SDCKA Annual Winter Conference - 2011

The South Dakota Canoe/Kayak Association (SDCKA) annual winter conference was held at the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls yesterday afternoon, Saturday, January 29. The group gathered for four hours of programming and fellowship in anticipation of paddling activities for the upcoming season. The first SDCKA sponsored event for this year will be pool training in managing a wet exit or rolling to be held at the YWCA swimming pool in Sioux Falls on Sunday, February 13. This is an event for SDCKA members, and any readers interested in membership and/or participating in this training event should connect with the club officers through the SDCKA blog (http://www.sdcka.blogspot.com). The SDCKA blog is the major communication link for those interested in paddling within our area. Upcoming events are described, and follow-up information for sessions presented at the conference is presented on the blog.

The conference began with a review by Steven Dahlmeier, president of the SDCKA, of the events sponsored by the SDCKA over the past year, including cruises, public service, safety and training, and the South Dakota Kayak Challenge.

Included in the presentations at the conference was a session on paddling with children offered by Cory Diedrich, one of the SDCKA Board of Directors members. Jarett Bies, the SDCKA vice president, presented a harrowing tale of how things can go wrong on the Missouri River when caught up in high winds and waves. Information sessions of interest to area paddlers were offered by officials of the City of Sioux Falls, the National Park Service, and the East Dakota Water Development District.

(Photo by Jarett Bies)
Two members of the Black Hills Paddlers club presented a session on the thrill of white water kayaking and the safety concerns associated with that exciting aspect of paddling.

A slate of 15 officers was presented and elected to serve the organization over the next year. Steven Dahlmeier was continued into his second year as president, and Jarett Bies will also continue into his second year as vice president.

I urge area paddlers to strongly consider affiliating with the SDCKA as a member. Membership offers the chance to participate with others in the many cruises and events sponsored by the club and to share in the organization. The cost of membership is only $10.00, and information on joining is available on the SDCKA blog.

End of the 2010 Paddling Season

If we are lucky with the weather, those of us here in the Sioux Falls area can hope for a paddling season that begins toward the end of March and continues on into mid-November. The season this year was as much as any of us could hope for in that regard. My first venture on the water was on Lake Alvin on March 30, and the last cruise was on Split Rock Creek on November 14. Between those dates, I wrote blog entries for 30 cruises that ranged from rivers, creeks, and lakes in the Sioux Falls area to my week-long trip in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. There were as well a few other cruises that I took that were not described in a blog entry. So, this has been an active year on area waters.

Here on the northern plains, we have pretty harsh winters and then the continuing possibility of flooding throughout the rest of the year. Fortunately, there is a variety of kayaking opportunities: rivers and creeks to paddle with groups, lakes to paddle at virtually any other time. When going down moving water, I normally go with groups to take advantage of the arranged shuttles and the chance to laugh it up with others who share a passion for moving down the waterways. On lakes, I normally go alone so that I can take my time savoring the vistas, taking in the landscape, and watching for birds and other wildlife. Here in the Sioux Falls area, there are plenty of opportunities for both types of kayaking cruises.

(Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls - December 7, 2010)

Now though, the kayak is in the garage, the rack is off the car, the lifejackets and paddles are up in the attic, and the rivers and lakes have frozen over. The long winter is upon us. My kayak will probably be serving as the car bumper in our garage until late March.

The South Dakota Canoe/Kayak Association will be presenting the annual winter conference toward the end of January at the Outdoor Campus here in Sioux Falls. By then, we will be only about 8 weeks away from first ventures on the water. For the past couple of years, there have also been safety exercises for “wet-exit” and “rolling” at the YWCA swimming pool organized by the SDCKA and offered two or three times during the deep winter. I’ll be reading Canoe/Kayaking and Sea Kayaking magazines more closely now as the weeks and months pass.

In the meantime, I may provide an occasional blog narrative, but it will be a little difficult to gather fresh material over the next three months. I’ll offer specifics on the up-coming SDCKA conference as they become available. I recommend also checking out the SDCKA blog from time to time to keep abreast of developments, and you can access that on the links to this blog.

Split Rock Creek: from McHardy Park to the Confluence with Beaver Creek

It was 34 degrees under cloudy skies with a brisk wind this morning as five of us gathered at McHardy Park in Brandon for a late season cruise down Split Rock Creek. I received an invitation to join the group yesterday and accepted the opportunity in spite of the weather conditions. This cruise was organized, as so many over this summer, by David and Mary Finck and Larry Brtaaten, all directors of the South Dakota Canoe and Kayak Association (SDCKA).

We first shuttled cars down to the bridge over Split Rock Creek at the confluence with Beaver Creek, a river distance of about six miles.

All of us were dressed in layers with heavy jackets, appropriate shoes or boots, water resistant gloves, and winter hats. I had a change of clothing and towels in the hatch-covered compartments of my kayak, and I am sure that others did as well.

A few snowflakes were drifting in the air as we set off from McHardy Park, but that faded quickly. The water level was high, so we were fairly confident that we would make it down the creek without having to get out of the kayaks. The flow was fast as well, and we were able to make it down the six miles in an hour and a-half. There are a few minor rapids along the way, but all of us slipped through without incident. While there were a couple of times where kayaks ran aground on shelving bottom, those that got hung up were able to quickly back off or shift direction and return to the deepest channel. Overall, the creek flow was smooth, the channel was three or four feet deep in most places, and there were no obstacles to our passage.

This section of Split Rock Creek flows along high banks that roughly parallel Highway 11 that runs from Sioux Falls to Brandon. The banks are sometimes 30 or more feet high along one side and five or six feet on the other. So, the creek is quite sheltered from the wind along most of its course. Very soon after our “take-out,” Split Rock Creek enters into the Big Sioux River.

Soon after beginning our cruise, we came across the first of three deer sightings of the cruise. The deer were up on the bank in the trees, and my cold fingers would not work fast enough to get the camera out for a photograph.

We also came across a bald eagle sitting high in a tree over the creek. The eagle seemingly just sat on a branch and watched us approach.

As we passed, he took off and alighted in another tree, again on a branch over the creek, and waited until we reached his new perch. He did this three times, and we all felt a special moment in company with this eagle. Following an eagle down the river from tree to tree is an uncommon pleasure.

The five kayaks keep pretty close company down the creek. I think that we all recognized the risk of paddling in very cold water with an air temperature just above freezing, and we wanted to stick close in the event that a kayak should capsize. In these circumstances, it is best to have assistance available. After all, becoming immersed in such water with a few miles yet to travel could be uncomfortable or dangerous.

Throughout the trip today, the light conditions changed rapidly. Sometimes it was heavily overcast, and then the sun would peak out through the clouds, some blue would appear, and the visible specter of light would be markedly changed. The, the darkness would come again and shadows would disappear.

The “take-out” at the bridge was in an area of fast current and a steep sandy bank. We clamored out of our kayaks and dragged them up on the bank. From there, we had to make a path through dense brush to the road.

We loaded up the kayaks, bid a tentative farewell to the paddling season, and wished each other well until we gather again in late January at the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls for the winter canoe/kayak conference.