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 ...

Spring fever must have hit because a high of 33 degrees is not an ideal temperature for the first canoe trip of the year but that did not deter Tyler and I from our first trip of 2014. We set out late morning after meeting up at Tyler's apartment.  The plan was our classic route; Klondike Dam to the Highway 18 Bridge a total distance of 8 river miles. It was a beautiful morning and it felt great to be back outdoors again but it was COLD.  Chunks of slush littered the river that had formed from the freeze the previous night. It felt like we were paddling through a slushy.  With only one pair of gloves Tyler and I took turns with either a right or left handed glove to keep some feeling in our hands. This was the earliest that I had ever been out on the Big Sioux River and it was really cool see the river in such an early stage of spring.  Tell tale signs of springs approach littered the river but the amount of birds that we saw was a dead give away....

Tucked deep in the rugged Elk Mountain range Snowmass Lake rest peacefully below the soaring summit of Snowmass Mountain. A summit for one party member and beautiful day spent above treeline for myself and another. Snowmass is a destination that I will I return to. Highlights of this trip below. 

A trip that has been rehashed over many beers. A foolish plan coupled with inexperience leading to a minor epic that now draws laughs and head shaking whenever it is discussed. If adventure starts when something goes wrong then we had one. I'll raise one to the Tigwon Toe. Video our Mt. of the Holy Cross attempt below.

On Friday June 15th myself and 3 others (Boe, Berg, and Deal) set out to go visit our friend Sean who now lives and works in lake crystal Minnesota. He along with Deal and Berg decided to buy kayaks this summer also.  Sean had sent us pictures of the Big Sky river the week before trying to convince us to come see him and check it out and needless to say he convinced us.  So we loaded up Bergs trailer with 4 kayaks and headed for Lake Crystal. The trip down was a great time.  We listened to Daumau5 CD that Boe had made and arrived in Lake Crystal with enough time to check out "duck days" which is the towns yearly get together. Next morning came around (it was a late night) and Boe, Sean, and I went to go get some bread and lunch meat so we could have some sandwiches on the river.  Once we got back we all loaded up and headed for the starting point on the river.  Right when we got down to where you first get in I knew this was going to ...

10:15 am I headed out from Kelsey's house after church and a fresh haircut to meet Fluth and his buddy Tom at the launch point at Klondike.  The plan was to stop at the sandbar that Fluth and I had seen 3 weeks ago, set up some lawn chairs, and have a few beers.  I stopped quick at Jimmy Johns and added a sub to compliment my 6-pack of summer shandy. 12:00 pm We had a quick paddle to our destination.  Even though it was not quite as perfect as the first time Fluth and I had come across it (the water had gone a little bit too low) we had an ideal spot to spend the afternoon.  We got comfy in our lawn chairs and got to work on the beer that we had brought along.  It is pretty amazing how the conversation flows once everyone has a couple of beers.  I felt at ease right away hanging out with Fluth and Tom.  They had been friends since high school and shared some pretty funny stories about each to me. After we had worked through our beer we made a f...

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 w...

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 decid...

Hello everyone or mainly hello to myself.  I don't really expect anyone to read this just a place for me to document my "adventures".  Back in the day I used to take all sorts of trips with my close group of friends from high school.  We all called ourselves The Woodsmen.  Most of The Woodsmen still hang out on a weekly basis. I lived with 3 of them during college and 4 of them are in my wedding next May. The Woodsmen (minus one) This blog however is less about my good friends and more about the trips that we used to take.  Those were some of the best times of my life.  This blog for me is a way to document and help encourage me to take more of these outdoor adventure trips. I want to be able to experience some of those same feelings I had with my buddies in high school with them again and hopefully share some of them with my fiance as well.  And maybe in time my children as well. The Woodsmen "last supper" But enough of the sappy stuff,...