What if Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson had lived 25 miles apart in central Wisconsin? How big of a point of pride, how big of a tourist draw would that be?
The environmental equivalent is true. The father of our national parks and a founder of modern environmental thought spent intellectually formative years within easy walking distance for one of them.
John Muir, who surveyed mountainous future national parks on foot sustained only by hardtack and tea, developed his excitement for nature as a boy on a farm in Marquette County. The area is now John Muir Memorial County Park.
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| It was a shallow launch on from Indian Trial Landing. |
They were destinations for Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Paddle 2012. Our second weekend of canoe and kayak paddling for the season took us from downstream of Lake Delton on the Wisconsin River to Portage on Saturday, June 9, with a lunch stop at the Shack. Sunday found us on the Fox River, traveling from north of Portage at County O to Buffalo Lake and Packwaukee, followed by a talk by local historian Kathleen McGwin and a hike at Muir Park.
The two rivers are less than two miles apart at Portage -- or just a short stroll if you include the Portage Canal -- but the two rivers are major league different. The Wisconsin pushes the boats down long, straight channels ribboned with sandbars. Stop paying attention to the darker colorations of water and you may end up walking.
The Fox twists its way through a marshy landscape. The water is deep and slow. Snags replace sandbars as hazards. Great blue herons become more numerous than eagles.
We launched from a remote landing off Indian Trail Parkway. The Wisconsin was low enough that we had to walk the boats away from the landing to deeper water. Once underway, we stuck to the main channel but still had to criss-cross to avoid the shallow spots.
We pulled into the Shack two hours later, leaving the breeze-cooled river for the blazing hot sand. The Shack, a chicken coop knee-deep in manure that was converted into a special place for Aldo's family of seven, stands almost unchanged. We sat where Leopold once sat, talked about his life and listened to a couple of passages from "A Sand County Almanac." We also were allowed a walk through the Shack.
At one point on the Wisconsin, we saw an osprey dive and nab a fish. When a bald eagle challenged it for it's meal, I told those around me that my money was on the osprey.
Smaller but more aggressive, the osprey indeed won the challenge, sending the national symbol cowering deep in the branches of a cottonwood tree.
Sunday's launch from the County O landing was a slow, Sunday kind of start. We had the 28-foot voyageur canoe back with us for the first time this year. Even with a crew of only six it set a pace that was hard to match.
We added 12 miles on the Fox to the 14 we had paddled on the Wisconsin. A stiff wind stayed at our backs for the most part.
A tailwind brings its own issues. It wants to push the boats crosswise on the river, making it hard to hold a straight course. I regretted making the point out loud as soon as we turned a bend near Buffalo Lake and hit a stiff headwind. It was a tough pull but mercifully short and came just before our lunch stop.
It was a short cruise from there to the take-out in Packwaukee and the drive to Muir Park. McGwin stressed that the beauty of the shores of what's now Emmons Lake was enough to set the future path for an 11-year-old Muir.
She acknowledged that a good share of the locals probably don't know who Muir was, but enough of them care that the county preserved this piece of Eco-history. We owe them a debt for that.
Go walk in Muir Park. Take the tour at the Leopold Center. While you're there, go over to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo and ask them about what's going on in Princeton with Operation Migration's whooping crane project.
Embrace our heritage.
NEXT UP: Park-to-Park Paddle. July 21, Neenah to Appleton.
Details at www.wisconsinpaddlers.org.
Details at www.wisconsinpaddlers.org.
That was awesome. Really is. You have a great adventure.
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