Nearly three years ago, we went out and paddled the “Dalbow Loop“. This 9 mile loop around an island on the Mississippi river was a wonderful way to paddle and swim a bit near the end of the paddling season. Today felt like a great day to recreate that adventure. We brought the same C4 canoe but different people. Today it was Danelle, Sonora, Tania, and Hogan [me]. We were prepared to swim and have a generally good time.
Heading out to the lake, it was overcast with a chance of rain. In fact, it started raining when we arrived to unload the boat. We thought we would give it the old college try and went out anyway. Tania doesn’t paddle much and Sonora is out of practice. Therefore, I was pumping away in the back of the boat trying to get us up the back side of the island to the sand bars at the top of the island on the channel side.
As it turns out, the river was much higher than last time and there were no sand bars. This also means that there were not any beaches to swim at. We had snacks and drinks in the boat, to keep us from starving, but it ruined the fun of the trip. Then about a mile from the finish, a carp jumped into the boat at Sonora’s feet. Tania laughed until it flipped its way under Sonora’s seat and came back to her. We pulled over so Danelle could get the fish out of the boat. From there, the boat smelled bad of carp.
We stopped at QT and got ice cream after the paddle to make it all better. Next time, I’ll have to pay attention to the river level before we go out!
Hogan Haake