Like the 4-minute mile or Hank Aaron's home run title, it was a record made to be broken.
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| Paddlers pack 186 boats into Appleton Lock 4. |
The most boats ever jammed into a Fox River lock was 169, set twice in the past decade. The record fell and fell hard Saturday as part of the joint North East Wisconsin Paddlers and Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway's Appleton Locks Paddle.
The Appleton Locks Paddle sardined 186 boats into the locks. They were mostly kayaks, a few canoes, stand-up boards, two 25-foot canoes and rescue boats from the Outagamie County Sheriff's Department and the Appleton Fire Department.
This was the sixth time we've held this paddle and it has been surprisingly popular. Paddling 6.5 miles in about three hours — including sitting in four locks while the water is drawn down to let you into the next section of the river — may seem like a "been there, done that" kind of thing, yet people keep coming back to do it again, and lots of new people join them.
Saturday, 219 people decided to do it.
The weather was great — 72 degrees, filtered sun and color just starting to take over the trees. The hugely popular Park-to-Park Paddle in July was delayed by rain, which passed the popularity on to the Locks Paddle.
Lock 1 was packed so tight it appeared you could walk across the boats. Still someone found enough water to flip over his kayak. He was fine. People nearby helped out and quickly a certified safety instructor and patrol boat were assisting. Boat drained, he finished the trip.
The tight spacing caused a rare mishap. A kayak became hooked on a ledge near the upstream gate as the water level was being lowered. The locktender noticed and simply reversed the flow to set him free. Another paddler went over in lock 3. Again, she was fine.
Exiting the lock is a kind of test of character, like leaving a crowded church parking lot. With the lock this full, some boats end up behind the opening steel lock gates. Will fellow paddlers who were all smiles on the open water make way for these unfortunates, or rush to get out of the boat-clanking, paddle-defying conditions themselves?
The lock operators served as the group conscience just in case, slowly opening one gate enough to start the flow, reminding the next row that the gates would open wider, to everyone's benefit, if they would patiently let their fellow paddlers escape the confines of the gates.
Lock 4 went without incident. From there, it's all open water to Sunset Park in Kimberly. Sights along the way include Appleton's Telulah Park, with its disc golf course and sculling boat dock, and the towering anaerobic digesters of the Appleton wastewater treatment plant.
Distracting us from that most basic sign of urbanism was a flyover by four bald eagles. Nearly all of our paddles have been visited by eagles. They are almost expected. These flew a few circles and gave us some high-pitched screeches to make sure we noticed them.
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| Members of Boy Scout Troop 41 prepare to launch. |
Cormorants, geese and a hawk also provided air support. One very confused female mallard ended up in the middle of our flotilla. After a few panicked turns from one direction to another, she finally decided to take flight.
This was the first outing for the Parkway's recently added 25-foot wooden canoes. One, filled with Boy Scouts from Troop 41 in Combined Locks, raced down the final stretch among the first few finishers. The other, carrying mostly 60-somethings and beyond, let's say enjoyed the river longer.
The big boats will be available for hire through the Parkway, allowing more people to get out on the water.
Once we arrived at Sunset Park, boats lined up to use the accessible launch installed by the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Parkway. Even after only 6.5 miles, sliding yourself up a ramp beats the heck out of pulling your mass of tired, numb muscles out of the cockpit and onto muck or slippery rocks.
This trip marked the end of the 2015 schedule for our paddle series. Planning is well underway for next year, and the Locks Paddle is sure to be back.
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