Minnehaha Creak Kayaking

Took the day off today for a little paddling adventure. Since it's early Spring I thought it would be a good day to do another section of Minnehaha Creek. Chris dropped me off with my kayak at the Taco Bell where Nik and I ended our paddle trip last summer. As I launched the water seemed to be moving pretty well and I was looking forward to a great day on the water. It was cool and mostly cloudy, but there was not much wind and with my wet suite and a layer of poly, I was very comfortable.

It wasn't more that a few hundred yards down stream that I got hung up on a sand bar. It was in a slow moving wetland, and I had to get out of my boat and walk 20 feet our so to get back to deeper water. Little did I know that this was going to be the theme of the day! Even though the dam at Grays Bay opened up on Lake Minnetonka on May 1st, the amount of snow this winter and rain this Spring has been far below average. So the water level on the creek was at least 6 inches lower than optimal. In the the 6 miles that I paddled over the next 3 hours I probably had to climb out of my kayak and walk at least 50 times. There were stretches where over the course of a quarter mile I walked 80% of the time. The cycle was, walk 150 feet, find deeper water, climb in the boat, paddle around a bend and get stuck, climb out walk 50 feet, climb back in, paddle and get stuck. Arg!

Well, I was reminded of an old golf saying that I've converted for this trip. A bad day kayaking is still better than a good day at work! I did my best to make the most of the situation. I am now really good and quickly and gracefully getting in and out of my kayak in very shallow water. Something I got to practice more on this trip and in my entire experience as a kayaker! So, I've got that going for me. The other interesting part is this stretch of the creek actually had two portages. In the 1800's before the dam at Grays Bay was build, there were a string of grain mills on Minnehaha creek. Two of these dams still exist and you have to portage around them. Pretty unique for an urban padding setting.

I finally ran out of time and had to call Chris for a pick up somewhere in Edina. I pulled out at a cool little spot near a 5 foot waterfall. There I waited until Chris eventually found me. It was a fun trip and I look forward to the next section, with hopefully a bit more water!