Since Texas Water Safari was postponed due to flooding I switched to plan B, packed my camera gear and Sea Wind canoe and drove to Wyoming instead of flying to Texas.

In my desperation I ignored weather forecast. My trip turned to be shorter than planned. In Wyoming I experienced heavy rains, thunderstorms, hail, strong wind, cold, and flooding. Nevertheless, I achieved my main goal – exploring the paddling access to Medicine Bow River Arm of the Seminoe Reservoir.

First, you need to drive to Hanna, a small mining town (hwy 72 from I-80). Then, there is about 25 miles of a dirt road – county road 291, and then a short narrow road to a boat ramp. This is a good gravel road traveled by RVs and boat trailers. Of course, after heavy rains driving conditions may be more challenging.

So, despite of rain and some water flowing across my road I reached the boat ramp in a pretty remote location. There were some people there, but they were hiding inside their campers. I took a short paddling upstream the Medicine Bow Arm of the reservoir. The wind was quite strong, but not so bad (actually good for training). However, when I got surrounded by thunderstorms with intense lightning I gave up and returned to my car.

I decided not to camp there – I was afraid that the road could get too muddy or washout during night, so I drove back to Hanna and I-80. Finally, I ended up for night at a motel in Rawlins. It was raining all night and till noon of the next day. When rain was stopping it was cold and windy. So, I stopped at Fort Steele to see the North Platte River, and then return home.

Since Wyoming Outback Challenge (annual 44 miles paddling race) is gone, we decided to make a longer training run on the North Platte River this year (May 22-23). We means me with Pixel, Rob Bean and two Kruger canoes.

On Friday, May 21 we run a shuttle between Seminoe State Park and Bennett Peak campground which we reached at sunset after a stop at Saratoga. Saturday was a full day of paddling starting around 7:00 am and stopping for a night 12+ hours later between Dugway and the Seminoe Reservoir. On Sunday, we paddled the last few miles of the river and then a lake to the North Red Hills campground and boat ramp. We finished paddling around 4 pm, took a look at the dam, drove to Saratoga for a dinner, and recovered our second car from the Bennett Peak campground at sunset. The Snowy Range road was still closed, so we returned to Fort Collins through Walden and Cameron Pass.

We experienced every possible weather Wyoming can offer: a very warm night and morning at the Bennett Peak campground, winter conditions (rain, snow, wind) during the second half of out first day, chilly night in tents covered by frost, sunny second day: calm and turning windy in the afternoon.

Wildlife: one moose, plenty of deer, proghorns, bald eagles, pelicans, and a lot of other birds.

Since I bought annual passes for Larimer County Parks I am paddling on the Horsetooth Reservoir quite regularly this springtime. I started with Sea Wind canoe when the lake was still covered by ice. Now, I am paddling mostly Thunderbolt kayak, but I am going to use other boats too (at least for photography purposes).

I love early (and late) season on the Horsetooth since there is very little or no motor boat traffic. However, paddling workout with a racing kayak is always more challenging here than on a smaller body of water like Beaver Pond in Arapaho Bend Natural Area. This narrow reservoir is about 6 miles long. You can make a 14 mile loop by paddling around the lake. Many more miles can be added if you follow closely the shore and visit all coves.

Last time (April 18, 2010) I started at the South Bay and paddled total 11+ miles to the island next to Eltuck coves and back. The water level is high enough to make it an island now (a favorite place for Canadian geese).

Pictures above were shot with Canon PowerShot G11. I still don’t have a waterproof housing for that camera. It travels in a small Pelican case. The last picture came from my paddling camera on duty, Pentax Optio W30. I am waiting for reviews of the last Pentax model (W90), but my W30 is still working fine.

Related posts:
Icy Horsetooth Reservoir – Opening Lake Paddling Season
Cost of Paddling – Access to Local, County, State and Federal Waters
160 Lakes and Reservoirs of Colorado

It is not easy to catch good a paddling water in the South Platte River in eastern Colorado. 5 years ago I made a series of trips on the South Platte above and below Fort Morgan. My trip reports had a common title Paddling on Wet Sand …

It seems that the South Platte has a pretty good flow this winter, so I selected 20 miles above Fort Morgan for my New Year paddling. Sunny weather with temperature above freezing (well at least before sunset), a little bit of breeze, and the river flow of ~750 cfs at Weldona.

I was joined by Rob Bean for this trip. We paddled our Kruger canoes (Sea Wind and Sawyer Loon), probably, the best boat choice for winter paddling. We started at Goodrich (hwy 144) around 12:30 and finished 5 hours later under the Rainbow Bridge at Fort Morgan.

The river was slower than I expected – much wider than between Evans and Kuner, but pretty shallow with multiple channels. It was also much nicer than you could see around Greeley. No feedlot aroma! We had three dam portages. The last one over the Upper Platte and Beaver Canal dam was pretty long, but snow on ground helped with portaging.

You can compare my pictures with those shot five years ago during my 30 mile Texas Water Safari training run. I had much lower water (~400 cfs at Weldona) and a nicer weather in May.

Connie helped us with a shuttle. We finished our trip together with a dinner at Fort Morgan’s Memories.

December is time for me to decide where I am going to paddle next year and to purchase some annual access passes. I live in Fort Collins in northern Colorado. Most of my paddling takes place in my local water within a short driving range. I am interested primary in flatwater paddling and photography.

During last September paddling trip to Nebraska with Rob Bean I used my Subaru Outback to carry our two Kruger canoes along Dismal and Niobrara Rivers.

I have 58″ Yakima crossbars on Subaru and Ezee-V racks. We carried my Sea Wind (28″ beam) upside down as usual on crossbars and put Rob’s Sawyer Loon on V racks. I transport a variety of my racing boats and kayaks on these racks (see my review), but it was first time I used them for a “fat” canoe. Of course, in the case of wide boat straps need to be used instead of bungee loops which work fine for Thunderbolt kayak or Surfrigger. I should point out that Loon is much lighter and a little bit narrower than the expedition heavy Sea Wind.

All transportation went pretty well including a longer driving from Mullen to Valentine with a strong cross wind. You can see more pictures of these two Kruger boats in the Dismal River slide show. Pictures presented here were shot by Rob with his Pentax Optio W30.

Related posts:
Dismal River 2009 – Slideshow from Paddling Nebraska Sandhills
Ez-Vee Roof Racks from Kayak Pro – Review

In the last weekend of September I went with Connie for paddling trip to Mullen, Nebraska. We took our two dogs (Pixels and Dax) and Sea Wind canoe. In Mullen we met Rob Bean with another Kruger canoe (Sawyer Loon). Me, Rob and Pixel managed to run two river trips. Connie helped us with a shuttle. We all enjoyed a beautiful early fall weather.

The first one was 36 mile paddling on the Dismal River from highway 97 (Mullen) to highway 83 (Thedford). It took us nearly 10 hours. Next day, we drove to Valentine and paddled 15 easy miles on the Niobrara River.

I prepared a 40 picture slide show from the Dismal River: