Our group paddles have had an impressive history of good weather, but this was ridiculous. Temperatures lapping at 80 on May 21. Wind that was only detectable on occasion. Sun a constant companion.
We launched our 24 colorful boats at the White River Dam. We have used multiple times before. It's back in the woods east of Princeton. The reference to the dam is a historic one. This low head dam is so low as not to be visible.
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| The 28-foot Fox of the River. |
Our usual circle gathering to talk route, rules and safety before launching took a solemn mood as we remembered Warren Brown, a paddler who had been with us on the Wolf River two weeks earlier and was with us no longer. Despite a protective suit, a lifejacket and training in self-rescue, he lost his life on Lake Winnebago.
Our ambitious route today takes us from White River to Berlin, 16 miles, just because there's no where else to land.
We chose up birds we wanted to see beforehand. The orioles, great blue heron, osprey and pileated woodpecker all made their appearances. The first eagle showed up while we were still on shore talking about them, and they kept coming until we couldn't count them anymore.
Joining us for the Saturday paddle was the proud and true Fox of the River, a 28-foot wooden voyageur canoe staffed by French fur traders Jacques and Jean Paul. With a crew of young and eager Boy Scouts, she is uncatchable, even in the sleekest kayak. Today her crew is of an older average age, so she travels mostly by the backs of our two fur traders, still accomplishing the main goal of getting people out on the water.
We lunched outside the cottage of Jean Paul's cousin and set off again in our three canoes and 21 kayaks when we scared up the largest immature eagle I've ever seen. This was the Baby Huey of eagles. The younger ones have kind of a mottled brown, black and white appearance before getting the distinctive white head and tail at about age 4 or 5.
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| More photos are at www.flickr.com/foxriverpaddle. |
More twists and turns through wire grass and marshland, and a hulking vacant factory announced Berlin had arrived. The view of a bar's smoking porch and belly-up carp and catfish gave way to the green and sprawling Riverside Park.
We pulled out at the boat landing. Half a dozen camped and the rest headed home to tell their story or return to add another chapter.
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Day two took us from Berlin to Omro, about another 14 miles. Here we added to our bird list a green heron and a snowy egret. An unexpected highlight was more fish than fowl.As we approached the Eureka Dam, we wondered if we had a portage ahead of us or the first time for us passing through the Eureka Lock. It is open for its fourth season, following a restoration powered by volunteer labor and generous donations.
Unlike the Fox Cities locks, here the walk-around crank has been replaced by an electric motor. A volunteer flips long iron bars to unlock the lock and the motor opens first the upstream gate to let us in and then the downstream gate after the river water has been drawn down better than two feet.
Gently lowered to water level below the dam, we paddled on to a lunch stop at the boat landing in Eureka -- a literary landmark for the movie "All Mine to Give," based on a magazine article titled "The Day They Gave Babies Away," and later made into a book. All three tell the story of the Eunson family, Scottish immigrants in the 1850s. Both mother and father died. The oldest son, Robbie, age 12, decided to find homes for his five siblings.
The river took more twists and turns than the movie plot as we headed on for Omro. You have your choice of four riverside parks in Omro to end your trip. We picked the farthest, a questionable decision, it seemed as we wrapped up nearly 30 miles of paddling for the weekend.
NEXT UP: A weekend at Gov. Tommy Thompson State Park and two days of paddling on the scenic Peshtigo Flowage, June 25-26. www.wisconsinpaddlers.org for details.
Reading your words I can feel the trip. Thanks for always sharing with the rest of us
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