Revisiting Oakwood Lakes

Oakwood Lakes – July 8, 2008

This morning began with calm winds and a clear sky with temperatures in the 70s: a perfect day for my annual trip 82 miles northwest to Oakwood State Park and a cruise on the West Oakwood collection of three connecting lakes. I set off from my eastside Sioux Falls home and headed north on I 29 to the Bruce intersection, just north of Brookings. As I drove on Brookings County Highway 6, following the signs to the park, I rocked along with the oldies radio station out of Pipestone, Minnesota. Traveling through the corn, I was reminded of the old adage: knee high by the 4th of July.


I decided to save gas and take my Folbot out for the first time since last September. With no kayak on top of the car, I figured that I would gain 10 mph and not have to worry about the boat blowing off when passed by an 18-wheeler.

As usual, there was very little action in the park on this weekday morning; there were a couple of boats that I saw during my time there, but they were distant and had no effect on my paddling nor did they intrude upon my tranquility: there was not even engine noise heard.

Unaccountably, I had a difficult time assembling my Folbot today. The most trying part of putting the boat together is connecting the bow and stern sections with an aluminum cylindrical sleeve; there are two such sleeves required, and I was surprised to find that I had lost one them on my last trip. Fortunately, I had a spare within my repair kit. But then, I couldn’t seem to get the sleeves over the two parts of the frame. I spent 20 minutes or so working on that problem and nearly gave up in frustration. I had begun to curse myself for not bringing my Dagger kayak instead. I would have been out on the water laughing in the waves if I had just not been so cheep about gas usage. Instead, I found myself sweating blood over the aluminum sleeves. Finally, though I got the frame fastened enough so that I thought it would hold together and cast off from the launching area.


I made the crossing from the state park dock and went west around Scout Island, then around Arlington Point into Johnson Lake. Arlington Point presents a shallow habitat where waterfowl gather. I saw several pelicans, an egret, a great blue heron, and ducks.


The north side of Johnson Lake is fringed with high cattails and tree cover just beyond the reeds. Elsewhere, the lake has nearly continuous tree growth along the shore.

There was a moderate wind out of the northwest creating wave action enough to splash over the bow when heading into it. After kayaking into the wind and waves along the southern shore of Johnson Lake, I was able to drift with the wind along the north and east shore listening to the breeze through the foliage, hearing a great variety of bird calls, and checking out the landscape of trees and shoreline. Sometimes, I was able to exchange glances with jumping fish.


On the return, I went up the main body of West Oakwood along the east side of Scout Island where I verified that this is no longer an island, but rather a long narrow peninsular dividing the northern parts of Johnson and West Oakwood Lakes.

As I observed last year, this is a really fine lake for paddling. The majority of shoreline in the three lakes seems to be undeveloped parkland. The lake is large (1200 acres), and there is a great variety of wildlife to see. This is really the primer lake for kayaking in the area. The only drawback for me is the 164-mile round trip distance from my home in Sioux Falls. People living in the Brookings area are lucky to have this set of lakes available so close to home. Incidentally, nearly adjoining West Oakwood Lakes is East Oakwood Lake, a large (1000 acres) body of water with charm of its own. East Oakwood, however, is wider with the potential for big waves. In fact, as I drove past it after my cruise, I observed white caps on the water. There is also a much less developed launching point. Still, on a calm day, I would like to try that waterway as well.

More on Oakwood Lakes can be found in an earlier entry accessible through the directory of area waterways on the right side of the blog.

Oakwood Lakes

Oakwood Lakes: West Oakwood



Oakwood Lakes has a well deserved reputation as a wonderful place to canoe or kayak in eastern South Dakota. This chain of eight connecting glacial lakes is broadly divided into East Oakwood and West Oakwood Lakes. East Oakwood has a public access area and is a broader single body of water. West Oakwood is the site of Oakwood Lakes State Park and offers the amenities that such a status provides. Today, I visited West Oakwood and set off from the boat ramp within the park. Oakwood Lakes State Park is 83 miles north and west of my eastside Sioux Falls home. The easiest way to get there is to go north on Interstate 29, past Brookings, to the Bruce exit. From there, you can continue on for a few miles and follow the signs to the park. Finding the park is easy; returning is another matter. Like so much of South Dakota, there are few landmarks and no signs that direct you back to the Interstate. In a fog, I guess, I drove back the wrong way and wound up in Estelline, about ten miles north. This is nothing unusual for me, I’m sorry to say. I really should have a compass in the car.



One of the towers of my Yakama kayak rack has become bent and requires replacement; the part had to be ordered. My boat on this trip was the trusty Folbot, a fabric covered collapsible 12 foot kayak. Instead of securing it to a roof rack, I just tossed the two bags in which the hull and framework are stored into the back seat of my Honda Civic. This is the first time I have used the Folbot this season. I am happy to say that the boat went together in about 15 minutes and worked quite well. The Honda Civic Hybrid, without the kayak on the roof, went back to its nearly 50 mpg rather than the 35 mpg that I tend to get otherwise.



West Oakwoods Lake has a surface area of about 1,200 acres, and the name is derived from the numerous oak trees within the area. In years past, this lake was called Lake Tetonkaha. The set of lakes that makes up West Oakwood is surrounded by significant tree growth. The main body of water is pretty long and wide, and today, even with a moderate south wind, the wave action was just short of whitecap conditions. Cruising south from the dock within the main part of the park, I was experiencing head winds and waves, especially in the crossing from the east to the west side. The weather was marvelous: moderate wind, cloudless skies, and a morning temperature of around 70 degrees. This was a Thursday, so I virtually had the lake to myself. I was out for about two hours and saw only one boat, and that was during the final few minutes.



I set out from the park and headed west across the main body toward Scout Island and then continued around a point of land with an extensive sand bar out into the lake. Continuing south along the western shore, I moved through a narrow slot into Turtle Lake. There is a sand bar that extends from both ends of the slot into this lake with very shallow water. Even with my kayak, I went aground a couple of times until I got into the narrow passageway through. I doubt that a motor boat could get into Turtle Lake now.



Turtle Lake was sheltered from the wind, with nearly calm conditions. The shoreline is heavily wooded, and I saw lots of waterfowl. I kept trying to get a photo of one of the several great blue herons that I saw, but these wily birds will suddenly leap out of a tall tree and fly off faster than I can get the camera out. The trees and other vegetation along the shoreline are interesting. A slow paddle around the circumference of the lake is a great time for observation and reflection. True to the name of this body, there are lots of turtles to be seen sitting on downed trees along the shoreline.



As I moved out of Turtle Lake and back into the main body of West Oakwood Lake, I was traveling with the wind through a following sea. I headed back north and into Johnson Lake, off to the west of the boat ramp and around the point of Scout Island. In the distance, I saw a big flock of pelicans; I like coming slowly up on a big flock of waterfowl to see how close I can get before they fly off. I had my camera ready to capture the closest photo that I could get. After securing my photos at the western end of Johnson Lake, I turned back for the dock and made the crossing of West Oakwood again to the dock.





I was out on the water for about two hours – generally my limit in a kayak without getting out for a stretch. There were, however, several spots along the shoreline where a boat could be landed, even my Folbot.



Oakwood Lakes is really a wonderful place to paddle. It is good to be back in a natural lake, one with good shoreline growth, little development, and big enough to provide a variety of paddling conditions. Over 80 miles, though, is approaching the outer ring of my day paddles. I was on the road about 8:00 a.m. and didn’t get home until 3:00 p.m. Some of that time was me driving off in the wrong direction from the state park, and some was time that I spent taking a nap at the rest stop south of Brookings. Also, I should have packed a lunch for this trip. Of course, Oakwood Lakes is one of the premier paddling opportunities in this part of South Dakota, and I highly recommend it. I will return there at least once a year. I would also like to try East Oakwood Lake on a future trip.