February Paddle on Eagle Creek

Location: Eagle Creek - Ford Road to Lafayette Road
Distance: +/-3
Date: 2-25-08
Gauge: 2.2
Paddle Time: 1 hour
Paddlers: James Nichols (Breeze), Doug Mark (Zirconia)
Weather: 36 degrees, cloudy, calm

Another really nice winter paddle. It was really cloudy and gray, but the temperature was around 35 so it wasn't too cold. We hit the water about 5:00 at the Ford Road bridge. The weather was supposed to get nasty on Tuesday so we needed to get this month's trip in before that or the end of the month.
The water was amazingly clear. We could see the bottom unless the water got over about four feet deep. That was surprising since it never seems to be that clear in the summer.

The last time we did this section most of it was in the dark so it was nice to see what we had missed. One spot where we had to carry around a tree last time was different; the giant tree that had been blocking the creek was gone.

There were some really cool ice formations on tree branches that had been in the water, but the water had gone down & left ice between the small tips of the branches. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us so we weren't able to get pictures.

We took out just before the reservior. Parking is easy on Lafayette Road and it saves a long flat water paddle to the marina in the park.

Ice Cubes

Location: White River – 116th Street to 82nd Street
Distance +/-X
Date: 1/30/08
Gauge: 3.1 (Nora)
Paddle Time: 1.5 hours
Paddlers: James Nichols (Current Designs Breeze), Doug Mark (Liquidlogic Zirconia)
Weather: 20 degrees & calm

In spite of the low temperature this was one of the nicest trips we have done. The day before it had been cloudy, rainy and the wind was 60+ MPH. Fortunately for us it was clear and calm and the river was at a nice level.

Unfortunately we didn't get on the water until close to 6PM, so the sun was already starting down. We knew we would be finishing in the dark, but figured there would be enough ambient light from being in the city that we would be able to see fairly well.

As we started out from the 116th Street boat ramp we were running through a lot of small floating ice chunks. Most of them were not very big but every once in a while one of us would hit one that would deflect our boat a little.

Overall this trip was pretty uneventful. We saw a really nice sunset, and there was enough light for most of the trip we didn't have to worry about hitting anything. There were a few low-hanging branches that we had to dodge. I hit a rock ust past the 96th Street bridge, but fortunately it was fairly small. Due to the temperature we were being very careful not to go in the water...that would have been bad.

Just before the takeout was really dark and we were paddling along talking when a group of geese took off from the water very near us. They were really loud and really startled us; we started talking about how it would be pretty bad to make it down the river and then tip over from being scared by geese.

I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but there is a whole lot of ice around the drip ring on my paddle in the last photo. They don't work so great when they have 1/4" or so of ice covering them.

Location: Eagle Creek – SR 32 (U.S. 421 & S.R. 32) to Turkeyfoot Park
Date: 12-30-07
Gauge: 3.1
Paddle Time: 4 hours
Paddlers: Doug Mark (Current Designs Breeze), James Nichols (Necky Looksha) , Tucker Mark (Perception Dancer)
Weather: Cloudy & 31 degrees

Our December trip, that makes a trip at least once a month in ’07. This was a new stretch of Eagle Creek for us. The put-in is very easy, we went in on the east side of the bridg. You could enter either upstream or downstream of the bridge, with an easy walk down to the water. One thing about parking; we had planned to park in the large gravel lot on the NW side of the intersection, but there were some fairly new "No Parking - You Will Be Towed" signs around so we ended up on the county road to the east. It's about a 1/4 mile walk, but better than being towed.

After about a quarter mile the creek runs through Wolf Run Golf Club. Since this is a very exclusive club I’m sure we would not be welcome during warmer weather. Fortunately no one was out golfing or working. Since it was Tucker’s first outing in his new boat I told him to stay ahead of or near us so we could keep an eye on him. The first mile or so went fine, we went through several small rapids with no trouble. Tucker was about 75 feet behind James and me when I heard a splash & turned around to see that he had tipped over. He says he doesn’t know why, we were in flat water, but over he went. He almost made it back up, which I thought was pretty good since he doesn’t know how to roll yet, but he didn’t quite make it so he popped the skirt & got out. The good new is he can wet exit OK, the bad news is he found out when the air temperature was 31 and the water was really cold.

I had brought extra clothes so he got changed & back in the boat. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get all the water out so he was still pretty cold. We stopped at County Road 100 South and waited at the bridge so Julie could come & pick him up, he was just too cold & wet to go on.

Between there and CR 200 S we must have had to carry over or around logs a half a dozen times…it was getting annoying. At one point James got out on the bank where it looked soft, but not excessively so…looks can be deceiving. He sunk in up to his knees, it was really boggy there. We finally got past all that I had a nice run down to the park. Even with the water at 3 we still had several low spots, but overall this was a nice mix of flat water & riffles to make things interesting.

We did see a hawk, a deer and a couple of herons as well. This run didn’t have as many houses along it as the other parts of the creek do, probably to starting in a more rural area and the fact that the creek bottom is fairly wide and flat in most places. In warmer weather we would probably start from CR 100 S to avoid the golf course. Access to the creek is easy there and you can walk down right next to the bridge.

Christmas Boats

Tucker & Austin got new boats for Christmas this year. Here they are trying them out on Boone's Pond. They had fun paddling around even though they had to break ice to make room to maneuver

Location: Fall Creek – Florida Road Park to S.R. 238 (& back)
Distance: +/-2.1
Date: 11/12/07
Gauge: 1.9 (Fortville)
Paddle Time: 2 hours
Paddlers: James Nichols (Necky Looksha IV), Doug Mark (Current Designs Breeze)
Weather: Variable - see below

Our November trip, one more monthly trip to go to close out the year. This was rescheduled from a planned trip to Westwood Park in New Castle to bike and paddle. We had a lot of rain the day before so the trails were closed. On the drive across the causeway at Geist Reservoir we weren’t sure if there would even be enough water to do much on the reservoir…a large area of the bottom was exposed.

Arriving at the park we checked out the creek and decided that since the water level seemed to be pretty decent (in spite of being probably a couple of feet below normal) we would head upstream and see if we could get past the tree that had blocked our way the last time we were in the area. While carrying over the small dam just upstream we discussed the possibility of running it on the way back. It looked like it might be possible, but that would depend on whether the current pushed you into the stump in the middle of the “spillway”.

After struggling through several spots where low water levels made the current pretty swift and paddling difficult we were able to go about two miles upstream. With the lower water level we were able to paddle under the tree that blocked our way before, and only had a short carry over another tree just after that. Just after passing under S.R. 238 we were stopped by a sycamore tree down in the water. We probably could have made it through coming downstream, but it was starting to get dark and we didn’t want to struggle through that only to find another tree in the way around the bend.

Wildlife was fairly numerous; we saw a large red-tailed hawk, deer, evidence of beavers and several types of ducks.

Coming back down we seemed to fly compared to the fight to get upstream. We stopped on a small island so I could call home since it was getting dark, and when we were pushing off I thought I saw a flash of lightning. The thunder that followed was several seconds later and sounded odd, so we weren’t sure it had been lightning. A minute or so later we saw a lighting strike with at least two bolts. I started counting to judge the distance, then neither one of us could remember how to do the math.

That left us multi-tasking in several ways: paddling hard for the dam, trying to remember how to calculate the distance to the storm, trying to decide if we could run the dam or carry over, and basically wondering if we would be hit by lightning and die. (In case you're wondering I looked it up: count the seconds and divide by 5) Just as the houses near the lake came into view it started to rain pretty hard, but there was no more lightning. We had left our jackets in the truck due to the warm temperature so we were soaked pretty quickly. We decided to carry the boats over the dam since it was getting pretty dark.

Once we got back in the boats we paddled hard again for the takeout, which is only a couple of hundred yards away, and made it safely to the truck.

Location: Wabash River – Covington, IN to Montezuma, IN
Distance: +/-31
Date: 10/13-10/14-07
Gauge: 4.9 (Covington)
Paddle Time: 14 hours
Weather: Variable

In reality this trip started on Friday night. We all met at my house and loaded up into James’ Explorer and my Suburban, with two boats on my trailer and the rest on James'. The plan was to drive to Cayuga & camp at my parents then shuttle the Suburban to Montezuma on Friday night. We ran a little late so by the time we reached Cayuga we barely had time to get the tents set up before dark. Fortunately my dad had started the fire for us, so we had some good coals to cook dinner with.

The beginning planning for this trip probably took place in 2006 when Miguel and I started talking about doing an overnight trip and camping on whatever sandbar was available. We didn’t get that trip in, but this summer Chris, John Haram and I started talking about a similar trip so I started planning a route. The original plan was to run the Big Vermilion River from Kickapoo State Park near Danville, IL to the S.R. 234 public access on the Wabash with an overnight stop at Forest Glen Preserve, a total of about 30 miles. However, after very little rain through the summer and most of September it became clear that we were going to be dragging the boats most of the way on the Big Vermilion, so we switched to the Wabash.

While it carries plenty of water, the Wabash does not move very fast, so the current was not much help. In some places, even though the wind was light, on Saturday you could stop paddling and still not move downstream.

Saturday we awoke to a chilly 38-degree morning. After drinking as much coffee as we could and standing around the fire for a while to try and warm up we put the last two boats and all the gear from my truck on the trailer and headed north. After we got to the ramp I couldn’t believe the amount of gear we had piled there along with the boats…I wasn’t sure it was all going to fit in the boats. But after a while it was all packed and strapped into the boats and we set off downstream.

It was still chilly and overcast, probably around 45 degrees, so everyone was fairly bundled up at the start. Until Friday night the forecast had been for partly sunny and 70 degrees with a 5 MPH wind from the north, then they changed it to showers throughout the day. The wind was from the south instead; fortunately it was very light.

Just below the put-in is a railroad bridge. Someone had painted THINK ABOUT JESUS on the side, but had gotten the J backward so it looked more like THINK ABOUT LESUS. Dad had said earlier in the week that the current in the river was 3 MPH, but it was more like 1.5 in most places. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of scenery on the Wabash since most of it is through farming areas, but we did see a few interesting rocks north of Perrysville.

We made our first stop on an island just north of Perrysville. There were several tents set up, as well as a kitchen area complete with smoker, LP grill, Coleman lantern and a can crusher. There was also a chemical toilet facing out over the river, without any real screen around it. I guess that’s a nighttime activity, although you could sit & fish at the same time, I guess.

The next stop was a couple of hours later – at about 15 miles - at the confluence with Big Vermilion. I was hoping we could land on the sandbar on the Vermilion side and fish for a while but the current kept us to the other side. We did see an apparently abandoned boat just downstream. It looked like it was probably a decent small speedboat, but it was without a motor. Miguel had been struggling a bit with paddling because his shoulders were very sore. I told him we would need him to split wood when we arrived at the camping spot and he replied that he would rather throw himself in the fire than split wood.

The next item of note was the crossing under S.R. 32. A couple of guys were fishing on the bank at the public access, complete with a fire. They didn’t look all that friendly so we didn’t ask how the fishing was. One guy stood up as I wasn't looking but apparently had a bad case of plumbers pants going on, as I heard Tim say "Just say no to crack". We also started to hear the hum of the Cayuga power plant, even though it was still at least a mile away.

We started looking around more for the bald eagles that live in the area. A couple of times we saw what we thought was one, but it turned out to be a heron or something else when it got closer. Finally just before the power plant we saw one fly out from the trees on river left. I looked for a nest but didn’t see one in the trees.

The power plant was interesting to float by, if nothing else than for the scale…it’s a little hard to fathom how large it is.

Right after that is a large bend that would probably be an oxbow if it wasn’t for the power plant in the way. As I came out of the bend I noticed that Tucker had sort of put his head down and paddled about ½ mile ahead to the next bend. I also noticed that James was near the shore river right looking up. As I got closer I could tell that there was an adult eagle in the tree above him, just looking around. We were all able to get within about 30’ of it so we got a really good view. They are really amazing to see. Unfortunately Tucker missed it since he was on a speed run at the time.

After that it was a fairly straight run down to the stop for the night. We made a short stop on Manhattan Island but weren’t able to stay long because we had left Covington later than expected, and the overcast was limiting the daylight. We did see a couple of additional birds that we thought were juvenile bald eagles, but after talking to a friend who spends a lot of time on the river it sounds like they were probably golden eagles...pretty cool stuff. Seeing those birds was definitely a highlight of the trip.

We arrived at the campsite with enough light to unload the boats, get camp set up and start cooking. Everyone was pretty tired, but the campsite had a nice level spot under some trees and some more level area along the boat ramp road. There were four or five small weekend houses on the property, but aside from a couple of guys working on one that was still under construction it didn’t seem like anyone was there. I figured they would come over and at least ask if we had permission to be there, but they didn't so they evidently didn’t care.

We got the fire going to make some coals for cooking. Tim fired up his charcoal burner to get the coals ready for cooking cobbler. I had brought ingredients for stew and we added contributions of baked beans from Miguel and deer tenderloin from Chris. By the time everything was cooked it was getting pretty dark. Tim finished up his cobbler in the Dutch oven and shared it around. It was really good, with enough left over for breakfast.

After everyone had eaten we all sat around the campfire for a bit and took it easy. James had brought a book of short stories called A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick McManus so several of us took turns reading aloud. The stories were about his growing up in Colorado and his adventures and misadventures. Some were so funny the people reading them had trouble continuing. James said he had gotten the book as a kid and hadn’t read it since. That was a lot of fun and added to the atmosphere of sitting around the fire.

Sunday morning the temperature was nicer. We got a fire going and heated some water for oatmeal, along with heating up the leftover cobbler; an excellent breakfast. Dad brought more coffee so I didn’t even break out the French press.
Tim and Joey loaded up and got on the river a few minutes before everyone else to try and get some fishing in, but didn’t any luck. Tim got snagged and had to paddle about 100 yards back upstream to get loose. The wind was a lot stronger out of the south, so we had to paddle most of the time to make headway.

Just north of the Sugar Creek confluence we started seeing some towers 50 yards or so behind the bank that we never could figure out what they were. One appeared to have been burned out, a couple of them looked abandoned, and one looked like it was still functional with a large roof vent and an A/C unit.

Sugar Creek was almost dry, just like everything else. James tried to paddle a short way upstream but could not get far.

Once again not much interesting scenery. We stopped on a sandbar a few miles from the end for a short break. The wind was getting really stiff at this point, probably at least 10 MPH, and we were headed right into it. After the stop we put Joey into the Breeze, Tucker into the tandem and I went in the canoe with Tim to give him a break.

The Montezuma boat ramp is a nice concrete one. The only downfall was the stench of raw sewage coming from just downstream and blowing up to us. I don’t know what the outfall was from, but it was nasty.

We managed to get all six boats on my trailer, a lot of the gear into the truck and the rest into the car-top carrier. I was really glad I had brought that, otherwise we would have had a lot of gear on our laps.

Overall this was a pretty good trip. It would have been nice if Saturday's paddle had been shorter so that we had more time for fishing, etc., something to keep in mind for the next trip.

More pics from the Wabash trip