Big Sioux River: 26th Street to Bicycle Trail Bridge in Sioux Falls

Yesterday after being unable to get out on Fensterman Slough as planned, Dave Finck and I decided to canoe upstream on the Big Sioux River from just beyond the bridge over 26^th Street to the rapids under the bike trail bridge, a distance of about 2.5 miles round trip.

Whatever ice had been on the Big Sioux River through Sioux Falls had melted with the warmer temperatures, the wind, and the river current.  There were only traces left along some of the shoreline; otherwise, the river was clear of ice. The water was remarkably clear after some of our cold weather.  Sometimes it was possible to look down into the water a couple of feet and see a thick carpet of leaves suspended over the bottom for 18 inches or so.  These carpets of leaves reminded me of clouds in the sky.

The current was surprisingly fast as we powered our way upstream.  Depth of the water within the channel was probably three or four feet, but the river is about 50 feet wide at this point, and there are gravel bars or mud banks along the way.  We touched bottom a couple of times in Dave’s 17 foot canoe, but did not grind to a halt until we reached the gravel bars that form just past the rapids under the bike trail bridge.

Taking a trip down the river at this time of the year is sort of a farewell to the paddling season.  The monochromatic brown tones of the vegetation going dormant is the major feature of the landscape.  Passing along the shoreline, the view into the trees is markedly different than just a few weeks ago when the undergrowth was thick and the world seemed green.

As we muscled our way upstream against a fairly strong current, we could look into the deserted YMCA camp along the right bank.  I thought of all the years that my own boys attended Camp Leif Ericson and had such a great time.  Along the left side of the river, the bike trail snakes its way northwest, and we could see riders enjoying the 57 degree sunny day.

There were a few ducks still on the river enjoying their final days on an ice-free Big Sioux River.  I wondered where the ducks go for the winter, and Dave Finck thought that they headed for the Missouri River where the water is at least partially open most of the year. 

We made it up to the rapids and ground to a halt on a gravel bar.  After turning the canoe around, we made a very leisurely return trip back to the put-in at 26^th Street.  Paddling was hardly necessary, just an occasional stroke to steer the boat; otherwise, the return was mostly a float trip down a quiet river with plenty of opportunity to look at the landscape, the water flow, and the trees that have fallen into the stream.

The cruise yesterday was really a moment to reflect upon the now closing paddling season.  The forecast ahead is for colder days, and I expect to see ice on the river soon.  As we found at Fensterman, the lakes are either closed down or just on the edge of being frozen for the next few months.

Very soon, I will clean up my kayak, remove the rack from the roof of my Honda Civic, and unload all my paddling gear from the trunk and carry it up into the attic above the garage.  It will be late March or early April before there is much chance of getting on the water again here on the Northern Plains.

Dave Finck on the Big Sioux Through Sioux Falls

A full set of the photographs of the BSR cruise yesterday can be found on my Flickr page at the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157637678498436/ 

Big Sioux River: Grandview to Klondike - Late October 2013

Today, Sunday, October 27, was a beautiful day for a cruise on the Big Sioux River.  David and Mary Finck and Larry Braaten led a fleet of 16 kayaks from the put-in just above the Grandview Bridge to the Klondike Rapids, a distance of about 8 miles.

We gathered at the public access area along the Big Sioux River at the Grandview Bridge at 1:00 p.m. and arranged a shuttle of drivers downstream to the public access area just above the Klondike rapids.

By 2:00 p.m., we were underway for our cruise downstream under sunny skies with little wind and a temperature of about 60 degrees.  A day like this is such a blessing at this time of the year.  I believe that most of us were eager to seize the day before the inevitable descent into winter.

This stretch of river between the Grandview and the Klondike bridges is free of strainers or rapids; it is really a tranquil paddle along a varied landscape.  The water was deep enough for easy navigation, with only occasional shallows encountered when losing the channel.  Depth ranged from too deep to touch bottom with my long double-blade paddle to only a few inches across an occasional sandbar.

There were some high cut banks that rose more than a hundred feet and some old trees in the waterway from floods of the past. 

We stopped along the way, as all of Dave Finck’s cruises do, for a stretch and a stroll up and down the hard packed sand shoreline. Sixteen colorful kayaks pulled up on the beach of a river present an attractive sight to me.

These cruises are one way to make and keep friendships among the paddling community. 

Cruising along in discussion groupings of two or three kayaks, standing around chatting at our rest stops, and assisting each other in launching and recovering kayaks from the river build shared experiences.

As we moved downstream, we passed the remains of an old railroad bridge that once crossed the river between Grandview and Klondike.  Only the concrete support on one bank and some rotting pilings on the other bank remain of those days when the railroad played a more important role in area commerce.

We paddled through a landscape in transition from a colorful summer to the drab monochromatic winter brown.  I was surprised to see so many trees that had yet to lose their leaves.  I suspect that will all change over the next week or two.

The water was cold, but all of us were able to paddle without heavy clothing. The sun was wonderful.  By the time we had pulled out at Klondike, however, a chill was developing and a jacket would have been comfortable.

In the lower section of this cruise, extending about half a mile above the Klondike rapids, the river gets wider and deeper as it backs up from the rapids.  There were even some wavelets on the surface during this section from a light wind that came up.

There are take-out possibilities on both the Iowa and South Dakota sides just before the rapids, and we checked both sides out during our shuttle arrangements.  Neither side offered an easy exit from the river, but we felt that the South Dakota side provided the better of bad choices.  The river was about two or two and a half feet deep along the bank as we got off the river, so it was a deep-water exit. Dave Finck was wearing waterproof boots, and he arrived at the take-out first to take charge of assisting paddlers in landing their boats. 

As each boat approached the bank, two people helped stabilize the kayak while one or two others offered assistance in getting out.  With this assistance, all of us were able to get out without tipping over and falling into the river.

River cruises are a social occasion, and they are really not very feasible for the solo paddler.  The shuttle is important, and it is also unwise to paddle alone on moving water. 

We spent about three hours on the cruise this afternoon.  It was an enjoying and satisfying time getting outside in the sunshine in our kayaks and stretching our paddling muscles. The fall landscape was beautiful, and there is a sense of squeezing in another cruise before the kayak racks come off the vehicles and the boats go deep into the garage for several months.

A complete set of the photographs that I took on this cruise is available on my Flicker page at the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157637027727365/

Third Big Sioux River Clean-Up this Fall

Earlier this week, Cory Diedrich, the secretary of the SDCKA, put out another call for the third Big Sioux River clean-up in three weeks.  Last week a fleet of eleven kayaks and one canoe spent a couple of hours cleaning the river as it flows through Sioux Falls from 26^th Street upstream to the bicycle trail bridge, a distance of about 2.5 miles round trip.

Last night, four of us answered the call and assembled at the Minnesota Avenue bridge on the eastern end of Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls for this latest phase of the project.

There is no designed put-in at the Minnesota Avenue bridge, only a steep rock-strewn and weedy slant down to the water’s edge from the bike trail. 

Mary Finck and Cory Diedrich were in the kayaks, and Dave Finck and I were in the canoe.  Last week, Dave and I cruised down the channel of the river and served as the hauler for debris gathered by the kayaks. 

I was assuming that we would have the same role, the geezers just gathering the junk picked up in the river and along the shoreline by the kayaks.  With only four of us, though, that role changed.  Instead, we were also collecting debris as well as transferring loads from the kayaks. 

We worked the shorelines from Minnesota Avenue nearly up to Western Avenue, a distance of about a mile.  There was a significantly larger amount of debris in the water, stuck in tree strainers in the stream, and along the shoreline than we found on the section downstream last week.

The current was surprisingly fast in the river, although the depth ranged from a few inches to about three feet.  The river is about 50 to 75 feet in width along the section we worked, and the channel was sometimes difficult to locate.

The kayaks had no difficulty with water depth, but in the canoe we sometimes scrapped along and had to backtrack to get into water deep enough to continue.  As the debris load increased to three hundred pounds or more, the canoe settled into a deeper draft, making the passage more difficult at times.

We thought that we would move upstream, turn around, and then head back down, picking up litter and debris as we went.  As it happened, though, we were unable to resist grabbing trash on our way upstream as well.  The big items remained for the return trip, including a plastic swimming pool, one tire, a big section of lawn edging, and larger pieces of plastic.

By the time we made it back, the canoe and kayaks were heavily loaded.  We figure that we picked up about 500 pounds of debris in this short section of the river. 

All of us were beat with the work of paddling upstream, fighting through strainers to collect plastic bags and bottles, and hauling the debris back downstream.  At times, we had to drag the loaded boats across shallow sand or gravel bars.

We finished our work as night was falling with lightening flashing and thunder rolling across the northern skies; we had spent about two hours on the river. Even though we were all tired, we still felt good about our river clean-up project.   

The complete set of photos of this clean-up event can be found on my Flickr page at the following URL:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157636134688285/

Big Sioux River: North Access of Big Sioux Recreation Area to Madison Street Bridge

Today was a beautiful day for a cruise on the Big Sioux River.  The weather was nearly perfect with sunny skies, temperatures in the 60s, and low wind conditions.  In addition, there was the satisfaction of going canoeing on a weekday morning rather than going to the work place.  Retirement is good!

I met Dave Finck at the Madison Street take-out this morning about 8:30.  He had left his canoe at the north end of the Big Sioux Recreation Area (BSRA), just down from the Rice Street Bridge on the northern edge of Brandon.  He parked his van alongside the river on a dirt track leading down from Madison Street.  Although I understand that this is a state-owned access point to the river, there is no signage to indicate a river access point. Coming from Sioux Falls along Madison Street, there is an entrance to the road on the right, just before the Madison Street Bridge over the Big Sioux River.

We got into my car and drove back to where he had left his canoe and carried it down a very rocky pathway to the sandbar put-in. 

As we shoved off, the day just seemed wonderful.  The river had adequate water depth all the way downstream.  It was just a matter of finding and staying in or close to the channel.  There was generally two to three feet of depth, although sometimes it was five or six feet deep, and sometimes only inches across a gravel bar.

The scenery along the river was spectacular.  The trees are just now changing color, and an array of fall colors is apparent in the grasses, bushes, and trees all along the shoreline.  Still, though, the majority of trees retain their green leaves for the moment.  All too soon, though, the fall will deepen into winter.  Already, there is a nasty forecast for the weekend.

At this point in the year, the strainers seem pretty fixed at their point in the river.  The current was not fast enough to cause any real navigation hazards with strainers or rocks.

As the season wears on and the river flow diminishes, the river just seems to narrow.  There is still plenty of depth to float a canoe easily downstream.  We had only one occasion in which we had to get out of the canoe, and that was largely because of taking the wrong side of a sand/gravel bar in the middle of the river.  We just had to jump out of the canoe and float it over a shallow spot for a few feet before clamoring back aboard to continue.

We came across one guy fishing between the two access points within the BSRA.  While he was not having any success this morning, as Dave Finck told him:  “A bad day of fishing always beats a good at work!”

We seemed to quickly pass the three miles between the north and south access area of the BSRA.  Our canoe was moving nearly directly into the sun for most of the trip as the river flowed southeast before turning more westerly.

The river passes under the footbridge leading from the disc golf course of the BSRA to the archery range and the trail that leads up onto the ridge overlooking the Big Sioux valley.  My wife and I along with our little dog Finnegan have crossed over this bridge so many times on our walks on the Prairie Vista trail through the BSRA.

Our last canoe trip on this stretch of the river was in the spring when we had to skip the south end of the BSRA take-out because of mud.  It looked good this year, but we wanted to continue downstream another mile and a half.

There are some efforts at bank stabilization along this section of the river through the use of old cars embedded in the banks.

We easily made our way downstream and under the Madison Street Bridge to a large sandbar where we left the river.  The take-out was on sand, so our feet didn’t even get muddy when getting out.

Our cruise this morning was a short 4.5 miles and took us about an hour and a half of actual time on the water.

Dave Finck on the Big Sioux River

This was a very relaxing way to spend a couple of hours on a weekday morning.  I was conscious of the wonderful life I enjoy as a retired person in good health.  The vistas seen along the river today were gifts to treasure. 

Jay Heath on the Big Sioux River

For a complete set of the photographs taken on this cruise, please access my Flickr page at the following URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157636091747353/