Kevin Revolinski - Paddling Wisconsin: A Guide to the States Best Paddling Routes

Paddling Wisconsin

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To Dad

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ISBN 978-0-7627-3828-1 (paperback)

eISBN 978-1-4930-1494-1 (eBook)

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Contents

Towering sandy banks along a bend in the Red Cedar River (Paddle 28) Preamtip Satasuk

Acknowledgments

I have to express my thanks to the various outfitters who helped me along the way: Scott Teuber o f W isconsin River Outings, Dave Kelly of Flambeau Sports Outfitters, Casey St. Henry of Bay Shore Outfitters, Tim Lencki of Adventure Kayak in Waupaca, Tim Conradt of Mountain Bay Outfitters, Gail Green of Living Adventure, Darren Bush of Rutabaga Paddlesports, and Jerry Dorff o f W ild River Outfitters.

Also thank you to all the friends who helped me with shuttles: Kurt Revolinski (aka Dad); Jon Hamilton, the mead maker o f W hite Winter Winery fame in Iron River; and Karla and JW of Yo Chubby Gringo Tamales.

Thanks to Todd Bucher of Delta Diner for a few backwoods tips regarding the White River; all the national and state park rangers for the same; and Traci and Rob Klepper, Jon Jarosh, and Maureen Murraytourism peoplefor connecting me to the right people.

And then there are the actual paddlers who shared the canoe with me. Jim Mayer tackled the Yahara, while Dan Perreth helped me inspect sandbars in the Dells. Traveling Ted Nelson came up from Chicago just to paddle, even when the rain said No. (Long Live the Pelican!) My outdoor writing mentor, Johnny Molloy, and his then fiance, now wife, Keri Anne made it up from Tennessee for a paddle while passing through the area. Erica Chiarkas toughed out a rough paddle, as did Eric and Melanie Baumgart with their amazing sandboarding talents. Old friendsthe best kindRob Schultz and Dave Sebastian were also at the paddle more than once.

As always, I need to thank my father, Kurt Revolinski, for taking me on that first canoe ride and teaching my brother and me to love the outdoors. Its in our blood now. And finally, a special thanks to my wife, Preamtip Satasuk. There isnt a better sport in the world. She did not grow up as an outdoorsy type. She had never even set foot in a canoe before this project and had deep reservations about the whole idea. She paddled in the bow on twenty-seven of these excursions and handled it like a pro. She is awesome.

A hidden canyon just off the Black River (Paddle 18)

Introduction

My first paddling experience was at a Cub Scout camp on Crystal Lake. And indeed, the name fit: I could see all the way to bottom, 20 feet by my childhood reckoning. My father sat in the back of the canoe doing most of the work while my skinny arms waved a paddle around. When it came time to race other kids, it seemed as though the canoe took on a life of its own, surging forward and leaving a wake as we glided across glass on a sunny Wisconsin summer day. The joy of being out on the water never left me. On trips to visit family up near Lake Superior, wed cross those Northwoods riverways, tumbling whitewater through scattered boulders in forests redolent of pine. I specifically recall the Flambeau River. As I stared out the car window at the river winding away from the highway into the forest, I imagined following its trail in my own canoe. My father casually observed that a former coworker had retired up here and ran canoe trips on that river. That was itI wanted to do exactly that.

With old childhood friends, I often ventured out onto the Wisconsin River to go camping on sandbars, paddling for days down to the Mississippi. In college, a buddy and I borrowed a dented aluminum canoe and put in on a nameless creek that intrigued me just outside town, dragging and scraping through a storm sewer just to see where it went.

Just gazing at a map o f W isconsin, I am entranced by the meandering blue lines fleeing in all directions into the Great Lakes or the Mississippi. To borrow from Norman Macleans A River Runs Through It : I am haunted by waters. I see a creek and I want to ride it into nowhere.

When I started working as a freelance writer a number of years ago, I focused on travel writing. My reply to an ad on Craigslist, of all places, landed me a contract job updating a Wisconsin camping book. Then I started writing original hiking books. One project led to another, and suddenly years had passed and I realized that a solid section of my bookshelf was dedicated to my outdoor guidebooks. But none of them involved paddling.

So it was like a dream to take on this book project. Choose fortyany fortypaddling ventures in Wisconsin and chronicle them in a guidebook. Wisconsin has over 84,000 miles of rivers; and forget about trying to count all the lakes. How to choose? Where to start? The Wisconsin River of course, the trail left by a mighty serpent of Native American lore, running from top to bottom and marrying the Mississippi in the end. The Great Lakes? Of course! How about a tiny trout stream like the White River? Surely one cant overlook National Scenic Riverways such as the St. Croix and its sibling Namekagon. There are some Ive done many times, some Ive always wanted to do, and a couple Id never heard of. Wide slow paddles, narrow rushing ones, meadows and forests, canyons and bluffs. The trips here bear witness to the natural beauty o f W isconsin, both the glaciated wonders and the rolling texture of the Driftless Area, the pine forest up north, the oak savanna down south, and even a pleasant paddle through downtown Milwaukee.