Living Positive: Kayaking in Lake Easier Than Highway

Saturday, August 26,

2023

Yesterday we were back on the road again with the newly repaired (well almost) trailer, bikes and now kayaks. We are headed to the Black Hills with our friends Gary and Karen from Cheyenne. We went with them last year to South Dakota and loved it so much that we’re going again.

However, the boys have been trying to fish the Miracle Mile in Wyoming since April. That guided float trip was canceled because of rain and muddy water so they rescheduled it for June but that trip was canceled also due to rain/mud. They decided to try again in August so we tacked this trip onto our South Dakota trip and stay at Alcova Lake which is near the Guide headquarters.

As we were driving to meet our friends in Wyoming, a woman passed us on the interstate and pointed to the back of our trailer which is never good. We took the next exit to check things out and a truck driver stopped and told us that we lost one of our “canoes” a couple miles back - definitely not good!

We took the frontage road back looking for where it was and saw a man walking along the highway. He told us that he had stopped to drag a kayak off the highway. We fessed up that it was ours and by the time we turned around and returned, he had the kayak on the frontage road and was waiting for us. There are nice people in this world! He did admit that his original thought was, “my daughter needs a kayak!” Whatever his motivation, we were sure appreciative of his over the top help. The kayak had only some scrapes on the bottom and it looked like it was not hit by a car which we were thankful for. It was raining pretty hard so people probably weren’t surprised to see a kayak cruising along the highway!

By the time we got to the lake we had great weather and all was good.

Early this morning, the boys left for their long awaited fishing trip and (much later) Karen and I prepared to take our kayaks out on Alcova Lake. After Herculean efforts to pump Karen’s kayak up - mostly on Karen’s part- we shoved off. As much as I love to hear Bear whine, I decided to leave him in the nice air conditioned camper. Yes, he likes kayaking as much as biking!

We kayaked down a canyon and it was very pretty. Unfortunately, many motorized boats like to venture down the canyon as well so we definitely caught a few waves! It was very fun though. I did use the kayak that had ventured down the Highway and it did fine- no leaks!

When we got back to the boat ramp, we were greeted by a group of thirty something men barbecuing by their trailer and they asked if we wanted to stay for lunch. We decided they had had too much beer or needed help with the dishes to be asking two “mature” ladies to join the party so we declined!

It turns out that the Miracle Mile was out of miracles today and only a few fish were caught. Don and Gary had fun though and enjoyed the experience.