30 September 2007

Split Rock Creek Cruise

Well, this weekend was my debut at a SDCA cruise. We met at McHardy Park in Brandon, SD to embark on the cruise. Also, I had a friend join me for the trip.


upstream from the put-in

A fellow kayaker prepping for the cruise.
We were warned that the beginning of the cruise would be shallow, but we had lots of problems with having to portage. The two of us weighing nearly 400 lbs didn't help us either. We noticed that passage was possiblewith only one of us in the boat. But after about 1/3 of the trip was complete the water depth began to increase easing our paddling. Thanks to frustrations of portaging, I didn't take near the pictures I had planned on :(

Goat!

My friend, THE BOATSWAIN, at the take-out
Even with the frustrations, we had a great time on the cruise. Afterwards, we tried to hit the Sioux Falls night life, but the three downtown bars we checked were either closed or slow! But we were exhausted so we headed back to the motel.

2 comments:

Arnold said...

Portagers Unite! If someone who didn't know what kayaking was was watching us the first part of the journey, they would have thought kayaking involved two guys hefting a boat above their heads and trying to run knee-deep down the river.

The last third of the trip was soooo much better, we got to the head of the pack once there was actually depth to the water. But the portaging you have to admit, made us into some tough badasses. Don't forget the ocean kayaker we rescued from having to portage herself about five times.

Patrick Wellner said...

yeah, we were her knights in soaking wet kayaking attire ;)