NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/315021
42 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2014 JUNE 2014 • NEBRASKAland 43 knew it he'd bought a few poly tanks and picnic tables and was outfitting tanking trips from his bar. But ferrying tanks and tankers to and from the river turned into something Weitski didn't need: more work. The solution walked into Weitski's bar one day. Michael Suelter, who ran a hunting outfitting business in Ericson and was floating the Cedar in tanks of his own for fun, offered to buy the tanking business. "It was a Godsend," Weitski said. "I'll still get some business from it and people will still enjoy it and somebody else will get to do the work." That was 1987, and Suelter is still at it. His business – Get Tanked – has grown into much more than the part- time, summer venture he'd envisioned. "I thought it would be a weekend deal," he said, "but it kind of sucked me up into full time." The effortless nature of tanking is what makes the pastime popular and keeps Suelter busy. There's an old saying on the Niobrara River near Valentine, one of the first and still the most popular river recreation destination in the state, that goes something like this: You don't have to touch your paddle if you don't want to. You could paddle a stock tank down a river, but hydrodynamics is not the vessel's strong point. And while some tanking outfitters might give you a paddle, others give you a 2x4 or a stick. Each has the same purpose: to push off obstructions when necessary. T he first float trip Frank Weitski took on the Cedar River wasn't his kind of trip. But it was part of the inspiration for his second trip, which may well have been the first time anyone ever went "tanking" in Nebraska, or anywhere else, for that matter. More than 20 years later, one of the laziest ways there is to float a river, and one that can be enjoyed by anyone, has spread from the Cedar River to three other Nebraska rivers, and beyond. Not long after Weitski bought the Hungry Horse Saloon in Ericson in 1986, a friend asked if he wanted to go down the Cedar. "I said, 'Sure, I need to get away,'" Weitski recalled. So Weitski hopped in a canoe for the first time and the headed downriver. "He's pretty much a health nut, and this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it took us like 15 minutes to get from the bridge up there down to the dock at the lake," said Weitski. "He stuck his paddle in the water and never pulled it out except to switch sides. I never had time to drink a beer ... or smoke a cigarette." Other than the brevity, Weitski liked his first float trip. And he did need something to do when he had a day off from ranching and running his bars in Ericison and two other towns. When he saw one of his empty steel stock tanks one day, an idea hit him. "I don't think it had ever been done before," he said. "I just thought, 'Well, I'll throw this in the river and see what it does.'" So he set off with a cooler of cold ones, a grill and a lawn chair. The trip that took "15 minutes" with his buddy lasted hours. It was just what the doctor ordered. So he decided to throw in a picnic table and invite some friends. And they told friends, and before he Y O U D O N ' T H A V E T O P A D D L E – Y O U M I G H T N O T E V E N H A V E O N E Calamus Outfitters of Burwell offers tanking trips on the Calamus River. Michael Suelter of Ericson, right, is one of the founders of tanking outfitting. He still floats the river for fun, including this end-of season trip for his staff, including Jennifer and Jamie Tuma of Ord.