For a mid-week adventure Steve and I headed for Jordan to kayak Sand Creek. The creek is listed in Paddling Minnesota guide book as a white water route with class I and II rapids in early spring/high water. It's still kind of early spring now, but the water levels were low, which is good since we are not white water paddlers. Our boats are not made for it either. The route is only 3.5 miles but proved to be a lot of fun for a couple hacks like us. We did the standard, leave a bike at the take-out, and then drove to the put-in. Once in the boat, the rapids came quick, with the first set only a hundred yards from the start. It was a really exciting ride, most of the time the boat was more like a bumper car, slamming into rocks and submerged logs. The danger factor was quite low, which makes it more fun, if you dump it, all you had to do was stand up. The scenery was great too, when we actually had a chance to look around between the chains of rapids. The creek has so many twists and turns, we crossed under the same train tracks six times. For some reason this is where the best rapids are. Steve broke his paddle on one of these sets when his boat got sideways and stated to roll, putting the paddle down to brace himself snapped it like a twig. Just before this incident we were talking about using shitty paddles for this sort of thing. Steve's wallet will be a little lighter now (275 $ for a new one, Ouch!) On the plus side we got to do a field repair by jamming a stick inside of the paddle shaft, duct tape would have made the repair bomber. Note: add duct tape to possibles bag. Despite the broken paddle the rest of the ride went well. Both of us will be back again when the water is higher, so get your gear together and come with ,you won't want to miss it!
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| Just after some rapids |
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| All the train bridges look the same, old and crumbly, very cool |
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| This is where Steve broke the paddle, his boat is full of water too |
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| fine tuning |
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| Paddle is good as new from this distance |
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| better scenery toward the end |
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| This is where we get out! |
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