Eagle Creek Section 2

Location: Zionsville, Indiana
Stream: Eagle Creek - Lions Park to Ford Road
Distance +/-2.2
Date: 9-17-06
Gauge: +/-2.0
Paddle Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy

Notes:
At lower water levels this is a nice easy after work paddle or short trip. When the gauge is above 3.5 there are a couple of areas that are more challenging due to trees, sandbars and strainers.

We normally put in the north side of the bridge, I have seen people go under and to the south side, but it tends to be muddy.

About 150 yards downstream was the first significant riffle. It’s about 40 feet long with a 3’ or so boulder on the left. The best way through is to the right of this rock. Immediately after the riffle you have to make a right turn to avoid a small island. Tucker and I went through first without too much drama, then turned around to see what everyone else did. Miguel made it through fine, and said Julie and Austin were close behind. After waiting a few minutes, they came into view…backward. They almost got through, but went to the left of the rock and twisted, pinning the middle of the boat on the rock crosswise. Austin was pretty scared when the upstream edge of the boat started to go under, but after we got him out of the boat he thought it was pretty cool. It took several minutes to get the boat off the rock because it was almost full of water, but we eventually got it free and continued downstream.

The rest of the trip was fairly smooth. There were several tight bends that required quick steering, a couple had strainers on the outside that were hard to avoid. After the lead boat dragged bottom and became stuck for a short time in several riffles we started keeping more space between the boats to avoid hitting a stuck boat. This level is about as low as you would want to go for this trip.

When we crossed under the trail that runs on the old railroad bridge Tucker yelled really loud and got a great echo off the arch of the bridge.

Our spacing didn’t quite work out for Miguel when he hit a hidden rock and spun sideways. Tucker and I were in the last boat and we tried to wait until he was off, but we got caught in the current and ran into him. He was already out of the boat, his first “swim”, but us hitting him didn’t help. We got both boats over to the side and emptied out, and Tucker and I pulled the boat back upstream a short way to take another run at it. The rock really was hard to see, but we avoided it that time.

We took out on the west side of the Ford Road bridge. The takeout was not bad, but it could use a little clearing out. There was a little poison ivy on the trail out, so Julie and Austin went out on the south side of the bridge. Their boat had so much water in it I had to let it drain for several minutes before I could get it out of the water.

All in all a great trip, but if the water were any lower it would be difficult in some of the riffles. Definitely one to do again.