10/06/2020 Wisconsin River (Hwy 82 to Wisconsin Dells)

10/06/2020 Wisconsin River (Hwy 82 to WI Dells) –                                                                                                                                                River Gradient (1.4 ft/mile)

Today marks the COVID-20 trip. We proved that we could beat the COVID-19 issue of the year, so we have completed 20 trips this year celebrating with a new, different, and exciting trip, just to please Teresa.  She has begged to do this trip all year, and was excited that we have finally taken this tour.  COVID-20 did start out with some serious side effects, however, we tried a new river, not knowing where anything was and without any prior experience on this river.  I read an article on the Wisconsin and it suggested this section as a great scenic tour.  Well, to start with the drop point where we were going to drop our car did not exist, and after asking many of the locals—who barely knew there was a river in the area, we went back to the map for an alternate trip.  We decided to go down Hwy HH to the Two Harbors landing.  We started, and yet another setback—Hwy HH was closed and there is no practical way to get to that landing.  Out of desperation I called a local rental place, Point Bluff Resort–just a mile away– and she was quite helpful.  We could leave our vehicle at her location and then paddle down to the Dells—which is what Teresa had been hoping for all along.  So after more shuttle time to the Dells and back, we finally started paddling 1½ hours late for the day.

We started our total mystery tour which ended up being 13.7 miles-after being told it was 10 miles-on a beautiful, sunny 73° (eventually but at start time was only 55 degrees ) with a water temperature that was a tolerable 58° and calm.  The water stage was 3.4 feet, which was adequate, but also learned that the Wisconsin River fluctuates erratically.  On our paddle we saw a few Eagles, Turtles, Ducks, Goats, and Herons.  The Wisconsin River is very different from the Rivers we normally run—it has many channels to choose from, and not all are passable.  We did make many correct decisions and made it through these channels with only 1 slight mishap where it got a little low.  At one point we took different channels, which caused a small issue when Dan came out of his passage more than a mile across open water from the rest of us, so he had to paddle a long extra distance.  The problem at this point was that we were in a huge expanse of deep open water and the winds picked up substantially to at least 25 mph, which created some challenging paddling across this open water for all of us.  We all had to paddle over 3 miles in this open deep water, with the waves coming from across our bows and giving us all a challenge to stay dry.  I did not take any pictures during this 3 miles because my hands and mind were occupied.  When we finally got out of this struggle, into narrower passages, the water calmed down and the scenery really started to show.  We had reached the WI Dells area where all the tour boats travel, but our scenery was free of charge, and it is a beautiful area.  The pictures do not do justice to the view.

We finished our celebration with a parade on the water, flag waving, and dressed in red, white and blue and landing at the Municipal Marina in downtown WI Dells.  The paddling only took 4.0 hours but we did use up the whole day, getting home well after 7:00 pm.  But we BEAT COVID-19.

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Our music selection for today was decided by : 

Steve and Me : On Wisconsin, Lovely Day, and Celebration