Split Rock Creek - Through the Palisades: August 2011

With a forecast for today similar to yesterday, I just left the kayak on the car top and planned on another cruise. This morning was nearly perfect: temperature about 60, calm winds, sunny skies – just right for a return to Garretson City Park and a cruise upstream from the dam and through the palisades. My last trip on this waterway was April, a time when the spring growth was just developing.

Garretson City Park was nearly deserted this morning. I have never come across another kayak or canoe during my cruises on this section of Split Rock Creek. Occasionally, I see the pontoon boat “Jesse James” taking people on a sightseeing cruise upstream, but not today.

While at 9:30 a.m. there was plenty of sun, it was below the cliffs on the right side going upstream, creating interesting shadows that highlighted reflections of the cliff face and the vegetation growing on ledges, in cracks, and on top.

There are high cliffs scattered along both sides of this impounded creek. The water is quite deep in the channel, although there are rocks just under the surface along the low banks. These are the type of rocks that can “highside” a kayak in water that is sometimes three feet deep. Getting off these rocks can present a risk of upset since it is difficult to fend off the bottom or to get out of the boat. I did find myself caught on rocks a couple of times, but I got off without incident and just moved further out into the channel. In the channel, I could not touch bottom with my extended double-bladed paddle.

I did not see much wildlife today – really only some perching birds, a few jumping fish, turtles, and a muskrat, similar to yesterday’s paddle on Loss Lake.

There are a couple of homes built on a rise at the end of the impounded waters at the entrance of the creek flowing through. While the water level is no doubt a bit lower than it was earlier in the season, there was no problem moving up through this familiar waterway.

On the way back, as usual, I ducked through the arched bridge leading into Devil’s Gulch. This is one of my favorite sections of the cruise, and I never miss the opportunity to slip into this secluded world. There was a section of heavy algae and aquatic grasses midway in the Gulch stream, but the water was fairly clear at the far end where a brook feeds into the creek and then clear again as the water passed through the bridge.

This cruise offers solitude and a chance to observe the great variety of plant life that find ways to thrive on the cliff faces. A railroad runs off to the right side going upstream, but the vegetation obscures the train itself; when a train passes, there is the romantic sound of the whistle and a distant roar of passing cars. Cruising along, I glanced up to watch east-bound passing jet planes with their contrails extending back as the aircraft swept over this “fly-over” state. Water pouring over the dam spillway is clearly heard upon departure and return from the put-in.

I lingered on the water for about 90 minutes this morning. As I have noted before, this is perhaps the most scenic paddling opportunity in the Sioux Falls area, and it is a place I almost always introduce to friends or relatives who are new to kayaking.

A full range of narratives from previous cruises upstream from Garretson City Park as well as other sections of Split Rock can be reviewed in the "Area Waterways" list on the right side of the blog.

Loss Lake - August 2011

The heat wave seems to have passed for now here in Sioux Falls. As I looked at the weather forecast over the next few days, I knew that now is the time to get out on the water again. So, this morning I got back into my morning paddling routine and stopped by my bagel spot for a bagel, coffee, and an hour-long read before heading out to Loss Lake, a small lake west of Sioux Falls (west on SD 42 to SD 19, north 2.5 miles, back east along a dirt road for about .5 miles to the lakeside).

Like most of these small lakes, there is very limited signage and no location identification. Because of an error in one publication, there has been some confusion about the name of this lake. Some people call it Lost Lake, but that is not correct. The South Dakota Game Fish and Parks identifies it as Loss Lake, and that is the agency that owns the access area – parking, dock, fishing pier, vault toilet. The data about the lake can be found on the SDGFP web site at the following URL: http://gfp.sd.gov/fishing-boating/fishing-access.aspx Loss Lake is south of I 90, Lost Lake is north several miles, near Humboldt.

The lake was deserted when I arrived at 7:30 a.m., and no one appeared during my 90 minutes at the location. The skies were sunny and the winds seemed light when I arrived but steadily build to a moderate breeze by the time I finished my one-hour cruise around the perimeter.

The shoreline around Loss Lake is generally grasses, with some tree cover limited to the southern shore. The banks are high, so that even with a wind there is a lee to be found under the shelter of the bank, at least along the shore from where the wind is blowing.

There is one home on the western side of the lake, and there is an old structure on the eastern shore that was the official’s station for hydroplane races that were held on the lake many years ago. I have often speculated about the atmosphere that might have characterized this lake years ago when the hydroplanes were roaring across the surface and the crowds were cheering on their favorite. The official’s station seems to just be a little bit more weathered each year.

Sometimes I have seen pelicans on the lake. Today, though, wildlife was scarce; I came across a muskrat, an egret, a few duck-like waterfowl, some jumping fish, and the occasional turtle’s head poking above the water to check out the passing kayak. My favorite time to visit the lake is in early spring when ducks and geese are nesting. I waited too long this year for my annual visit.

While the water was pretty smooth when I set out this morning on the west side, by the time I got around to the east side the wind had increased. There were enough waves by then to provide a little bounce to the ride, and one wave slopped over the cockpit coaming to douse me. From the water stains on the dock, it would seem that the lake level is between one and two feet lower than when the dock was installed this spring.

Loss Lake is not an exciting lake to explore. It is pretty small and includes only the main body and one bay that extends off into the northeast. What seems to be the feeder creek is fenced off with an electric wire. It does, however, provide the opportunity for a quiet and contemplative one-hour paddle. I have been informed by those fishing the lake that the water is deep and seems to provide good habitat for the fish. The distance from my eastside Sioux Falls home to the lakeshore is about 25 miles. Further details of earlier cruises on Loss Lake can be found in the "Area Waterways" inventory on the right side of the blog.

Lake Lakota - August 2011

We finally escaped from a prolonged heat wave here on the northern plains; this morning the temperature was in the low 60s, the skies were clear, the wind moderate, and the high only expected to climb into the mid 80s. For the past month or so, family events and then the heat have moderated my kayaking. I have taken people out on Lake Alvin a couple of times, but my routine summer cruising has been on hold. This morning, I left home around 6:00 a.m., had my usual bagel, coffee, and an hour for reading my latest novel before heading out to Lake Lakota, a part of Newton Hills State Park.

I arrived at the launching area by 7:30 a.m. and, as expected, found it deserted. My last trip to Lake Lakota was in early April, and the first hints of spring growth were visible. Mostly, though, the area was still clothed in the drab brown that follows the snowmelt. Today, the area looked transformed and predominately green: grass, flowers, leafed-out trees, and a good share of the lake surface.

As I moved my kayak over to the launch area, I saw a pair of pants lying on the surface of the ramp: jeans, belt, and some loose bills both on the ramp surface and in the pockets of the jeans. There was no identification. I wondered how a person could forget his pants; was he so absent minded or was he wasted so much that he was unaware of his circumstances. I hung the pants with the cash on a posted sign and took off. When I returned two hours later, there was a parks guy driving a mowing machine. I let him know about the pants and the cash, and he told me he would take them to the park office for Newton Hills.

The lake was tranquil, and I began my usual clockwise circuit, heading left (east) from the dock. There is an inlet on the eastern side that extends back into the bush for a few hundred yards, and I always move up into this creek-like flow until I reach the point where further travel is no longer possible.

I like to sit quietly in the kayak to listen to the sounds resuming after my passage. This seems to me like a special place where I can listen to the backwaters sounds of wind in the trees, insects, and bird life.

Continuing on my cruise around the shoreline of the lake, I headed south to the dam and spillway for Pattee Creek. The entire lake is within Newton Hills State Park, so the shoreline has no visible reminder of the larger outside world.

There is a great deal of aquatic growth on the lake now and extending in deep banks of seaweed-like plants just under much of the surface. The surface growth generally extends out about 10 feet from the shoreline on much of the lake. Even away from the shoreline, however, there are walls of plant growth that are several feet deep. This degree of growth seems present in the summer, but it is not so evident during the spring and fall. I imagine that motorboats would have some difficulty in keeping propellers clear of this growth, and fisherman would have the same trouble in casting their lines. A kayak, however, can just glide over most of the aquatic growth. Motorboats would seem restricted to the open areas in the center of the lake.

From the dam, I cruised back down the western shore and into the arm that extends west to the Pattee Creek inlet, and this is where the surface growth is most intensive. As I moved through heavy plant growth, my kayak slid along the surface and my paddles brought up heavy “seaweed” with each stroke. I was reminded of my snowshoeing this past winter. I was, in effect, skimming along the surface of pretty deep plant life. It was not quite thick enough to be “poling,” but it was certainly not normal cruising. Once, I found myself aground and thought about how unpleasant it would be to have to exit the kayak and wade through the muck to a deeper spot.

In any event, I was able to move back into deeper water and continue on. I noticed that there were streaks of clear water weaving through the seaweed, and I headed over to these river-like passageways through the plants. It seemed rather like following a lead in the polar seas between ice floes.

This was a good contemplative cruise, and I enjoyed it very much. I was out for an hour and a-half and was able to experience a variety of waters. On most of my cruises, I try to pick up six bottles or cans that I find floating or embedded along the shore. That is about what I can fit into the bottom of my kayak without feeling crowded, and I did that today.