Paddling with my Bro.

Had a nice morning paddle with my brother Dave today. Nice calm water with a light breeze.  It’s really nice to have someone to kayak with, I don’t realize how much I miss that dynamic until I have it. Thank you Brother for a great weekend.

Getting to know El Coyote

I have given each of my kayaks a name, inspired by the their looks and characteristics. My first boat was a Pelican Pursuit 100, as the model number says it’s 10 feet long (100 = 10 ft) with a light blue hull. So, because it was small, blue and mine, I named it “Papa Smurf”. This  little boat was really a life changer for me. For the longest time, I had dreamed of a kayak, but the ones I wanted were $1,500! So, I had been reading a blog about what is the best kayak for a beginner, the author suggested, the best boat for a beginner is the “one you can afford”. Well, this was in 2008 when money was tight, so I could afford $200. I found Papa Smurf on sale at Walmart for $199 including the paddle! That little 10 ft board was awesome! I could toss it on top of my car and be on the water in 10 minutes. We went every where together. I paddled on Lake Michigan at Peninsula State Park near Green Bay, Lake Minnetonka (hundreds of miles on this lake) and even the length of Minnehaha creak from Grays Bay Dam to the Mississippi River. I paddled for 6 years with this little boat until I could  justify spending $800 on a “Real Kayak” 

In January of 2014 I bought a Current Designs Solara 120. This was a twin bulkhead boat which means there are dry hatches for and aft for storing gear for longer trips. This was a Roto Moulded kayak (as in rugged and HEAVY) and weighed  over 60 pounds. The coloring was yellow and green swirl. Anyone that knows me has seem a million pictures of this boat on my Facebook. I named this boat Dir Dillard Pickles the third. Don’t ask me why, it just sounded right. For short I called him, Mr Pickles. This boat got me into spring and fall paddling for the first time. It was also my partner for my first multi-day padding trip. I love this boat and still have it. Anyone that visits from out of town and welcome to use it for a paddle on Lake Minnetonka.

That brings me to the boat that will be my buddy on the Mississippi River. My Current Designs Vision 150. It’s 15 feed long (have you figured out the naming convention for boat length?) This boat is named El Coyote. The story is that Christina’s Mom Olga can’t pronounce the word Kayak (maybe there is no equivalent in her version of Spanish?) so called all my Kayaks, Coyote. So, in honor of my Mother in Law Olga P. Montoya, I christened this boat El Coyote. It will be the bad ass kayak that takes me from Lake Itaska in northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi Water Trail

The first third of the Mississippi River is all in the state of Minnesota. Being the awesome outdoors state that it is, Minnesota has designated the entire 700+ miles that the river runs through the state as a Water Trail. The Minnesota DNR has a great website that has detailed PDF maps of the water trail on their web site https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/mississippiriver/index.html. For those of you wanted to follow along on my journey, these maps will be a great resource. I’ll be sure to reference river mile numbers on my blog posts so you can where I am.

Getting my new Boat

I picked up my touring kayak last weekend. After much research I chose a Current Designs Vison 150 composite. My friends at CW Outfitters had a 2018 model that I got for a really good price.

I’ve been paddling with it pretty much everyday for the last week, so it’s starting to feel like home. Most of my padding and camping gear has arrived via REI, Amazon and Northwest River Supply so soon I’ll begin working on my packing process to make sure I can fit everything and load so I can access things as I need them on the river.