Wabash Weekend - Lockport to Lafayette

The Wabash River is historically and geographically important to the state, and I have spoken with several people who have said they would like to paddle the length of it, but I can’t seem to get too excited about paddling on it. In my experience it is usually more like paddling on a lake than a river, except that every trip has included a point where it suddenly gets shallow and someone runs aground unexpectedly. The lake-paddling similarity probably comes from the width, sometimes minimal current, and its running west and south against the prevailing winds. But, there are times when a lack of rain leaves it as the best option, and this trip was one of those times.


The original plan was to leave from the Oakdale Dam on the Tippecanoe River & go to the Wabash, ending in Lafayette, but due to difficulty finding a place to stop overnight I decided to find another location. I considered Deer Creek in Carroll County as it looks like a good place to take a trip at some point, but with the lack of rain recently the water was too low
for paddling.

So, after a little research on the recreation page of the Carroll County website and the Wabash River site, French Post Park near Lockport became the new starting point. This would make the trip about 15 miles to a stopping point on Wise Island near Americus, then another 15 miles the second day to Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette. Of the several parks in the Lafayette/West Lafayette area with ramps Tapawingo doesn’t have one, but it does have a sandbar that makes for a decent takeout in spite of a longer carry distance. It also has a well-lit parking lot, which gave us more peace of mind about leaving a vehicle overnight.

I looked at the ramps at Shamrock Park and  Fort Quiatenon Park before deciding on the ending point; the ramp at Shamrock is not that great. There is adequate parking but the ramp itself is sand & gravel, and pretty rough. The ramp at Fort Quiatenon is concrete in good condition with easy access and parking, but the weekend of the trip was the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, so getting out there would have been a nightmare.

The French Post Park boat ramp is very nice concrete, and out of the main channel flow, so it makes for an easy put-in. The park is part of the Carroll County Parks Department, and primitive camping is available.

The water level was low enough that we had to keep an eye out for sandbars and rocky areas as we made our way downstream, but we didn’t encounter any significant obstacles. We did see something new at the CR 700 W bridge: a tree trunk balanced on the top of the bridge pier. The odds that the tree would stay in place as the flood waters that put it there receded have to be really slim.

This section of the river mainly has a gravel bottom, and with several small islands and sandbars along the way we were able to find places for breaks whenever someone needed it. All of our stops had many freshwater mussel shells, some larger than 4” across.



Thanks to the help of a 20-MPH plus tailwind most of the day we were able to cover 15 miles in about five hours.Wise Island is owned by the NICHES Land Trust (www.nicheslandtrust.org). Their description of the island is: “This is a 2 acre island in the middle of the Wabash River near Americus in the northeast section of Tippecanoe County.  This property hasn’t been used as a campsite in over twenty years… It has potential as a stopover site for canoeing down the Wabash River or for a small birding expedition.”

We checked out access to the island by paddling down both sides of it; I went around the secondary channel side while Dave & Austin went along the main channel. The best access was at the west end, as the banks were steep on both sides, especially the river side. We found several level spots on the west end, and picked one somewhat out of the wind. A handy silver maple had branches that were perfectly spaced to use for our dining fly and wind break. At first it looked like the center part of the island was too overgrown to walk through easily, but we eventually found a trail into the central section that led to a couple more places that could be used for camping. 

The remainder of our trip on the second day was uneventful, and the river fairly mundane. After the confluence with the Tippecanoe River (Prophetstown State Park is river right) the river widens out even more, and has less current. The bottom is also more sand than gravel, but there were still a few islands and sandbars to provide stopping points. We did encounter a surprisingly low water level about a mile from the end; Dave suddenly ran aground in the middle of the river with no riffles or other indicators of low water. Fortunately he didn’t have to get out, but I have found that you do have to pay attention on the Wabash wherever you are, or spots like this can catch you out without warning.