Nokomis Kayaking
In what would turn out to be my final kayaking trip of the year I paddled my boat around the perimeter of Lake Nokomis - and discovered a surprise!
The most experience I'd had with Lake Nokomis was driving over it on Cedar Ave, so that made it a good candidate for exploration. I drove over to the boat dock and unloaded my gear. One of those Park Board invasive species guys was there checking out water craft so I chatted with him for a little while before setting out.
The weather was ideal and there very few other people on the lake. I headed off towards the bridge and, once I rounded the bend, came upon a surprise I was not expecting: Minne, the Minneapolis Lake Creature, was moored in the middle of the lagoon. I paddled around her a few times and took some pictures. I'd vaguely remembered reading about this public art piece some years before I'd never seen her before. Especially not close up!
The other feature of note is on the north side of Nokomis. There is a small channel that connects the lake to Minnehaha Creek. On that day the lake was higher than the creek and water was flowing out of the lake, over a small drop and into the creek (I'm led to believe this is not usually the case - but what do I know?). I paddled right up the opening in the brickwork but there was no danger of being sucked through. The brickwork beneath the water at the point was very shallow, only a few inches, the kayak would get stuck before the slow current had any detrimental effect.
A week after this excursion I ended up breaking my foot, thus likely ending all further water sports for the year. The best I can hope for is a lucky confluence of weather and rapid healing sometime in late October or November.
//Serially