The Loneliest Monk

The day started off normal enough.  My buddy Jacob was finally going to get a chance to get to try the kayak he bought last fall and I was excited to introduce him to one of my favorite activities.  To cut down on the commute we were going to do the Grandview Road to Klondike Dam route (7.8 miles). It didn't take long however for Jacob to realize that trips down the Big Sioux are not without incident. The recent patch job on my kayak lasted all of 15 seconds.  With water coming in quick I pulled off at the nearest sandbar.  What a great first trip for Jacob I thought.  We had barely made it 50 yards down the river and my spotty patch job was going to cause us to turn back and go home.  But we were both not ready to throw in the towel quite yet.   After examining the leak we were both doubtful that we had something that could keep water out of my kayak for the next 7.8 miles.  But after after discussing we managed to come up with 3 items th...

First truly nice day of spring appeared in the forecast and found me unprepared.  With my kayak still not water worthy on the 29th I scambled after work to try and finish the patch work that I had started.  To my dismay the drying time recommended was 24 hours.  Plans canceled.  There will be other nice Sundays. Fast forward to Sunday early morning sitting on the roof of the apartment reading a book, sipping some coffee, and nursing a small hangover from the night before.  Sun shining on me I thought to myself "what the hell are you doing; don't waste a great day like this - load up your kayak and get on the river!".  So that is exactly what I did. Too late to organize anything with my fellow woodsmen my wonderful wife agreed to pick me up at the end of my route.  A quick text picture of where she could find me after my call and I was off. I picked a section of the river that I had never been on before - Gitchie Manitou State Preserve to ...