.

Cory Diedrich.

Some canoeists launching for the fun day at Smith Falls State Park.

We arrived back at Smith Falls State Park by early/mid afternoon. We covered 11.4 miles by my gps, but I paddled upstream earlier to check on Steve when he had trouble around a strainer; He spilled out of the boat, but we were in a shallow side channel. Matt was at the scene to assist him and everything turned out fine.

As we took it easy for the afternoon/evening, we met the newest member of the National Park Service working the Niobrara National Wild and Scenic River. I don't recall his name, but he is an avid whitewater canoeist. We also found out that he enjoyed surfing/playing in a wave at the rapid at Rock Ford. Cory got his card and I think we plan on getting him involved with SDCKA and/or Black Hills Paddlers. For supper, Cory whipped up some delicious cajun chicken tortellini. It was excellent.

We got up on Sunday, tore down camp, and had a little breakfast. I made a pot of coffee (both days actually) and we used up the eggs I brought. I wanted to get them all used because the carton was soaked from melting ice in my cooler and I wasn't sure if it would hold up on the way home. We combined the eggs with some bagels that Cory had brought.

After shuttling the vehicles down to Rocky Ford with Cory's pickup, we began the second day's cruise. Fyi, it has been sprinkling off and on since breakfast. The Sunday half of the cruise is a little choppier/rougher and we were joking about the recent American Express commercial as we paddled through the ripples.

During the past week, I had decided that I was going to run the Fritz's Island rapid/drop when we came to it. Most people take a channel on the left side of the island and avoid the drop; last year, Matt ran it, but I was nervous about the length of my boat catching. Then I took my boat through the Palisades last summer...

The run was easy; Roger, Matt, Tom, and I ran dropped it (everyone else went around). Roger went just to the right of center, Matt took it at the center, and I was just to the left of center. I did not see where Tom dropped it, but we all had clean runs.

Here is what the NPS website has to say about Fritz's Island rapid: Fritz's Island Rapid or Fritz's Ledge is usually runable above 900 cfs, with a straight, 2' drop over ledge and a powerful current. And from the Nebraska Game and Parks: One mile farther is Fritz Island. Go left around the island. Going to the right will take you over a rock ledge where it is easy to capsize. Fyi, the flow was around 1100 cfs for us.

Fritz's Island Rapid in August 2008 at around 600 cfs. (Picture courtesy of American Whitewater)

Fritz's Island Rapid (Picture courtesy of NPS)

Immediately after the drop, we took a break at Stair Step Falls. We had some fun with group pictures and joking about the recent American Express commercial.

Tom Coughlin "going through the rapids".

Roger Debates "going through the rapids".

L to R: Sam Diedrich, Matt Story, Tom Coughlin, Jenn Geyer, Roger Debates, Kati Albers, Pat Wellner, Steve Joseph, and Willard Story. (Picture courtesy of Cory Diedrich.)

We continued on. The next obstacle was Fritz's Chute (aka Fritz's Narrows). We did have a little trouble here. Somehow Kati's boat got turned in the rapid and took a wave broadside and was flipped. Cory and Roger were on the scene quickly. Around the bend following the rapid was a shallow spot where Kati was able to get herself and her boat out of the river. Roger also got out and helped pump the water out of the boat. Everything was good. Kati was still in good spirits afterwards. Maybe a little embarrassed at worst?

Fritz's Chute/Narrows rapid at ~600 cfs. The river was at 1100 cfs for us. (Picture courtesy of American Whitewater.)

We continued on finishing the cruise. My gps read 11.2 miles for the day.Again, that includes a little bit of upstream paddling. After finishing and before loading our gear/boats, Matt and I wandered over and looked over the Rocky Ford Rapids for a bit. This is a class III rapid. We watched and discussed it. I think we have a very good idea where to hit it. There is a nice chute on right side of it. If we get a hold of a whitewater boat(s) and an experienced whitewater paddler, we might just have to try this sometime...

Rocky Ford at ~600 cfs. (Picture couretesy of American Whitewater.)

Cory led another great trip done a fun river this year. Here's hoping we get some more folks to join us next year!

Fort George Rec. Area to West Bend Rec. Area

After tackling the Oahe Dam to Fort George Recreation Area section of the Missouri River in October, Roger Debates, Matt Story, and I have discussed doing more sections. This weekend marked our next leg of the river. We planned on meeting at the West Bend Recreation Area on Friday night, paddling from the Fort George Recreation Area down to West Bend on Saturday, camping again at West Bend on Saturday night, and paddling to the North Shore Recreation Area near the Big Bend Dam on Sunday.

When I left Pierre on Friday afternoon to meet Roger and Matt at West Bend, the forecast was for wind in the teens to 20 mph. The forecast for Sunday made the second leg of the weekend look iffy, but we figured to decide on that on Sunday morning.

The little bit of wind on Friday died down for the night and the sky was clear. We woke up this scene on Saturday morning:

After loading our gear and boats on my pickup, we headed for Fort George. The scene as we prepared to launch was awesome; glassy water!

We departed Ft George a little after 8 AM. Thanks to the calm conditions the paddling was easy; though a little slow due to very little current.

Throughout the trip, we had to be aware of numerous stumps and trees in the river. I was a little surprised that last summer's flooding didn't wash them away.

From mile 20 to 25, the wind began to pick up and clouds filled the sky. After 25 miles or so, it truly became nasty. Looking at NOAA's history, it seems we were facing 22 mph wind with 35 mph gusts which grew to 28 mph wind with 39 mph gusts by the time we finished. The worst part was that we were facing a headwind as we pushed to get around a bend that would signal the homestretch to West Bend. The wind sweeping up the mile+ wide river was creating large waves. We also began to get sporadic sprinkles and rain, which became a torrential downpour by the end.

As we pushed around the bend, we got some help from the wind, but down the homestretch we received the wind from the side. The waves were trying to push us into shore. This side wave action gave all three of us some close calls, but, thankfully, no swimmers.

The homestretch is about a 4-6 mile section, depending on where/how you measure. Early into it, while battling the waves/wind and downpour, we began to hear thunder and see lightening. The trouble was finding a suitable place to get off the water. We took the time to pull out lights, since it was getting dark and fiddled with our GPSs. It appeared we just had 3-4 miles at that point. Since we hadn't heard any thunder or saw any lightening since pulling ashore, we decided to push for West Bend and keep near the shore.
Even with headlamps, we had difficulty seeing our way through the downpour, so we paddled a little further out to avoid downed trees along the shoreline. We were continuing to battle waves crashing into our sides; trying to shove use into the shore.

Around 9:30 PM, we finally approached a light that turned out to be a cabin near our campsite. As we beached the kayaks and hopped out, a wave came crashing in and swamped both Roger's and my boats. We quickly lifted the boats from the beach to the grassy ledge before another wave crashed in. We carried the boats back to our campsite and secured everything. We then dove into our tents to change into dry clothes and climb into our sleeping bags. My GPS recorded that we had covered 36.5 miles on the day.




View 4-14-2012 in a larger map

Despite the calm conditions for the first half of the trip, I maintain that the lack of current, headwind/sidewind, larger waves, and downpour made this trip more difficult than the 2010 South Dakota Kayak Challenge. The three of us are now ready for the 2012 South Dakota Kayak Challenge!

As can be guessed, we chose not to paddle on Sunday. We woke up to more rain and 37 mph wind with 51 mph gusts. This is what the river looked like this morning:

The quote below my blog's title is quite fitting for this weekend: “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.”