One of the bucket list items for us was to go kayaking on one of the Mountain Lakes in the Black Hills. This morning we dragged the kayaks and paddling gear out of the garage and loaded up the truck. Our plan was to drive up to Sylvan Lake, paddle for a few hours, then have a picnic lunch. All was going well until we got to Sylvan Lake. The area was swamped with thousands of people! The large parking lot and the huge overflow (gravel) parking lots were completely full with a bunch of cars circling for someone leaving. Even the sides of the access road were packed. The shore was lined with people swimming and fishing., the lake was full of kayaks, bards, and canoes. We decided, although this is probably the most scenic lake, that there were too many people. So, we drove back into Custer and made our way to Stockade Lake. There was a boat ramp that we could use to put in and it had some nice scenery. As we were unloading and getting the kayaks ready to go, Leslie slipped on some gravel on the boat ramp and fell. She landed on her left butt cheek and left wrist. After standing up and walking around, she decided it was ok to continue. We got out on the water and started paddling around. It felt so good to be back on the water. The lake was pretty clear and we could see the bottom down to about 10 feet. There was one power boat on the lake that some kids were wake surfing behind that stirred up some big waves that we had to watch out for. Otherwise, it was a quiet and peaceful paddle. By the time we got back to shore, Leslie’s wrist and hip were really hurting! It did not look like anything was broken, but definitely a sprained wrist and deeply bruised butt cheek. After a few Advil, we drove over to a picnic area overlooking the lake and had a wonderful picnic lunch. Then it was back to the Wanderer to unload the truck, wash down the equipment and loaded it back into the garage.
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