Lake Oahe

“You may be right, I may be crazy..but it may be just a lunatic you’re looking for.”-William Joel

I do read all the comments, thank you…I hope to respond sometime..this paddling thing kinda gets in the way.  Thank you for following!!!

Wednesday July 30th

I awoke and was relieved to find that the bank didn’t crumble into Oahe and the weather was perfect.  This enabled me to make it past Mobridge today, landing at Bridge City Marina.  Mobridge is unique because you can actually see a fast food restuarant from the river.  This is a situation that can not be ignored. I pulled off, hiked through some weeds (watched for rattlesnakes), across a railroad track, up another hill and voila I was there…not sure I would typically go through all this trouble for a flame broiled burger. Yes, river life creates atypical behavior.  After a tasty meal I paddled to Bridge City Marina to call it a night. I arrived after 8:00 so it was closed, I simply set up my tent on a slice of earth and relaxed. As I was ready to call it a night when boaters arrived and we had a nice chat about my trip and South Dakota. They were kind enough to give me a liquid parting gift and ice cold water-a true treat. I am making great mileage on Oahe so far….

 

Thursday July 31st

I woke up and headed to the marina to introduce myself to the owner and let him know that I stayed on a nice piece of lawn. I had a nice morning with Mike Norder and his two sons Josh and Kraken.  Mike took great care of me and provided me with a pizza for breakfast at no cost…truly a great family. Mike unfortunately is a Denver Broncos fan so we had a nice chat about how great Tom Brady is compared to Peyton.  I also weighed myself for the first time and was shocked to find out I am down about 25 pounds…almost too much. I need more “bad” food to eat.

I am now in the heart of the South Dakota Plains, the vastness and the emptiness of the land is startling, really almost spooky. I paddled today without seeing many people and that combined with the landscape left me with an eerie feeling. This was exacerbated when I arrived at my campsite- Dodge Draw.  Dodge Draw really isn’t a campground, it is simply a bunch of out of place trees (amongst the empty plains), a boat ramp, and an outhouse. I arrived late in the evening and already had an eerie feeling about my surroundings and then when I arrived at Dodge Draw I felt like I was the last person on planet earth.  No one was there, the surrounding plains made me feel like I was in a scene from Mad Max. It was one of the few times I was a bit spooked…normally when I get to camp I am fairly comfortable. This was unlike any other camping experience to date. Oh, and I had another idiot canoeist moment when I dropped the lid to my pot in the water at the boat ramp.  The water is clear enough to see to the bottom..so rather than hop in and grab it I played hockey with my paddle until I was able to move it close enough to grab it.  I’m sure that was quite the scene. Finally, when I went to bed skies were clear and the weather was perfect .. I decided I didn’t need my rain fly.  Yep, storms blew in about 2:00am. It was a mad, sleep fog scramble  to erect the rain fly.  A very unusual day indeed.  

Friday August 1st

I survived the evening at Dodge Draw and awoke to another nice but windy morning. To this point, lake Oahe has been great,-this changed today. The weather has slightly warm, and the wind has been calm. I headed out to a slight headwind which turned into about an 18mph paddle grind.  li headed out to windy but conditions ok to paddle.  I fought it for a few hours and decided to call it a day after making about 12 miles in 7 hours.  The fact I was close to Swan Creek Recreation swayed the decision to call it a day. I met some great people in the marina restaurant including an displaced Eagles fan, Russ.   Somehow Russ is a Philly fan even though he has lived in SD his entire life. He didn’t want to spend the entire time revisiting the Pats Eagles Superbowl, so we talked about life in SD and fishing on Oahe.  After an exhausting day I paddled back across the bay since I could camp close to my boat.  As I was about to fall asleep I saw flashes of lightning and observed a fascinating Mother Nature show…only lightning flashes were getting closer and closer. I sure hope there isn’t a tornado wrapped in that system. There was no tornado but severe storms, it must have rained about two inches with many lightning strikes-I survived. 

Saturday August 2nd

Ideal conditions returned today and I was able to have another productive canoeing afternoon.  The Plains aren’t freaking me out as much so it was a quite comfortable day.  Lake Oahe is similar to Cat 1 and Black Cat in that it is basically empty, I see almost exclusively fishing boats and no recreational boaters.  Those that come out here basically have a beautiful lake in a magical surrounding to themselves.  Walleye is the fish of choice here as well. I made it to Bush’s landing around 6:30 and was hoping to walk to town for a meal…I was fortunate that a fishing boat pulled in just I was going to begin the trek and they offered me a ride to West Prairie Resort. The hamburger here was without question the best of my trip do far. I met the owners, Terry and Tammy Nelson, and they were extremely hospitable and were curious about my journey.  Also, I met Andy Swanson in the resort who had seen me struggling on Friday(he commented “looks like you were paddling uphill”) afternoon. He bought my meal and also provided me with some tasty walleye. It was one of those evenings that make paddling hour after hour after hour special. The owners also took me to a campground gathering. I met some of the coolest folks, the type that make you feel totally at home, and they were fascinated with my voyage. A big thank you to Matt Wendell, Dave Panzer Sr., Scott Meese (captain my captain). Scott divorced himself of 5 POUNDS of beef jerky for me…unbelievable.  I can’t thank all if them enough for making tonight one of the truly special moments of the trip. Today will stand out-without question.

 

Sunday August 3rd

I find myself 55 miles from completing Oahe and would like to finish tomorrow.  I had an opportunity to complete a portage which would have shaved 13 miles off the trip. I opted not too. I would like to say it is because of my integrity and wanting to paddle “all” the miles bit that would be misleading. Canoe idiot played out once again, I pulled to the side of the lake where I thought the portage point was suppose to be and observed a path up the plains. This must be the portage point..so I hiked up to investigate. I hiked through weeds, tall grass, and unforgiving plains landscape. I arrived at the top and realized this wasn’t the portage point.  I arrived at the conclusion hauling all my crap up this terrain wasn’t worth it, give me the 13 miles of paddling and conditions are favorable..if it was really windy I probably would have completed the portage.

Skies threatened all day but no rain materialized. What did materialize were flies. My goodness they came to play today. They swarmed my boat around 3:00 and stayed all day. There must have been about 300 flies in my canoe, it was crazy. I did feel better about this when a fisherman, Jamie, said “How are the flies?” and mentioned all boaters deal with them this time of year. I thought I had a particular appeal to the fly. They continued to plague me as I established my campsite, I had to build a “fly relief” fire.  At one point, I looked at my pants and there were 8-10 of them clustered like a football huddle.  I am not a fan of the fly especially after today.

 I am about 30 miles from finishing the lake. I feel blessed that conditions have been favorable, this is no typical but I’ll take it.

Monday August 4th

Dam Day-or so I thought.  I woke this morning at 5:00 and was on the lake by 6:00 determined to make it to Oahe Dam and “sayonara” to the last of the massive lakes.  This was a plan that started out in good shape.  Well, after a crazy lake crossing, fighting rain and 2-3 foot waves, and hard paddling I found myself 3 miles from the dam at 4:00.  It’s in the bag. Oahe then fought back..the wind picked up and it was Cat 1 (Peck) like.  She roared.  I made it into a bay and thought “I can’t possibly get pinned in 3 miles from the dam after paddling like crazy today.”  I waited for about two hours and was determined to make it..so I headed back out.  It was a mistake.  I made it to the next bay and the situation deteriorated…the waves made me really nervous (ok frightened), I had to work my way around the point of the bay and back into it..I managed somehow.  I felt relieved to be back safely on shore.  This round clearly goes to Oahe.  I’ll make it to the dam tomorrow.

Today is my wife’s birthday and I feel like it would have been nice to see her…we will rendezvous on Labor Day weekend.