A Full Afternoon

Boe and I before we cast off

12:15 pm
Boe picked me up at my house and we loaded both of out kayaks up into the back of his pickup.  Today we were going to get in at Lien Park and paddle to the Big Sioux Recreation area which is an 11.2 mile route.  When we got to the park the park ranger told us that the boat ramp was closed due to the flooding and that you could not even get under neath the bridge at this time because the water was so high.  We told her that wouldn't be a problem because we had been planning the whole time to get out before the bridge.  So we parked the car and headed back to Lien Park.

1:30 pm
It was another great day to be out on the water and Boe and I were having a blast again.

The water was extremely high and very fast a some points.  We quickly realized why the ranger had told us to be careful.  We came to a bridge and it appeared that we were going to have to get out and carry out kayaks past it.  But we decided that we could probably squeeze underneath it.  We approached by hugging the bank and then caught ourselves on the beams of the bridge and launched to each bar.  It actually went pretty smoothly.

back side of the bridge we crawled under

As we continued down the river we saw an eagle fly from a tree and land in a try about 60 yards away from where we were paddling.  We could clearly see it perched in the tree so we tried to be as silent as we could so that we could get close.  As you can tell from the pictures we were pretty successful.

dead center of the picture

bottom right of the picture

The next part of the trip was pretty cool.  The river was so flooded that there were a lot side areas that we could take that made for a couple of interesting obstacles.  As we started to head south we knew that we were going to have to keep and eye for the Big Sioux Recreation Area.  Since everything was so flooded there was not going to be a definite sign that we were there.

We came to the bridge that we assumed was were were supposed to get out.  Both sides of the river had very steep banks that was going to make it difficult for us to get out.  We found the best spot that we could and while Boe banked his kayak and went to see if we had arrived at our destination I held onto a small tree.  The water was moving very fast where we were at.  Boe came back down a said that he didn't think this was the right spot.  I asked him if we thought that we would be able to fit under this bridge and didn't think that we would have a problem.

It did appear that we had about the same amount of room as the last bridge.  So I let go of my tree and began to approach the bridge.  Right away I knew that was a mistake.  When we had approached the last bridge it had been at a crawl.  This time I was flying towards it.  And as I got closer I realized that there was no way that I was going to fit underneath.  I made an attempt to turn around and paddle back upstream but it was too late.  I turned back towards the bridge and made my best attempt to slow myself down so that I could grab onto the beam. Coming under the bridge too fast to be able to slow myself down my hand slammed onto the beam which I tried to grab. Doing that instantly flipped my kayak sending me me into the water.  I held onto my paddle and came up underneath the opening of the kayak and grabbed on.  I saw my bag floating and gabbed that also.  I flipped my kayak back over after clearing the bridge and jumped on top of it. I looked back just in time to see Boe flip as well.  I was able to climb back into my kayak but it was so full of water I had to get to the shore asap.  I paddled over and beached my boat and looked out to see Boe floating by next to his kayak.  His kayak was too flooded to get back in and the current was so fast that he couldn't swim back in.

I quickly drained my kayak, got back in, and paddled hard down the river to find Boe.  He had made it to shore about 50 yards down.  Both of us were soaked, exhausted, and a little freaked out.  It was quite the adrenaline rush.  Luckily neither of us were hurt but the whole situation could have been much worse.  What was even worse was that we had actually arrived at our destination after all.  We dragged our boats back to the road and Boe ran to the truck back at the park.  Flipping my kayak ruined my camera but luckily the memory card survived.  We took a picture with Boe's phone of what we went under but it does not do it justice.

Overall it was a great day on the water.  We loaded up on the truck a little after 4:30 pm but we probably finished the the 11.2 miles before 4:00 pm.  The little extra adventure tacked on a bit of time.  We saw some really cool wildlife, explored some flooded woods, and even got a little wet.  So far the best and most exciting trip yet.  Can't wait for the next time I can get on the water!