August 24 - Hwy 212 bridge to Walth Bay
Great night's sleep and I'm down to the boat landing by 6:30. Still a little dark and quite foggy, but enough visibility to start. Water looks good, again just a slight walleye chop and what wind there is is coming from the southeast. My buddies John Nielsen, Jim Waletzko, and Charlie Wright would love to be fishing these waters today. Unfortunately, I do not have time to catch them a stringer of walleyes.
The goal is to try to make it about 30 miles today, which hopefully gets me to the Walth Bay campground. That means I'll have about 10 miles to get to Mobridge the next day.
Paddling went well all day long, although I can see why others have gotten discouraged with these lakes.
For me, it's become boring for a number of reasons. One is the scenery is the same all day long. As you travel you look straight ahead and it seems like it takes forever to get to the point you are looking at. Then when you are away from the shore, you look over and it looks like you are standing still. Whereas on a river, you can judge your speed by looking at the shoreline. In Keith Drury's guidebook, as I read between the lines, I got the feeling he too got discouraged paddling this section. But it must be done, so we keep going. Also I still remember the look on the face of the guy with the rubber raft and his comment: "I hate these lakes".
I probably should not complain because I am fortunate to have the tailwinds and calm water. Of course, I will complain once more - it's to be 100 degrees plus again today.
The day went well until about 3:00. Then I could see black clouds both in front of me and behind me. Around me it was dead still, and the water was calm but you could feel something was about to happen. Sure enough, it did. At about 4:00 to the west coming off the hills was a big dust storm. Even this old guy knew he'd better get to shore fast - which I did.
Within about 15 minutes the winds were just a howling and you could hardly see in front of your face because of the sand. This lasted for about a good half hour. Fortunately, I was able to take cover behind some brush until it subsided.
I got no rain out of this, although it took another good 40 minutes or more before the waves subsided so I could start paddling again. Skies were still really black and eerie in front of me and behind, but it seemed like it was moving away from me, so I didn't feel threatened. I decided to continue on.
Made it to the Walth Bay campground at about 8:00 and set up camp. Found out that there had been tornadoes both behind me and around me. Right where I had started that day there were tornadoes that destroyed some cattle and there were tornado warnings just north of Mobridge which was 10 miles away.
Again, like so many times, I feel very fortunate - must be somebody looking out for this old codger!
Time for bed, arms and shoulders are aching. Goal for tomorrow is to get to Mobridge, update my journal and continue on to Bismarck, which is about 100 miles away. But who's counting!
The goal is to try to make it about 30 miles today, which hopefully gets me to the Walth Bay campground. That means I'll have about 10 miles to get to Mobridge the next day.
Paddling went well all day long, although I can see why others have gotten discouraged with these lakes.
For me, it's become boring for a number of reasons. One is the scenery is the same all day long. As you travel you look straight ahead and it seems like it takes forever to get to the point you are looking at. Then when you are away from the shore, you look over and it looks like you are standing still. Whereas on a river, you can judge your speed by looking at the shoreline. In Keith Drury's guidebook, as I read between the lines, I got the feeling he too got discouraged paddling this section. But it must be done, so we keep going. Also I still remember the look on the face of the guy with the rubber raft and his comment: "I hate these lakes".
I probably should not complain because I am fortunate to have the tailwinds and calm water. Of course, I will complain once more - it's to be 100 degrees plus again today.
The day went well until about 3:00. Then I could see black clouds both in front of me and behind me. Around me it was dead still, and the water was calm but you could feel something was about to happen. Sure enough, it did. At about 4:00 to the west coming off the hills was a big dust storm. Even this old guy knew he'd better get to shore fast - which I did.
Within about 15 minutes the winds were just a howling and you could hardly see in front of your face because of the sand. This lasted for about a good half hour. Fortunately, I was able to take cover behind some brush until it subsided.
I got no rain out of this, although it took another good 40 minutes or more before the waves subsided so I could start paddling again. Skies were still really black and eerie in front of me and behind, but it seemed like it was moving away from me, so I didn't feel threatened. I decided to continue on.
Made it to the Walth Bay campground at about 8:00 and set up camp. Found out that there had been tornadoes both behind me and around me. Right where I had started that day there were tornadoes that destroyed some cattle and there were tornado warnings just north of Mobridge which was 10 miles away.
Again, like so many times, I feel very fortunate - must be somebody looking out for this old codger!
Time for bed, arms and shoulders are aching. Goal for tomorrow is to get to Mobridge, update my journal and continue on to Bismarck, which is about 100 miles away. But who's counting!
posted by Coach at 4:52 PM
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