I called to inquire about the difficulty of this particular section of the river before we went. I explained that we had never been on anything other than a lake before, and asked if they thought this section would be okay for us. They said it would be easy and we would have no troubles. I was worried about the boat capsizing and one of us getting hurt. They said not to worry about it. They should have changed that statement to "you will not be seriously injured, probably" since both of us finished with a few more cuts and bruises than we started with.
We were going 19 miles down the river, so we had a lot of ground to cover. We started with me in the front and Whit in the back of the canoe. Nala and the cooler were in the middle. The water was smooth as can be for the first 1/2 mile or so, then it got a bit snotty. As far as rapids go, these were tiny. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that they gave us trouble. One thing that needs to be understood is that we were in a canoe, one of the most difficult crafts to take through rapids. They do not have their own flotation like rafts. We took the first few sets of rapids as well as can be expected from novices, but were both yelling at each other and taking on water with every wave we hit. We pulled over at the first available spot to bail out the canoe.
At this point we were freezing, a bit scared, and quite irritable at each other to say the least. The person in the rear of the canoe steers the canoe while the person in the front paddles like there is no tomorrow. On a couple sets of rapids, the canoe started going sideways and Whit was just barely able to get us semi-straight again before we tipped over. When going sideways, there was not much I could do to stop us, hence my reason for yelling at Whit. This in turn made her yell back at me that she was doing all she could and also where I could stick my paddle and various other objects.
After hitting several more sets of rapids in the first few miles and pulling over each time to bail out the canoe, we stopped to have a serious pow-wow. A decision was made that there was too much weight in the front of the canoe. I also decided that Whit was not the correct person for steering the boat. It turned out that we were right on both accounts. I moved to the rear of the boat and moved Nala and the cooler further back. We set off again in this new configuration and found ourselves at State Bridge just around the next corner. The boat felt more stable and the front end was much higher than before. We were still a bit shaken up from the trip so far, so I decided to get out and talk to a rafting group that had just taken out. They said that the rapids did not get any harder than what we had already been through and that we had already traveled 4 miles. We had been on the water less than an hour and our trip was supposed to take 8-9 hours. This gave us renewed confidence and we decided to push on.
We hit several sets of rapids just after State Bridge and learned a valuable lesson. The person in the rear of the boat needs quite a bit of strength to turn the boat quickly in fast moving water. They key is paddling backwards. Whit did not have the strength to turn the boat as quickly as needed which was why we were having so much trouble in the rapids. After figuring this out and going through several rapids without swamping the boat or going sideways, we finally started to get the hang of it and enjoy ourselves.
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. Mostly. On multiple occasions, the river briefly split into 2-3 different sections and we had to choose which way to go. Most of the time we could not see for more than 100 feet or so of each section. If we saw another boat or raft in front of us, we always took the path they did. On a lot of these splits in the river, one side would get too shallow to navigate, while the main channel would go down the other side. It was often very hard to tell which one was which. On one such occasion we realized we had chosen the wrong side about 20 feet before the river split. We attempted to make a quick move to the other side. All this succeeded in doing was taking us down the wrong side of the river completely sideways. The canoe then hit bottom and began to tip, so Whit immediately jumped out of the boat. This made the canoe and the rest of it's occupants tip the rest of the way over instantaneously, which is how Nala and I got most of our cuts and bruises for the day.
We got the canoe to shore, straightened it out, and headed back out into deeper water. The rest of the trip was relatively calm, sunny, and absolutely gorgeous. All in all a great trip, plus we learned a LOT about river canoeing.
After the float trip, we packed up and headed to South Dakota. We had the two dirtbikes in the trailer and we also had the Nighthawk, so both of us had to drive. I drove the first half on the Nighthawk while Whit drove the rig. The second half was through the Black Hills of SD, which Whit did not want to drive the rig through, so we stopped to fill up on gas and switch vehicles. I had a nerve racking drive through extremely curvy and steep roads with thousands of bikes on them due to the Sturgis rally, while Whit had a beautiful mountain drive on the motorcycle. I feel like I got screwed in that deal. We arrived in Nemo, SD with no issues and found our camping spot for the next 2 weeks. If you have never been there, the Black Hills are spectacular.
A couple days after our arrival, we decided to take a ride to Devil's Tower. It was about 90 miles each way, so a nice ride on the bike. Or at least should have been. Most of the ride was on I-90. We had headwinds and the bike could not hold 75 mph two-up. It overheated several times on the ride. More about this later. We arrived at Devil's Tower a bit annoyed with the bike, but the sight of the tower made that disappear in a heartbeat.
We walked the loop around the tower and met a 6-foot friend on the way.
We arrived back at the rig that night with a decision to make. We had mostly ridden the Nighthawk separately until this point, but had quickly found out that it was just not suited for high speed two-up riding. We decided that we would either get rid of it and not have a street bike, or get something that we could ride two up at any speed that Whit could still ride by herself. After doing some research and taking a trip to a couple of nearby dealerships, I narrowed it down to a few bikes. I took Whit for a test ride on a Honda ST1300 and she really liked it.
We looked at a few others (BMW 1200RT, Kawasaki Concourse 14, and Yamaha FJR1300) but none of them appealed to us. We talked about it for a couple of days, but Whit did not think she would be comfortable riding the ST1300 by herself. I disagreed and we decided that she would take it for a test drive and if she felt comfortable with it then we would have our new bike. She took it for a ride the next day and it was ours about an hour later. Thank you to Makia for bringing us the title for the Nighthawk so we could trade it in. We have put a couple thousand miles on it in the two weeks since then and we love it.
We shared our camping area with two horses, Lakota and Solo. Whit had never really been around horses so she was over at the fence petting and feeding them every chance she got.
We visited Rushmore and Crazyhorse in the next few days. We decided not to go to Crazyhorse until it was finished, so we just took pictures from the highway. It will be an incredible sculpture when completed. Rushmore is tiny in comparison. The black speck on Crazyhorse's extended arm is a full sized truck.
The trails in the Black Hills are excellent. They are not as steep and less rocky than the trails here in Colorado, so a bit easier and just as beautiful.
Above is the view from the trail along the ridge above Nemo. Can you spot our RV?
Even with all the scenery and wildlife to take in on the trails, I still found time to catch a little air.
We went to Sturgis to see the rally and debauchery that it contains and came out unscathed, at least physically. It was interesting to see and we saw a couple of good bands and thousands upon thousands of motorcycles. The next time we go to South Dakota, it will most likely not be during the rally. There was just too much motorcycle traffic on the roads for the riding to be enjoyable, but thankfully that left the trails almost deserted. On one of our last days in SD we visited Wind Cave National Park. It is a massive cave system where they are still finding new sections. 140 miles and counting I believe. Definitely worth a visit.
We made it back to Denver safe and sound and got ready for a visit from Whit's parents. aka the in-laws. They flew in for a week and we had a great time. We visited the Butterfly Pavilion with Joyce the day after their arrival. The Atlas Moth in the picture below had a wingspan of about 10 inches!
The next day we headed to the cabin for a few days of relaxation. We went up to Grand Mesa to Land's End on our second day.
We also hiked up to the grove of trees and added our names for 2013. Eric and Carrie made it to the top like old pros even though they had only been at altitude for a few days. Almost 1,000 feet in elevation gain in less than 1.5 miles. Great Job!
The late afternoon storms made for some great light shows from the deck.
After we got them safely back over the mountains and to the airport, we went to see Dave Matthews and Snoop Dogg.
The concert was a great finale to our summer vacation. We had a wonderful time this summer. Our only complaint is that it was not nearly long enough. We are planning on going to Alaska next summer, so that trip should be much longer and even more beautiful. We are back to work now and will be for the next few months so this will be the last blog post for awhile. Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone!
