Segment 5A & 5B: White River Dam to Omro

Segment 5A: White River Dam to Berlin

Launch: White River Lock, Lock Rd.

Takeout: Riverside Park boat ramp, Berlin

Distance: 13 miles

Segment 5B: Berlin to Omro

Launch: Riverside Park boat ramp, Berlin

Takeout: Miller Park boat ramp, Omro

Distance: 13.7 miles

They said it would be the most beautiful section, and the Fox River does not disappoint.

Here it’s less farm field and wetland and more wooded wonderland.

I’ve been looking at this weekend with some apprehension since the planning for Fox River Heritage Paddle 2010 started.

On a Saturday and Sunday we are covering 27 miles of river. That’s eminently doable, but don’t get between me and the Advil bottle come Sunday night.

And you can’t do all 12 segments unless you paddle the 13 miles from the White River Lock to Riverside Park in Berlin Saturday and the 14 miles from Berlin to Miller Park in Omro Sunday, so I’m giving it a go.

While all of the Upper Fox offers a history lesson, Berlin to Omro is an advanced course in ornithology. From the time we launch from the fabulous and expansive Riverside Park in Berlin, kingfishers criss-cross our path. Further on, common terns take their – excuse the expression – turn zipping across the river. The underbrush holds orioles, cedar waxwings, tree swallows and a small yellow warbler that takes me past my identification skills.

We see the geese and ducks and great blue herons typical of a river trip, but add to that sandhills, a cormorant, a flock of white pelicans, a bald eagle and a pair of osprey guarding their nest. We see at least 10 egrets – or maybe five egrets twice, two egrets five times or whatever math table you care to construct.

The great-horned owl that flies across the river mid-afternoon, pursued by squawking blackbirds might be the strangest bird sighting of the day, if not for what we see as we approach a long, elevated pier.

Is it a decoy? No, it moves. It really is a wild turkey hanging out on a pier. I’m sure it isn’t the only wild turkey on a pier that afternoon, but this one doesn’t require ice cubes and a glass.

At the Eureka Dam, the formal portage is river-left, but a path around the fish ladder at river-right offers a much shorter – if steeper – path boat.

Lunch is a calm and casual affair on the grass above a serviceable boat landing in Eureka.

The natural beauty and frequent bird sightings continues through to Omro. We paddle through the delightful riverfront city and docked at Fred G. Miller Park – the last of its four parks on the water.