2 Seconds

This past week flew by.  I honestly felt like I blinked and it was the weekend again.  I was barely ready for it.  I have been so busy trying to stay afloat at work, have a relationship, workout, study for the CPA exam, and still have friends that I hardly have 2 seconds to take a breath during the day.  I am in constant "go" mode from the time I wake up at 5:30 til I hit the sack at midnight.  Anyway I guess that is what these trips are supposed to be for.  Help life slow down for 2 seconds.

9:00 am

Boe picked me up and we head out in his dad's pickup to meet our friend Tyler at the bridge on highway 42 (entry point #3).  We were going to go south for 8 miles and get out at grand view county road (entry point #5) .  We couldn't go on a really long route today because we needed to be back in town around 2:00 pm so that Boe could make it to work on time.  We ran almost got stuck when we dropped off our kayaks and canoe because the area was so muddy at grand view county road.  Last weekend when we saw it the water had completely covered the area where you can normally get.  It was kinda nuts to see how far the water had gone done in just a week.  We had to ride 3 deep in Boe's tiny truck back.  It was not comfortable at all but we made it back and set right out on our journey.

10:30 am

It felt great to be back out on the water again.  The 3 of us were in a great mood.  Boe and I were messing around in our kayaks and Tyler looked at home in his canoe.  He was the one that turned me onto the Big Sioux.  

Tyler and I saw a side route that we wanted to check out so we broke off from the river.  We told Boe to follow us but he couldn't fight the current back upstream to where we were going.  The water moving fast again.  Once we reached the dead end we made our way back.  Tyler spotted a huge snapping turtle and we waited for a few minutes to see if it was going to come back up but we didn't get a chance to see it again.  As we were going back to the main river I yelled "BOE!!! I AM COMING FOR YOU!!!" at the top of my lungs.  We found him about 80 yards down the river hanging out waiting for us.  He had heard my battle cry.

About 20 minutes later we had the highlight of the trip.  Tyler spotted a Eagle in a tree on the right bank.  It took me forever to find where it was in the tree and as soon as I did it took off.  It was way bigger then the one that Boe and I saw last weekend.  It flew to a tree about 50 yards away so we quietly approached it again.  We got to within about 15 yards and it took off again.  It was really cool to watch.  Definitely made my day.

Later down the river we decided to paddle up blood run creek.  All it turned out to be was a heck of a workout.  The current was working against us but we were determined to try to get to the start of it.  That didn't happen.  A combination of getting worn out and the fact that Tyler's canoe was starting be a bit of squeeze caused I us to turn back.  So far the only side route that we have not made it all the way to a dead end.  Something to try and do next time we are on this route.

Other than it being a great day out on the water nothing else too exciting happened.  There were a lot of cool cliffs on this route that I wish I had my camera for but I will be back soon I am sure.  Also found some clam shells on a sand bar that were interesting so I grabbed two of them as a souvenir.  We made the 8 miles in 3 hours.  Pretty good time considering the two back routes we explored.  Overall a great day again.  Hoping that I can go back out again tomorrow before I hit the books