Paddling Again

 Not cycling, but HUMAN-POWERED! 

AT the end of June, I got it in my head to get out paddling again and ordered myself a WIKE Kayak Cart and actually went out for a paddle! I had such fun, that Amanda decided we should order a second cart! It arrived within a week... and then it took us until the end of the month to actually get out paddling! 

We did have a great day though and have a number of other dates written on the calendar throughout August. Amanda was so excited, she's actually talking about doing an overnight trip later in August or September!? We shall see... 

Heading out through the alley. We rarely ever access the alley - almost always go out the front - but right now the front is almost inaccessible due to fences they've put up around the street for road work... 

Through the park. 

On the water. 

We headed upstream towards the South Bridge - much like my last excursion. 

Right off we were passed by The Prairie Lily - a river boat that does tours up and down the river - and creating big wakes.... 

Shortly after that there was a steady stream of jet skis - at least four groups of 3-4 vehicles. 

sometimes they sort of slow down when passing... 

But still create substantial wakes. 

Not as huge of a pain in the ass for us as I imagine it was for the dozens of SUP boarders and rowers and racing canoes and kayaks that were all out on the river training!

The water is so low and there are so many large sandbars in the middle of the river that there are relatively narrow passages through some sections - narrow enough that not only do you get hit by the wake of motor powered boats - but you also get his by the wakes rebouding off the shores and sandbars that go back and forth for a bit. 

If it had kept up, I probably would have called it a day and headed back... but then after about 10 minutes, we didn't see any more jet skis for the rest of the trip!? 

Heron on the shore in the shade. 

Heron flying away past another Kayaker. 

So many Stand-Up Paddle-Boards out on the river - like dozens of them! Though not everyone was standing up on them - lots of kneeling and sitting paddlers too. 

Like most olympic competitions, it seemed like the required uniforms for any women on a Stand Up Paddle Board was a bikini? Seriously - EVERY SINGLE ONE. 

Getting closer to the South Bridges. 

We stopped on a sandbar just short of them. Amanda was very, VERY tired. 

But not too tired to demonstrate some yoga stretches... or... something like that...? 

Heading home - so many gulls! 

Heading out we had a bit of a wind at our back - helping to push us up stream.  By the time we were heading back the wind had almost entirely died down. We could have floated all the way home. 

Downtown looking a long way off. 

Ducks and baby duck. 

More Ducks.

Downtown getting a bit closer. 

Back at the public dock. 

And hauling the Kayaks back home. 

Amanda's arms were so tired, I had to haul the two of them up the hill 

But from the top of the hill she hauled it the rest of the way home. 

Dodging roadwork and back into the alley behind our house. 

July Rides

Another photo dump of pics I took while riding this past month... 

Canada Day ride - rolled out south of town. 

Spotted a rather larger hole where a critter had made it's den. Badger, maybe? 

Did an extra loop of the trails through downtown - there was a rather large gathering in Kinsmen Park for Cancel Canada Day

In the days and weeks before 1 July, there had been a number of discoveries of unmarked/undocumented mass graves at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools. 

Not a lot of people were feeling particularly proud of being Canadian that week... 

Lily bloomed in my yard. 

Roadwork going on out our front door all month long. 

It all started in May, but this past month they REALLY started digging up the streets - making it challenging to get around. 

On the plus side, it's been rather dry all month, so nothing was slowing down construction... but still... it feels like it's been moving forward at a snails pace... 

On a trip downtown we spotted all the young geese, that are almost full-grown! 

On one of my rides Southwest of town I actually spotted a herd of cows. Typically not an uncommon sight in Saskatchewan. But I feel like I've seen less and less animals on the farms near town! 

Tandem ride with Amanda! 

Hawk we spotted on our tandem ride - with a Richadson Ground Squirrel it had caught for breakfast... but hadn't killed yet... it had injured the Ground squirrel - that was rolling around on the ground and trying to crawl away, but was having rouble doing so.

With the lifting of Covid restrictions, the kids finally got to see my folks new place - that they moved into last fall!  

Fire and Protective Services doing something around the Sid Buckwold Bridge. Never did find out what they were up to. I don't think it was a training exercise - given the police presence and ambulances and such along the shoreline and bridges when we rolled by the first time. 

Ride in the Countryside. 

Low water levels and many, many people wading out to chill on the sandbar/beaches in the middle of the river. 

Doing UPS and Canada Post's job for them. One of the most frustrating part of all the roadwork, is the unwillingness of SOME couriers to walk 10m extra from the corner to deliver a parcel - so I have to ride out to distant post offices and pick-up locations. We tried calling and complaining - but after sitting on hold for hours only to be told that for sure the driver made a delivery attempt but no one was home - when all four of us were at home, working quietly on our own things... It's especially frustrating as SOME  courier companies DO actually make the extra effort to driver around the block and walk in to our place from the corner... Really...we're ONE IN from the corner...

That's a dude out in the middle of the river. The water level is so low you could probably wade right across in places. I remember reading about the water level in Saskatoon being that low in books by Farley Mowat... but that was when he was growing up in Saskatoon in the 20s or 30s... before the weir or Gardiner Dam was built. I've never seen the water level so low. I'm surprised the paddle boat is actually able to operate! It must have a really shallow draft. 

Giant trench in front of our house - running the length of the block. 

trench at the end of the block. 

new water lines. 

More trenching. 

Out for a tandem ride with Keiran

Hawk spotted on said ride. 

Another ride with Amanda. 

for about a week in July it was SUPER smokey in town. 

This was probably the worse day. 

The smoke was blown in by a North wind. 

The smoke was from wild fires in the forests up North. Fires are not an uncommon thing in the North - but this summer has been particularly hot and dry. On this day, I think I read there were about 150 separate fires in the north and 27 were listed as "uncontained"!

Library run after an appointment downtown with Amanda and Keiran

Heading home.

Starting to fill in the trench. 

Sloooooooooowly.... 

Cool new thing going on under the Sid Buckwold Bridge... so excited to see how this turns out!

Kids heading to my folks again. 

Cormorants. 

I was doing so good during most of May and June and the first few weeks of July... 200Km/week... things kind of fell off the last couple weeks of July. Hopefully I'll get out riding more through August! 

That's all for now.