5/01/2021 Root River: Whalen to Rushford

5.01.2021  Root River:  Whalen to Rushford (3.4 ft/mile)

Trip Number 3 (21-3) Third trip of the year and the first really great weather day.  It was 91°  and sunny all day, water temperatures were actually a comfortable 58° at the first portion of the trip, but from Peterson to Rushford the temperature actually increased to 62°–I think the difference is the flow and depth of the river on the second portion. We traveled 15.9 miles at an average speed of 4.0 mph—actually quite speedy but we did have a nice 15-20 mph wind at our backs helping us along, and then there was the pressure of keeping up to the Iowa boys from Des Moines that joined us for most of the day.  Our crew for the day included only Steve and I from Wisconsin—all the rest were just too busy to share their day with us, but, we met Chris, Larry, Tom, Dave, and Cal from Des Moines who seemed to enjoy our company (Steve and Me) so we had a really great day with new friends.  I will refer to them as “The Des Moines Crew”, they were looking for a new place to paddle their canoes and kayak and discovered the Root River on my website www.billheinz.net –I was really proud.

Our 15.9 mile trip was at an adequate river stage of 3.65’ (on the Houston Gauge and 8.55’ on the “above Rushford” gauge—at the bridge).  We scraped in a few places, so don’t want it to be much lower.  The trip took 3 hours and 59 minutes of paddle time with 1 hour and 7 minutes of rest stops.  The river was active for this time of year due to weather, but certainly not over crowded.  It was a GREAT DAY for wildlife, especially EAGLES.  I don’t think we have ever had near the amount of sightings as we had today—well over 100 and that is no exaggeration.  We had 13 in one tree clump alone, and they were constantly flying around and past us.  I have a few good pictures, but I did actually delete a few this trip for the first time (ever).  Eagles, Geese, Ducks, a couple of deer along the road before we started, just a perfect nature day.  YES, these pictures are real–I even deleted some–there were that many Eagles.  If you were not on this trip, I think you missed the trip of the year for wildlife.

The Des Moines crew was going to just do the short tour, but we did invite them to join us to the very end—I promised them a grand finale as they went over the wall dam.  I hope they were not too disappointed, but the wall was a perfect finish, unfortunately the man with the GoPro screwed up and did not get any video footage.  I had the camera all set, perfect and focused when I started, BUT, I guess I need to be sure the camera is rolling, or nothing shows up on the files.  Major disappointment for me, it was going to be a film masterpiece worthy of the big screen—but maybe next time.

One last acknowledgement to the Des Moines Crew—we really enjoyed having you join us on the cruise and hope to see you again someday on a sandbar.  Until then, “Happy Paddling”.

To watch the video click the arrow and then enlarge the screen with the icon in the lower right of the screen.  To get back to this page just shrink the page back to normal.

When viewing the still pictures below, click on them and they will also enlarge and then move through the selection with the arrow on your computer.  Enjoy!!

Our music selection for today was decided by: 

Steve:

Where Eagles Fly, Beautiful Morning, Kayaking, Black Water, and Green River