After dinner at Elmer’s Texas Barbecue we drove to Glendalough State Park and put our canoe in Annie Battle Lake. I was concerned about overdoing Laurie so at about 1/3 of the way around I asked her if she’d like to head back. She said that she had expected that we would go all of the way around and that that was fine with her. So we kept on. There were a couple of young guys fishing at the campground across the lake, so we didn’t stop there. We did paddle through a lot of bullrushes, and learned that it was a bit buggier, and that there were spiders there too. There was a boat ramp and a couple of foundations on the other side of the lake too.
The best part was when we got to the stream that comes over from Molly Stark Lake. We decided to try to paddle up it. Laurie was more game for it than I was, I was a bit conservative. It was pretty narrow and meandered quite a bit, I wasn’t sure I could get the canoe turned around and didn’t relish the idea of backing all of the way out. But despite my trepidation we were fine. There were of course more bullrushes, and we passed a campsite with some people in it. There was a footbridge over the stream and underneath it had a bird’s nest, we could see the three little bird’s head peeping out at us. There were Red-Winged Blackbirds flying back and forth above us and occasional branches of trees that we had to duck under. Laurie was delighted, I was a bit more nervous. We didn’t make it to Molly Stark lake, that would have required a portage through some areas overgrown with vegetation. We were able to get the canoe turned around after a couple of trys by backpaddling into a quiet area and letting the current pull the bow around.
The trip out was almost too fast, not because it was scary fast, but because we couldn’t sightsee as much. But it sure was fun to go downstream, I look forward to some trips down local rivers. We got better with our paddling technique, but draws and prys will sure be nice when doing small rivers like the one we just did, sharp turns are not our forte quite yet. We paddled about three miles and were on the water from about 7:00 until about 9:15 or so. We came back in with all of the state park rowboats that were out on the lake, but I was the only guy there who was able to pick his boat up and carry it.
We need to figure out something to hold water bottles, and a dry place to keep maps and light jackets. Laurie needs to wear sunglasses and I need to make sure I’ve got my clear glasses along. It got kind of dark right there at the end. I think we’re going to figure out how to hang our Mountainsmith fanny packs off of the thwarts. I’ve got things figured out with the ropes and the straps and the location of the canoe on the rack, I’ve moved it forward quite a bit so that it doesn’t hang over the back, now I don’t have to back it into the garage. I also made the straps that peek out from under the fenders for the forward ropes to tie to. I don’t think the aft rope is very necessary, but it is, as Charlie said, “security”.
I was also able to finish my overhead hanging system in the garage today. I think I’ve got about $40 in the whole thing, you buy them for about $120. It works well, but I’m going to put up some security straps, or actually I think I’ll put up some static straps and use the winch and pulley system as the security backup.
It was a wonderful date nite, we stopped in Battle Lake for ice cream at Granny’s Pantry in Battle Lake MN.
