Fishing the bar.

Corrine and I had a little free time this morning and decided to try some fishing. We went on a sand/gravel bar next to the defunct Ivan's Campground, referenced here. I saw pretty much no one else fishing except people heading down-river in boats, so that didn't bode well for our success in this area.

Fishing report - nada. It was still great to get out and wander around somewhere we hadn't been in a long time.

The river is so low right now that the little strip of water you see on the far left of this picture IS the river channel. It must be pretty deep right there as I saw some V-bottom boats cruising through it no problem.

Pylons from a collapsed bridge, left over from a couple decades ago.

A perfect start to the day

=

--Didn't end too bad either.

Laboring on Labor-Day

Today's water looked to be flatter and calmer in every way compared to the last multi-mile trip we did. A minor breeze from the N/E meant we'd plan to paddle against it on the way out and have a helping hand on the way back. 

We had planned to put-in inside the Painted-Rocks housing development but there has been a fair amount of construction in the last few years which consumed the vacant lots that used to allow water access. Next best was a level-B road ending in the water a couple miles away. We were hoping to go near the highway-14 bridge, so this tacked on well over a mile of paddling but it turned out to be a great put-in location inside a deep tail-water. 

Corrine rockin' her Alpacka.

The destination slowly but surely gets closer. The small cut in this bank on the left side of the picture (grassy looking area) is where we would have put-in if we could've gotten into Painted-Rocks. It looked like it would've been a slightly crappy hike down to the water while carrying gear, anyway.

Looking over to the opposite side of the lake, I realized that a natural beach we've camped on before really isn't too far away from here, maybe an extra 3/4-mile. May have to try and make use of that this year yet.

Nathan, Sarah, and Corrine making a break for shore, leaving me out here to fend for myself. I also noted that red boats are really popular.

Cody was out getting in some jet-ski action before the weather turns to freezing-to-death mode.

Making me some nice waves to tackle.

The lake is currently at normal pool, so the rocks really show off how much erosion they get from the water.

Red-boat group photo!

We found a couple areas where stone had been quarried out of the hills some time ago. I walked on some of the ledges and this whole thing would be pretty easy to climb around on with a rope. Each of the cuts is about 5'-6' high.

Nathan thinking about making a break for the bridge?

There's a small cave under this cliff. It kind of made me want to start looking for mud to build a pueblo city across it. I could almost stand up in the taller parts of it.

See? Basically the same thing, just needs to be scaled down a little. 

We made it back to the "ramp" and headed out. As is typical of the weather around here, about the time we wanted to turn around and paddle back, the wind had shifted to N/W so we got to run into a headwind the whole second half. It never got too bad but the 4-miles we did was plenty for me, only having a couple long paddles total under my vest.

The Great Explodini

Ever wondered what happens if you fill a carboy waaay too full when doing a primary fermentation?

Wonder no more!

I didn't see this happen so I'm only left to put the puzzle together. It must have been quite something - there was beer half way up the nearby wall. Ah well, it'll still be delicious.

Packin' it out.

I'll just let that picture up there start the post. Yes, that's right- it happened. Two Alpacka pack-rafts arrived at our house recently. This opens up a massive amount of self-shuttled river rafting for us. The possibilities are nearly endless when you can haul your bike with your raft and haul your raft with your bike.

This was not the maiden voyage for our rafts, that happened a week ago when we paddled with friends to Hickory Ridge Campground. It was touch-and-go the week prior, as to whether or not we'd even be able to go along. The rafts and gear came in on Friday (after some phone-calls and a shipment redirection), and we paddled out on Saturday morning without ever trying anything beforehand. It was a pretty awesome trip which I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of to use here. On the return leg, the waves were big enough that you would lose track of people on occasion because the swells were so big - couldn't have asked for more!

Today was to be a much tamer flat-water trip. Stuff dumped out of the car and getting ready to go. 

Corrine using an inflation bag to get her raft filled up. I was amazed at how fast this goes. 

A couple minutes later, you have this:

Dry-bag strapped on and heading out.

 A somewhat rare shot of me.

We turned around in a little cove/cesspool and headed back to finish up in our limited time.

Already back to the ramp to head out. We'd averaged about 2.5mph up to this point with pretty easy-going effort, which I was pretty happy with, since these boats are not designed for long distance flat-water paddling. Now to find a few rapids and get some real use out of them!

Will Roll For Brews

Saturday was August's Fat Tire Ride in Des Moines. I hadn't done one of these since last year so it was a good time. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the route ran most of the way inside a tree canopy next to a creek. The ride destination / half-way point is where the pictures start here, I'm not really sure why that happened. I think it may have been due to using my phone for navigation to the Rock Bottom Brewery in Clive, so it was shirking its camera duties.

The first picture is at Rock Bottom's outdoor patio. They've got some great beer here. I tried a belgian-white, a imperial IPA, a espresso/coconut stout, and some sort of raspberry infused amber ale. We ended up getting here well ahead of the group because at 45-minutes past the start time, nobody was moving yet so we just took off. 

A bunch of bikes out here by the patio after the group arrived. It was pretty impressive indoors - shoulder to shoulder people standing around.

Taking off from the brewery, heading toward Valley-West Mall. I didn't realize previously that you could even ride out this far all on one trail from down-town.

During the return trip, we saw some singletrack that Corrine recognized from a ladies' MTB clinic that she did last year. We had two C/X bikes and one carbon road-bike...why not? The section we rode was short but fun and we called it quits due to having no idea where we'd be led.

Back onto the pavement, mini-bummer. 

We rode past this really long field of flowers which Corrine tells me are Naked Ladies/Amaryllis.

There was such a huge number of flowers that I had to ride past and take a video. The roaring noise is a couple of F-22s (I think) cruising over. They'd flown over a few times while we were eating at Rock-Bottom earlier as well.

One of a couple minor problem spots that I saw along the river while planning a float trip in my head. This one is easily passable though.

The actual problem spot which would probably require portaging. This is a low-head dam, aka Weir.

Cody possibly heading up to or finishing a bunny-hop? Either way, I'm sure it was epic.

This was a huge relief. The last time I needed to transfer rockets, I had no idea what to do or where I could go for help, but I'm filing this one away for next time. I'm all set now.

Returning to El Baitshop in the down-town area, it's time for some food and a little more beer. 

A Tank No. 7 ought to do the trick. 

 Riding across the river back to the vehicle. Des Moines police dept. in the background there.