Board meeting bears fruit

The SDCA board met today and we've set some dates and targets for 2009's paddling season.

Foremost is the April 25 Earth Day paddle. It offers many options, and all will revolve around the Big Sioux River near Flandreau. Here's the options list, paddlers can pick their route this year:

A) At 10 a.m., the SDCA will gather at the powwow grounds one mile north of Flandreau to put in a paddle to the low-head dam in Flandreau proper.

B) Participants can finish their paddle at either the city park in Flandreau (about 2.5 hours on the water) or paddle on to the dam and finish there (about 3.5 hours.)

C) The Sierra Club will host their Earth Day Regatta starting at a sandbar put-in below the dam in Flandreau starting at noon. Paddlers will travel from Flandreau downstream to the Egan city park. This is about a 3 hour paddle.

D) Powwow grounds (longer route) paddlers can portage the Flandreau dam and continue down to Egan for a total of 5.5 hours of paddling.

As usual, we'll provide shuttling for all comers by sharing rides back and forth.

We put this together in a way to make it approachable for everyone from beginners who want a bite-size chunk of paddling in April to the more aggressive paddler who wants to maximize his or her time on the water.

A wide range of events - including a second paddling fair to be held in May on Lake Marindal near Irene - are in the works, a complete list with some maps will be up on the blog very soon.