Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com
Each year, a group of friends from around South Dakota gathers for a camping/kayaking trip at an agreed upon location. This year, the group chose the Minnesota River beginning at Memorial Park in Granite Falls, with the route ending in Franklin, Minnesota for their gathering.
The trip had been planned since February. Dave Au had spent time researching the route, and planning for the group’s run down the Minnesota River when he was put in touch with a local, Tom Kalahar. “We had several conversations with him because he knows the river really well,” says Au. “Tom gave us a ton of advice on where we should stay and where we should fish and we’d never actually met the guy before but he picked us up outside of Redwood Falls to give us a ride.”
The group camped their first night (May 30th) in Granite Falls at Memorial Park where Au says they ran into local resident Ryan Meehan who gave them additional advice. “Ryan was super nice, and helpful giving us tips and all sorts of advice. All of the locals we spoke with – it’s just a really nice community,” Au said.
The trip did provide challenges. “The bugs were awful. At one point in the trip I had a bug in both eyes, one in my nose, I swallowed a bunch. That’s despite having bug spray on myself and my clothing,” Au said.
The river, still being eight feet above normal level meant a lot of the sand bars for safe stops were under water. But, Au said that made for good fishing. “They caught some walleye, some catfish,” he said. Camping spots were hard to find along the route. The first night, the group made it to Skalbekken County Park. “In that stretch, there was a dangerous eddy that sucked one of the guys in for awhile but he was able to recover. That was kind of scary,” Au said. “The next night there was no camping. There was supposed to be a spot that’s really hard to find and we missed it. We ended up going down river to look further and we had just missed it. The second night kind of sucked because we had to go 35 miles. That’s a lot in a kayak for one day. It ended up getting late so we ended up having to stay at a boat launch. It was 7:45 and we needed to get off the water. We were tired, and it was getting dark. We saw a sign saying no camping and we had to call the local police and get special permission to camp there for the night because we just had to get off the water.”
The next day the group noted the weather forecast was showing rain, and they decided to get on the water anyway. “There was actually lightning around us and then the rain came down super hard. I’ve never been out in the open through rain like that. It must have lasted around 15-20 minutes. Later I looked at the radar and we got hit with 35 mph winds. Fortunately it was to our backs because there was no place to get off the water safely so we just paddled through it,” he said.
Au said the group agreed they would like to try the stretch again when the water is not as high, as they prefer to camp on the sand bars. “The scenery was nice and peaceful. I enjoyed the scenery, relaxation and hanging out with my buddies I only get to hang out with once a year,” Au said. “Overall it was a great trip and we will do it again if we can just a little later in the year.”
