North East Wisconsin
Paddlers again partnered with the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway to
offer a series of public paddle events designed to celebrate and
explore the Parkway itself in 2011. The Fox-Wisconsin Heritage
Parkway is a not-for-profit organization currently seeking Federal
designation of the entire Fox River/ Lower Wisconsin River length
as a National Heritage Area. With many development and fund-raising
activities underway to expand and strengthen partnerships and
familiarity along the entire Parkway, the paddle events provided a
strong connection between people, places, history and the rivers.
To learn more about the Parkway and how you can participate in its
mission, visit http://www.heritageParkway.org.
The Fox River Heritage Paddle 2010
series was so much fun, an encore in 2011 to complete the
Marquette-Joliet river route from Green Bay to the Mississippi was
an obvious next step! We focused our initial efforts on the Lower
Wisconsin River from between the headwaters of the Fox River near
Portage, WI and Wyalusing State Park, just downstream from the
confluence of the Lower Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. Combined
with our journey down the Fox River in 2010, this completed the
route of Marquette & Joliet through Wisconsin. As with the Fox
River in 2010, our 2011 journey was completed in several manageable
segments. An overview of each segment along with supporting maps
and links to participant photos, blogs and other information follow
on this web page.eight segments.
Portage Canal Days Paddle: June 5, 2011
The City of Portage, WI celebrated
its annual Canal Days Celebration June 4-5, 2011 and was the
starting point of the Fox Wisconsin Heritage Paddle 2011. Our
journey picked up from the Fox River Heritage Paddle 2010 route
with a short trip down the Fox River from the Fort Winnebago
Surgeon's Quarters to the Historic Indian Agency House. From there,
we proceeded over the subcontinental divide (on water) through the
Portage Canal in the City of Portage to the Wisconsin River, just
above Riverside Park. After a lunch break, we continued down the
Lower Wisconsin River to end the the first leg of this year's trip
at Dekorra, WI. This route covered about ten miles, with a few
minor interruptions for portages and lunch at Riverside Park. Some
hiked the two-mile Wisconsin River Levee Trail from the Surgeon's
Quarters to the park and joined us after lunch to paddle down the
Wisconsin River to the end of the trip.
Why this route? As we made plans to continue our rediscovery of
the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway, completing the link through
Portage became critical. Not only the symbolic high-point of the
fur trader route through Wisconsin, it is also the true "high
point" of the route! Passing from the Fox River, through Portage,
and into the Lower Wisconsin River establishes the link that
connects the entire Parkway!
Trip photos taken by Deb Gehrke and Dave Horst are available at
this Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxriverpaddle/sets/72157626904556720/
Read David Horst's blog for a first-hand account:
http://uponthesandhill.blogspot.com/2011/06/back-on-water-back-in-history.html
Prairie du Sac - Spring Green - Muscoda: June
11-12, 2011
We continued our journey of
rediscovery through the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway on June 11
and 12, 2011! It is easy to see why some call the Lower Wisconsin
the most fabulous stretch of river in the Midwest! And the view
from some stretches of the river look much the same as when Pere
Marquette first traveled this route on his journey west!
Trip participant photos are available at these Flickr sites:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxriverpaddle/sets/72157626833106993/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxriverpaddle/sets/72157626892737257/
Read David Horst's blog for a first-hand account:
http://uponthesandhill.blogspot.com/2011/07/wisconsin-river-paddles-brings-bluffs.html
Muscoda - Boscobel - Wyalusing (Mississippi River):
June 25-26, 2011
The last two stretches of the
Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway are easily among the most beautiful
stretches of the entire route! Participants in the last two
segments of this year's journey on June 11 and 12 were amazed at
the beauty of the river and at how little of the shoreline has been
directly impacted by development. We were also impressed by the
large number of people enjoying the river to fish, camp, bird watch
and paddle. The remaining section of the river, to its confluence
with the Mississippi River, proved to be even more beautiful with
towering bluffs and wooded shorelines.
Flows in the Lower Wisconsin River increased dramatically due to
extensive rainfall across Wisconsin between our June 11-12 and June
25-26 weekends. River levels at Muscoda rose over two feet since
our landing there on June 12 and flow rates increased by a factor
of almost 2.5 in the same time period. A graph of the flow is
attached at the bottom of this page.
This impacted our trip plans in three very critical ways.
1) Higher flow conditions in the river increase the challenge for
novice paddlers or paddlers using smaller boats without proper
flotation. Some paddlers opted to travel in the Voyageur Canoe
instead of paddling solo.(Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe
LLC)
2) A railroad bridge crossing the river between Boscobel and
Woodman was determined to be too low to allow safe passage beneath
it during these high flow conditions. We shortened the Saturday
paddle route to land at Boscobel instead of Woodman in order to
avoid the railroard bridge hazard.
3) High water levels also complicate sand bar camping with many of
the sand bars we paddled around earlier in the month now
substantially below water. As a result, all of our participants
stayed on land and we saw, in fact, only a handful of sandbar
campsites along the entire route.
Completing this segment fulfilled our goal to paddle the route
blazed by Marquette and Joliet centuries ago. We paddled virtually
the entire Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway, covering most of 290
river miles from the other end of the parkway, in Green Bay, to
Iowa.
Trip participant photos are available at these Flickr sites:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxriverpaddle/sets/72157626937439083/
Read David Horst's blog for a first-hand account:
http://uponthesandhill.blogspot.com/2011/07/heritage-paddlers-go-with-flow.html
10th Annual Park-to-Park Paddle: July 23, 2011
(8.5 miles) About 203 people in 140
boats began this trip from historic Shattuck Park in Neenah, after
heavy rain and thunderstorms passed through the area earlier in the
morning. The group paddled out the Fox River to Lake Winnebago,
headed north and then passed through Menasha's navigation canal to
the Menasha Lock turning basin.
Some paddlers demonstrated various Eskimo roll techniques and
other kayak stunts while the group reassembled. Everybody fit in
the lock for a single passage, and were lowered to LIttle Lake
Butte des Mort. Some paddlers ended their day's paddle just below
the lock and a few crossed the lake to land at Fritse Park, but
most of the group continued north through Little Lake Butte des
Mort to end at Lutz Park in Appleton. Thanks to the Appleton Yacht
Club for providing lunch for many hungry paddlers, and a special
thanks for this year's safety escorts from the Outagamie County
Sheriff's Department, City of Appleton FIre Department and Town of
Menasha water patrol.
After Paddle Activity?
Some paddlers satisfied their appetite at the Appleton Yacht Club;
others joined a large group of people at the Celebrate the Fox
event at the Paper Discovery Center. Others scattered around
Appleton's various restaurants or headed home. Fortunately, nearly
everybody was on their way before another set of heavy rain and
lightning thunderstorms passed through the area later that
afternoon.
Trip participant photos by David Horst are accessible here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxriverpaddle/sets/72157627265526594/show/
Moonlight Paddle - De Pere to Green Bay: August 12, 2011
The 2011 Moonlight Paddle followed
the path of the 2006 and 2010 Tall Ships Paddles on a cloudy Friday
night with intermittent light rain. We launched from Bomier Park in
the City of de Pere, passed through the De Pere Lock and paddled
through the heart of the City of Green Bay as evening transitioned
to night! More than 90 paddlers in 56 canoes, kayaks and paddle
boards enjoyed a great evening on the Fox River and presented quite
a sight to fishermen and other users of the Fox River Trail.
Check out the August 13, 2011 Saturday morning edition of the
Green Bay Press-Gazette's story about the FWHP Moonlight Paddle:
Press-Gazette 8/13/2011
Appleton
Locks Paddle - Appleton to Kimberly: September 24, 2011
The 2nd annual Appleton Locks
Paddle launched from Lutz Park in Appleton and passed through all
four Appleton locks before continuing downriver to take out at
Sunset Point Park in Kimberly, WI. The paddle turned out to be a
fitting finale to the 2011 Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Paddle, with
about 150 paddlers participating in about 120 canoes and kayaks.
Short presentations about the lock's history and the locktenders
who operated them were provided while passing through two of the
locks, and the downriver trip showed the start of beautiful fall
colors. Comfortable paddling temperatures, with light headwinds
kept everybody alert and moving along. The trip ended during the
noon hour, leaving plenty of time to participate in the
locktenders' special gathering or Appleton's incredible Octoberfest
celebration!
Enjoy great photos of the 2nd Annual Appleton Locks Paddle shared
by Mark Gehrke and David Horst.
FRHP 2011 Photos and Stories
Outstanding participant photos contributed by some of our paddlers
are accessible on our Flickr site, which is maintained by David
Horst as:
See a YouTube video of the 10th Annual Park-to-Park Paddle at:
Check out Mark Gehrke's video and slideshow at his wipaddle.com
site, here:
Read about each segment of our Lower Wisconsin River paddle journey
on David Horst's blog athttp://uponthesandhill.blogspot.com with
stories for each trip at:
Links to ALL Paddle Segment Handouts
Acknowledgements
The volunteers planning this
event represent several organizations with interests in the
river, paddling, the history of the Fox River and environmental
stewardship. Some of those groups include: http North East
Wisconsin Paddlers Inc., Friends of the Fox, Fox of
the River Voyageur Canoe LLC, the American Canoe Association, the Community
Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, RA Smith
National and the Fox River Navigational System Authority.
In addition, several other
individuals and organizations have contributed time and talent,
presentations or services, coordination and support to help make
this event successful for all participants.