James, we thank ye

P8240214
Originally uploaded by Iron Bieso

Laura and I joined about a dozen SDCA members, along with some other paddlers, on Aug. 24 near Mitchell for our first run on the James River ... EVER!

It was a perfect day, and a great crew, and my goodness, with no wind and 75 degrees, hell, it felt like California weather.



Jay Heath, Larry Braaten, and Laura all had fun, and we had a great crew, including Steven and his wife, Sarah, Ryan S. from Sioux Falls, a couple from Vermillion, another from Pierre, John Adler from Pierre, Pat Wellner, naturally, one of the most gung-ho paddlers in the state, and a number of other cool cats and enthusiastic paddle mavens.

The route we took was about 12 miles of river, and from the Highway 38 bridge, there's a sweet take-out four miles east and four miles south (all paved) so no one who wants the James should complain about the arduous nature of figuring out where to start or stop.





There wasn't much for wildlife, lots of frogs if you paddled near the shore, and a great blue heron was constantly landing, then leaving, then landing again. He was probably getting tired of us following him. Laura and I heard one "barking" as it flew away, pry grumbling that we were harshing his or her mellow morning.



Jay Heath gave mad credit to me on his blog for the organization of the event, but in reality, it wasn't me, I just put it on the calendar. John Adler and Pat Wellner had GPS info for us and kept us on course, and Adler had scouted it out so we had little if any headache in terms of getting on the water and enjoying a beautiful August outdoors event.

Jay has plenty of photos on his blog, and Steven D. posted some on the SDCA site. Speaking of the club, we kicked around the idea of a September cruise, perhaps Yankton to the starting point of the May cruise on the Missouri River. All we need is some possible dates and a little bit of enthusiasm and we'll get it done, ya'll.

Peace,
Bies