MEANDERINGS
Wow, what a full winter we paddlers have had!
The weather was mild and water was open into January, so we had an extended paddling season. More of you are getting suitable clothes for cold weather paddling, so it isn't just Gerry Rowland out there with the icebergs anymore! I hope you enjoy the winter paddling stories included in this issue.
The Armchair Paddlers Series has been lots of fun. Many thanks to Canoesport Outfitters for hosting the sessions and to our speakers for providing fascinating programs: Nate Hoogeveen on his upcoming Paddling Iowa book, Jim Dodd on building wood strip canoes, Karl DeLong on paddling safety, and Ray Harden on paddling beyond Iowa and the U.S.
Nate Hoogeveen initiated the Iowa Whitewater Coalition to respond to an opportunity presented by the Principal Financial's proposed Des Moines Riverwalk. The group has been working diligently to provide information to Principal and the City on creatively managing the Center and Scott Street Dams.
The Skunk River Paddlers and Iowa State Canoe & Kayak Club hosted a well-attended 6-hour paddling film fest on February 23, thanks to efforts by Rick Dietz, Greg Vitale and Carolyn Komar. Hope it becomes a tradition!
The season planning party on January 26 was very successful. My little house was packed with paddlers, great food and big plans. We offer hearty thanks to Greg Vitale and Dave Kraemer of Ames for facilitating the planning session and to all of you who agreed to serve as 2003 trip coordinators. Check out the 2003 calendar included in this issue.
Paddle on and be safe out there!
Robin Fortney, Editor
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Winter Wildlife Viewing From the River
John Washburn
This winter I have had the advantage of available time, good clothing, and a paddling attitude to get out on the rivers over twenty times in December and January. One of the advantages of paddling in these months is that most of the vegetation has disappeared and viewing birds is easier. On one Saturday in December I paddled with Robin Fortney. We launched the trip from the Harriet Street ramp just off of East 14th Street at 9:30 and paddled up near the Scott Street dam. On the way we saw at least a dozen eagles looking for a lunch of cold fish. We then headed towards our destination of Yellow Banks Park. It was a bird watchers day. We saw at least eighty eagles by the time we arrived at Yellow Banks at 1:30. We also saw kingfishers, crows, herons, and more geese than can estimate.
On the next Saturday I made the same trip with Gerry Rowland. This time we saw between fifty and sixty eagles including a golden eagle. This week we scared up hundreds of geese. The sight and sound makes giggles and smiles for miles.
On December 18, Mollie McCollum and I started at Sycamore Access, below Saylorville Dam, and paddled to Second Street Bridge. On the way, I pointed out beaver dining evidence, plus a tree four feet in diameter that appears to be a future food source. We saw hundreds of crows on the way. Also on the way I frequently saw some white pipes along the shore. At one point I decided to see what they were. When I got near one I spotted a heron that appeared to be stuck in the mud. On closer inspection, I saw that it was caught in a trap located next to the pipe. I got out of the boat, approached the pipe, and saw that there were two traps anchored near it. In one trap was a dead raccoon, and the heron was caught in the other one. I reached down to grab the wire leading to the chain and the trap. As I started to pull it out of the water the heron gave me a good whack on the head with its long pointed beak. I did not want to stop so I finally reached the trap. When I grabbed it, the heron made another stab and got my hand. It held on strongly until the trap had been released. The whack to my head made a small hole in the hat and my skin. During the whole process, I kept my head down to protect my eyes. After release, the heron flew upstream on the riverbank to contemplate the encounter. I wonder what that bird told its friends at the bar that night. Surely it had never encountered an old goat like me.
As for me, I washed my hand wound with clean water and finished the paddle
with the recent adventure running around in my brain. I have started carrying a first aid kit more consistently since then.
When I showed Mollie some evidence of extensive beaver dining, we were surprised by a large beaver coming out of a den about fifteen feet from my position. My camera was not ready when the beaver spotted us and took a dive. About twenty seconds later, another big beaver came out and I was able to get a fun, blurred picture before it submerged.
As the ice has grown, my most dependable paddling spot has been Sycamore Access. If I am in fitness mode I can paddle up to the dam and back in about an hour. I always see at least two eagles and I have seen as many as twelve on the short run. I am amazed to see kingfishers through the winter and hear their great chatter.
Last Saturday I paddled with Gerry Rowland on the Sycamore to dam circuit and we stopped to view a handful of beaver dens. On the way up to the dam we spooked a lot of geese enjoying the open water and sand bars. When we neared the end of the journey we watched a mature eagle in a nearby branch and just marveled at its powerful, graceful flight from a close vantage point.
Again it is my great advantage to get out and enjoy this time of year. A lot of smiles bloom along the way. Good for me.
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Red Rock Reverie
John Pearson
October 21, 2001- I kayaked on Red Rock Reservoir this morning. Yesterday's winds had died down and the temperature was mild. Even though the sky was overcast and somewhat gloomy as I loaded the kayak onto the car, the sun was breaking through openings in the clouds by the time I arrived at the lakeshore. I drove to Whitebreast Creek east of Knoxville instead of my usual put-in spot by the Mile-Long Bridge. Whitebreast Creek is farther away from home (33 miles instead of 21), but I visit the Mile-Long Bridge area so often that I worry about losing appreciation of its beauty through habituation.
As usual, the 19,000-acre reservoir was deserted on a Sunday morning. The still-rising sun was hidden behind a bank of low clouds at 9AM but its light illuminated the landscape of calm, blue water and forested bluffs splashed with fall colors. I pushed off from shore and paddled east until the sun rose above the clouds and dazzled my vision with its blinding spotlight and myriad of eye-piercing reflections. I swung west and retraced my route (stopping briefly at the car to fetch my sunglasses and visored cap). Continuing westward with the sun at my back, the view ahead was brightly lit and colorful.
A black line on the horizon between blue lake and variegated land became a raft of about 500 milling coots, their white bills contrasting sharply with their black bodies. Although the nearest ones skittered nervously at my approach, the majority of the flock stayed calm as I veered course and passed to one side. I passed two more flocks of this size, making a total of about 1500 birds. At one point, one flock behind me panicked at some unseen disturbance and splashed noisily as they ran horizontally across the water surface prior to taking flight. It sounded like a crowd of people erupting in applause at the entrance onto the stage of an awaited emcee.
Now in the open lake away from shore, I soaked in the expanse of space uncluttered with houses, trees, power lines, and cars. Distant cliffs beckoned. Placid water waited. Time paused.
Resisting the temptation to strike out across the water for the opposite shore (and committing myself to a many-hour outing in conflict with the start of my son's soccer game), I angled into a nearby bay and paddled toward bluffs made picturesque by slanting sunlight. Sandstone, shale, coal, gravel, and loess formed layers that spoke of geological history written by streams, swamps, wind, water, gravity, and limitless time.
Rounding a point to rejoin the big lake, I encountered a gentle east wind that had cropped up during my side trip in the bay. Flocks of coots scooted out of my path as I glided through shallow water, where a view of sunken rocks gave me a sense of flying. A man stood on the shore, admiring the view. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he called to me as I passed. The final mile back to the car passed smoothly. After loading the kayak, I scanned the azimuth one more time, then drove home through an October landscape.
November 3, 2001- another clear, calm, mild day for kayaking on Red Rock Reservoir. Temperate days in November like this one are like the last grains of sand disappearing down the narrows of the seasonal hourglass. Winter will soon fill the void. Today is a grain of time that I will spend on the lake.
I put in at the Coal Bank landing in the Whitebreast Recreation Area. The entrance sign said to pay $2.00 to launch here, but the fee box at the boat ramp was sealed with plastic for the approaching winter. Free pass. Once in the water, the choice lay between heading out into the big lake or up the narrowing bay of Whitebreast Creek. I had always declined to go up the bay on previous trips because of I expected to see only dull scenery of muddy banks and the "bathtub ring" of dead vegetation from annual summertime drowning with water held back by the Army Corps dam. Today I paddled up the bay on impulse and, upon rounding a low mud bank, was rewarded with the sight of a distant sandstone bluff that I had never visited before.
Targeted on this destination, I paddled through calm water past extensive mud banks vegetated mostly with cocklebur and a few wooded tracts on low bluffs. A few grebes watched me warily as I passed. Sounds reaching me from the shoreline included the nasal jeering of blue jays and the rattle of an agitated kingfisher. At one point, I passed an oncoming duck-hunter's boat, camouflaged with shrub cuttings strapped onto the gunwales. It may fool the ducks when parked silently in a marsh, but it looked ridiculous motoring quickly along the shoreline, throwing a wake as it wove in and out of side bays in a vain search for huntable waterfowl. They ignored the hundreds of coots that they spooked away from the shoreline. I figured that they had already given up hunting and were just taking a scenic route back to the boat ramp.
The bluff I was approaching finally drew near enough to see its details. It was an oval pad of bare sandstone, capped with oak forest, at the tip of a narrow peninsula. About 50 feet in height, pale tan in color, extensively cross-bedded and pockmarked, this was the lithified remains of an ancient sandbar laid down in a Pennsylvanian stream some 300 million years ago.
Gentle waves sloshing against the base of the bluff gurgled in small alcoves and undercut ledges as I approached. A smear of russet color at the top of the bluff announced the presence of little bluestem and hinted that other prairie plants also lived there. Marcesant oaks amid the otherwise bare forest canopy confirmed that autumn had all but ended.
I determined to go ashore, but the bluff was so sheer that I had to paddle toward the neck of the peninsula to find a landing. Even then, I had to drag the kayak up atop a narrow ledge. I wedged it unstably between two boulders and stood back dubiously, watching for gravity to pull it back into the lake.
After a minute, I concluded it would stay put long enough for a quick visit to the bluff top. Nonetheless, I kept glancing back frequently as I scrambled up the rock face, just in case I needed to rush back to the shoreline to keep from being marooned.
The climb over the steep, sleek rock was exhilarating. Each step upward revealed an ever-widening perspective of upper bay landscape, full of sparkling water, clear sky, and long views of the opposite shore. The top of the cliff was a flat, narrow, natural sidewalk. I sauntered along this sandstone pathway with a sudden drop-off to the lake to my right and a woodland edge to my left. At the outermost tip of the peninsula, I stopped and enjoyed the full vista. It is moments like this....
Turning my attention to the plants on the bluff top, I easily found the little bluestem grass that I had seen from below, and leadplant, too. A stunted tree growing on the cliff edge turned out to be Bush oak (Quercus bushii), a hybrid between black oak (Q. velutina) and blackjack oak (Q. marilandica, which is common in Missouri but rare in Iowa). I collected a small herb that I had never seen below, pressing it in my wallet. I'll identify it later.
On my walk back to the kayak, I was startled by 5-foot long, freshly molted bull snake slinking along a ledge. It was so large that dry oak leaves crackled as it slid over them. After a short standoff, I assured the snake I meant no harm and passed on. I failed to find its skin cast, although the snake's bright color meant it must have just finished shedding nearby.
I threaded my way down the bluff back to the kayak (it was still there). Paddling around the peninsula, I spied a gang of raucous crows, who flew off like a bunch of boys who have been discovered at mischief. Further down the shoreline, a deer bolted across open land, its rhythmic running motion punctuated by long, graceful leaps over low obstacles. Further on, a lone bald eagle sat stoically on a lone bur oak. The wind picked up as I crossed the final strait.
I landed, packed up, and drove home. A grain of time well spent.
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Report from the Southeast
Whitney Sanford
On December 27, our intrepid group of paddlers headed southeast in search of ice-free moving water. After crawling through what must be the world's tackiest display of Christmas lights in Gatlinburg, TN, Dave Leskowicz, Cindy Rullan, Matt Maxwell and I finally arrived at Nantahala Outdoor Center where we stayed 6 days of whitewater paddling.
BoaterTalk.com had announced high water in most of the rivers we planned to Paddle, but the water receded to good levels by the time we arrived. We paddled twice each the Tuckasegee, Chattooga Section 3, and French Broad Section 9. All three are beautiful rivers, assuming you ignore the shopping carts and washing machines dumped in the Tuck. As far as I know, none of the Tuck's rapids are named, but if they were, you could imagine names such as Kenmore Model 625-1945. You might recognize the Tuck if you saw The Fugitive. The train wreck scene was filmed there. Speaking of movies, Dead Man's Rock from Deliverance is easy to spot on the Chattooga. Both the Tuck and Chattooga have some great play spots. The French Broad is a much bigger and wider river than many of the southeast rivers, so that was fun. In the middle of the trip we got some rain so the rivers became warmer and faster!!
On January 3, we wrapped up the whitewater portion and headed to Savannah for a few days of sea kayaking. Dave headed home at this point, and Steve Holland and my mother joined in Savannah. Savannah and the nearby area have lots of sea kayaking opportunities, much more than the two days worth that we had planned. We didn't exactly get warmer temperatures, but that's what neoprene is for!
Seakayak Georgia gave us a 1/2-hour rescue class and rented us boats for two days. We paddled around the marshes and inlet just off the ocean. We also went to Little Tybee, an uninhabited island just off of Tybee Island, the developed beach part of the region. This area is fantastic for bird watching and general relaxation. We had planned to do some surf kayaking, but a stiff west wind flattened out the waves.
Only 8 weeks till the next North Carolina paddling trip, but who's counting!
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IOWA WATER TRAIL ASSOCIATION
Gerry Rowland
Congratulations to Van Buren County for their successful water trail grant application for $63,300. This word from Bill Blackburn, president of the Van Buren County Trails Association:
"Hi, everyone! Congratulations! It is now verbally official, per a phone call from Steve Bowman (IDOT Trails Coordinator) to Jim Settles (conservation board director), that our Water Trail Grant has been approved and fully funded. We will be receiving official notification by letter within a few days. This is quite an honor as we will be the first Water Trail to be developed in Iowa. The ball is now in our court to do a project that the Van Buren County Trails Association and Van Buren County can all be proud of."
Van Buren is the first Iowa county to make plans to fully develop a water trail. When they have finished work on their project, they will have in place all the facilities that make a river a water trail. They wrote a super grant, the top scoring grant of all that were submitted this year to the Federal Recreational Trails program. I certainly encourage other groups to follow their model, and I have posted a detailed description of the grant at: http://www.desmoinesriver.org/van_buren_county_water_trail_gra.htm.
Any county that is serious about applying for Federal Recreational Trails funding for a water trail should begin the process of gathering community support immediately. I have complete copies of the Van Buren grant that I will share with county or city groups. I have already had two requests from groups who are interested in making an application.
The Iowa trails plan says the following about a water trail:
The primary considerations in the designation of canoe routes include:
- Adequate signage and support facilities, and the reasonable expectation that the waterway can accommodate small watercraft most of the time. The following guidelines describe the minimum level of development of a canoe route to accommodate the needs of canoe and kayak use.
- Access points (landings) should be situated at maximum intervals of 5 miles.
- Camping and sanitary facilities should be situated at maximum intervals of 20 miles.
- Portages should be kept to a minimum, but, where required, should consist of established landings and a well-drained, natural surface trail that is free from branches, brush, or other obstacles.
- Accurate information on the route should be available, including river maps, mileage between services, level of difficulty, and current water levels. This information should be updated frequently.
- Signage should be included to direct users to the river, and to inform users on the river. Uniform directional signage should be placed on nearby roadways to advertise landing locations. Uniform signage should be installed along the river to advertise landings, camping facilities, portages, and hazards.
One reason that Van Buren did so well was the awareness the grant showed of the linkages with other trails, and an appreciation for the cultural, historical and educational value of the trail. The trails association in Van Buren is a local model very similar to the state trails committee. I know that Jefferson County (Fairfield) has a very active trails committee. I would appreciate hearing if there are other such committees in counties that would be interested in developing a water trail.
Other good news from the Iowa Water Trails Association:
- A "sign quality" graphic for the water trail sign was developed by an Ames company at the request of the Skunk River paddlers. Water trail signs have been posted in Story, Polk and Van Buren counties.
- Van Buren County Conservation Board and Van Buren County Trails Association received a $63,000 grant from the Federal Recreational Trails Fund to develop a 40-mile section of the Des Moines River Water Trail from Selma to Farmington. The grant will provide signs on bridges, information kiosks with maps and brochures, trail signs along the roads and at access points, new sanitary facilities, and a new boat ramp at Douds. The project partners have pledged to maintain the trail for 20 years.
- More than 150 people who expressed interest in Iowa water trails have been added to the electronic mailing list.
- There are 2 new groups interested in applying for a water trail grant in FY 2003. The Skunk River paddlers and the Big Sioux Water Trail group have requested and received a copy of the successful, high-scoring grant from Van Buren.
- Whitewater paddlers have organized a strong group, the Iowa Whitewater Coalition, to advocate for paddlesport activities in Iowa. The coalition has been active in support of the River Run project in Cedar Rapids, and is also active in the development of a whitewater course and dam retrofit as part of the Principal Riverwalk project in Des Moines.
- The Des Moines Recreational and River Greenbelt committee, established in the late 1980's, will receive about $1 million for projects in Ft. Dodge, Des Moines, and Lake Red Rock. The committee is notable for work on the bike trails near Red Rock and Saylorville and for the Dragoon Trail motor route signs. This group also sponsored the establishment of the Des Moines River Water Trail.
- There were numerous float trips and paddling events in the past year, including large group floats such as Canoe Van Buren, many day trips sponsored by County Conservation Boards and paddling groups, and river clean up days. There is growing awareness of the need to reduce the pollution in Iowa's waterways. Leaders in state and local government and in the private sector have made clean water a high priority. The media, especially the Des Moines Register and the Ames Tribune, have raised awareness about the importance of conservation.
How you can help:
- Join us for Canoe Van Buren on July 12-13, and in the years to come, to see how this vision is made a reality on forty miles of the Des Moines River in Van Buren County. Now, let's do the rest of the Des Moines and all the other rivers in Iowa.
- Write the governor and your legislators in support of clean water and restoration for REAP and state trails funding.
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IOWA WHITEWATER COALITION
Last fall, Nate Hoogeveen, spearheaded the formation of the Iowa Whitewater Coalition to discuss The Principal Riverwalk initiative and how paddlers might be attracted to the downtown area. The group includes members of the Skunk River Paddlers, Central Iowa
Paddlers, the Iowa Water Trails Association, and the ISU Canoe and Kayak Club.
As Nate reported last fall, "the biggest obstacle to river recreation in downtown Des Moines has long been poor access options, two dams as real physical barriers, a lack of portages around those dams, the obvious dangers of paddling near those dams, and a general lack of scenery. The Principal Riverwalk initiative promises to fix the scenery problem. The design team assembled by the Principal Foundation has also suggested portage trails and canoe/kayak chutes alongside the dams, with the possibility of those chutes containing some rapids."
Since last fall, Nate and paddling friends across the state have been investigating options for creating (1) passage over and through existing low head dams, making them safer for boaters, and (2) play spots for whitewater enthusiasts. The coalition has been communicating their findings to Principal's Riverwalk design team and city officials.
Plans would benefit both whitewater and flatwater paddlers. If you would like more information or want to get involved, sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IowaWhitewater or contact Nate Hoogeveen at paddlingiowa@yahoo.com.
Next meeting of the Iowa Whitewater Coalition:
When: Sunday, April 6, starting at 1 p.m.
Where: Walnut Woods State Park
Why: Riverbank cleanup (boat ramp from 1-3 p.m.) and business meeting and social time (Lodge from 3 p.m.)
Directions: To get there, travel south on I-35 from West Des Moines, and take the Highway 5 East exit. Take the next exit, which has a sign for Walnut Woods State Park. Take a left and follow the signs to the park. The boat ramp is on the left just after you turn into the first entrance for the park.
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