Week of Northeastern Iowa Rivers, 2010

[Al Donaldson]

Week of Northeastern Iowa Rivers, 2010


Saturday, April 17

The week's first paddle trip had a small turnout of paddlers, with some of the out-of-state folks still being on the road. Nonetheless, five paddlers from Iowa and one from Wisconsin paddled the 14 miles from Reinbeck to Hudson on Black Hawk Creek, with the gage at Hudson showing a healthy 380 cfs. The weather was kind to us and the logjams (left over from the two floods that the creek has had so far this year) were negotiable.

Paddlers:
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, Wisconsin
Jim Jorgenson, Independence, IA
Hannah Eden, Marion, IA
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA
Ana Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA


Jim Jorgenson, Karoyl Cooper and Bill Denton on the Blackhawk

The put in for this section is at Strohbehn Park (at the North end of Commercial Street) in Reinbeck; the take out is at Franck Park on IA58 in Hudson. There is an excellent spot for a lunch stop at the Heritage Farms ford, about halfway through the trip.

Sunday, April 18

With about an inch of water flowing over the Fairbank dam, the Little Wapsipinicon had just enough water to let our crew of solo boats through without much scraping in the riffles. Good weather and a crew of enthusiastic paddlers made for a fun 12 mile journey from Fairbank to Littleton. There is no gage on the Little Wapsi, so we had to take a visual reading prior to the trip (Thanks, Jim J!)

Paddlers:
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, Wisconsin
Keith Garrett, Muscatine, IA
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA

The Little Wapsi is a bit of a mystery stream: it lies in a watershed between the Wapsipinicon and Otter Creek, both of which are slow-moving streams with negligible gradient. The Little Wapsi, though, has a gradient of around 7 feet per mile for its first five miles below Fairbank. allowing several spirited riffles and interesting turns.


Sharon just below the dam at Fairbank


Keith and Bill E "riffling" on the Little Wapsi


Bill E at another Little Wapsi riffle

The Little Wapsi drains a watershed that includes quite a number of Amish farms, and so has a tendency to flood less than many area streams. This factor makes for

many pristine sand banks, living fresh-water mussels and a quite active natural fish population.


We've been watching this eagle nest for five years now, and it always seems to be occupied.

The put in for this section is the city park below the dam in Fairbank and the take out is above the dam in Littleton on the Wapsipinicon River (The Little Wapsi joins the Wapsipinicon just an eighth of a mile above the dam.)

Monday, April 19

We had been watching the gage on Lizard Creek closely for the last week, and as Monday approached, we found that the creek was likely to be at an ideal level for a great paddling trip. With a crew of seven paddlers, we were to meet at the County P27 bridge crossing in time for a 9:00 car shift down to Fort Dodge.

As Bill Denton and I pulled onto the gravel road at the put in, we noticed a situation that had been present for the previous two trips and which was to become a pattern for the entire week: every paddler was present and unloaded well before the planned car shift time! We ran the car shift down to the confluence of the Lizard and the Des Moines River and (at around 8:30 a.m.) were greeted there by Clark Fletcher of Fort Dodge (the moving force behind the work on the Lizard Creek Water Trail), who wished us a good trip and let us know about the planned rebuilding of the US 169 bridge over the creek (due to begin two days later.)

We were on the water before 9:00, with seven paddlers:
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, WI
Keith Garrett, Muscatine, IA
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA

The Lizard was in fine form, with a sunny, almost windless day and good water level (5.95 feet on the gage -- the creek provides good paddling levels between 5 and 7 feet))
Gage: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&format=gif_stats&period=8&site_no=05480080

One of the perennial problems of paddling the Liz is the problem of distractions: paddlers are generally rather busy looking at the creek's great scenery -- sometimes so much that they forget to look for obstacles in the water.


Colors and boats on the Lizard


The wooden railroad bridge is always an eye-catcher...



The swallow nests always draw some eyes...


No trip would be complete without some bovine interactions...

After the confluence of the Lizard and South Lizard Creeks, the main attractions are the rapids under the US 169 bridge and the boulder garden. It is always hard to get good photos of the garden, but we did get a few at the bridge.


Bill Erickson


Dave Watts


Sharon Colht


Keith Garrett


Karoyl Cooper

About 15 miles after we put in at P27, we hauled the boats up the bank just before the Phinney Park Drive Bridge in Fort Dodge.

Tuesday, April 20

The Upper Shell Rock River, the second stream in our western swing, was running at at calculated 1100 cfs (Subtract the reading from the Winnebago river gage from the reading for the Shell Rock gage.) While well above the minimum suggested in Paddling Iowa, this was about the lowest reading at which a tandem canoe could be taken between Plymouth and Nora Springs without a bit of dragging.

We put in at Strand park just north of Plymouth with six boats and seven paddlers: the first time in MANY trips that we've not had a headwind on the Shell Rock!
Paddlers:
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Keith Garrett, Muscatine, IA
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA
Ana Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA

The Upper Shell Rock, a virtual twin to its neighboring stream, the Winnebago, always provides lot of good paddling and some fine scenery.


Sharon and Bill E on the Shell Rock


Bill Denton at one of the many ledges...


Dave and his "River Pig" on the Shell Rock...


Bill Erickson "ledging" on the S.R...

At our lunch break in Rock Falls, Sharon happened upon what might well be a Fox Snake.. If any naturalists out there can correct or validate our identification of this fellow (below,) I'd appreciate it. He (She) was close to 4 feet in length.


Friend...

Our take out for this section was at the (new last year) Nora Springs boat launch, on the East side of the millpond above the Nora Springs dam. This is a much more "paddler friendly" spot than the old take out on the West side!

Shell Rock Gage: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_stats&period=31&site_no=05462000
Winnebago Gage: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?dd_cd=01&dd_cd=02&format=gif&period=31&site_no=05459500


Wednesday, April 21


With the Winnebago flowing at around 550 cfs, the trip from the 12th Street launch to Claybanks promised to be a quick and enjoyable trip. It was. This stream was to finish out our western swing of the week's paddling trips, with the group heading up into the driftless region for the next few paddle trips.

We had a total of ten paddlers for the trip, with seven canoes (one tandem) and two kayaks:

Bruce Stromberg, Lake Bluff, IL
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Keith Garrett, Muscatine, IA
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA
Keith Clark, Des Moines, IA
Rick Hill, Iowa City IA
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, WI
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA


Sharon and Bill decided to refine their tandem paddling routine, and, as they had room for only two canoes on their camper, they were talked into paddling the "Hot Dog," one of my Dagger Dimensions. (Yes, I would do that to two good friends, even!)


Sharon and Bill on the Winnebago

All of the paddlers enjoyed the drops and rapids on the Winnie.


Keith and his "Renegade"

Some parts of the stream were slow enough for quiet reflections...


Dave

...and even thoughts of river piracy...

Karoyl

...and even stand up paddling...


Keith again

Unfortunately, this section of the Winnebago is only about ten miles long, so we were soon off the river and headed for the northeastern part of the state.

Thursday, April 22

The Turkey River is a relatively often-paddled Iowa stream, but most paddlers stay to the sections below Eldorado for some reason. Last year, we discovered the great portions of the Upper Turkey, so we decided to paddle the 15 miles between Fort Atkinson and Eldorado for one of this year's April trips. This section of the Turkey has enough depth for tandem canoes at over 500 cfs and is downright swift at flows of over 700. With 550 cfs at the Eldorado gage, we were good to go for this trip.


Paddlers:

Bruce Stromberg, Lake Bluff, IL
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Keith Garrett, Muscatine, IA
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, WI
Ana Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA


The put in for this trip is at the southeast corner of the IA 24 bridge by the Fort Atkinson wastewater lift station. We had another sunny and mild day for the trip, breaking our four day record for such days in earlier Iowa April ventures.


...at the put in..


...Karoyl in the sunshine at Fort Atkinson

The Turkey is always a good show for wildlife sightings.


...some a bit less wild than others...


...Snapper on Snapdragon, anyone?

The section that we paddled has great scenery, some good riffles...


Bruce Stromberg, "riffling" on the Turkey

..and some fine old bridges that seem to survive the many floods better than the newer ones.


Below Fort Atkinson

All too soon, we arrived at the take out at Eldorado, by the old Major Road bridge.


Take out

Gage for this section:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_stats&period=31&site_no=05411850

There is a new gage at Spillville that should be handy for trip planning on the Upper Turkey, but we'll need to observe it for a year or so to be able to interpret it properly.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&format=gif_default&period=30&site_no=05411600

After we concluded the trip, most of the crew drove up to the metropolis of Gunder to the Irish Shanti, an (oddly enough, in a primarily Scandinavian area) Irish pub and eatery. (Don't worry about the address – if you can find Gunder, you will have found the Shanti.)

Since most of the crew had never heard of, much less seen, a Gunderburger, we felt it imperative that they have the chance to do one or the other.


Paddlers at the Shanti


The Gunderburger

For those of diminutive appetites, the Shanti also offered a tiny little 15 ounce pork chop...



The owner of the pub was good enough to come by and check on our gustatory progress and trade conversational caltrops with the group. Afterwards, we drove slowly and sleepily back to base.


Friday, April 23

Mother nature finally decided that she had not threatened us enough during the week, so she pulled some interesting storm fronts in from the southwest and put a little pressure on us for the last two days. Friday, the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon, but the paddlers decided to chance going out onto the Yellow river anyway. It was cool and a bit windy as we launched, with the threat of lots of water in the air.

Paddlers:

Bruce Stromberg, Lake Bluff, IL
Sharon Colht, Gurnee, IL
Bill Erickson, Round Lake, IL
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Bill Denton, Waterloo, IA
Karoyl Cooper, Fontana, WI
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA

With the Yellow running at around 180 cfs, it provided plenty of water for our solo boats, but gave us good warning that tandem canoes or other deep boats would need a bit more flow.


Heading downstream on the Yellow

The paddlers had a lot of fun with the many riffles; we even enjoyed dealing with the one "portage only" ford, although we did not follow the Water Trail signs very exactly...


Bruce at the ford

As we loaded up the boats at the take out below Ion, the rain started to fall.

Gage: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ia/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_stats&period=31&site_no=05389000

Our put in for this trip was at the Volney boat launch, even though the road to the launch looks a lot like a driveway, and the take out was about a mile below Ion at the "Yellow River Access."

Saturday, April 24

The rains actually did materialize on Friday night, but not enough fell on the headwaters of the Volga to allow good paddling there, so the two remaining paddlers and I decided to do the upper section of Blackhawk Creek, as neither of them had seen that creek before.

We paddled the section between Grundy Center and Strohbehn Park in Reinbeck, about a twelve mile stretch. At 320 cfs at the Hudson gage, this section had ample water.

Paddlers:

Bruce Stromberg, Lake Bluff, IL
Dave Watts, Plano, IL
Al Donaldson, Cedar Falls, IA

With temperatures in the high 40s - low 50s and with a 20 to 25 mph headwind, the twelve miles of this stretch seemed like about 20. No pictures are available as of now, but the section proved to be both fun and challenging enough for the last of eight days of paddling.

It was good.

Photos courtesy of:
Sharon Colht
Bruce Stromberg,
Dave Watts, and
Keith Garrett


Regards,

al

[dave & regina]

Good Job Al, We'll see you soon

[Al Donaldson]

Folks:

I added some detail today to the Turkey River trip description, just for completeness...

Regards,

al

[Melinda Tury]

Hi Al - I always enjoy your trip reports! Yes, that is a Fox snake. They have adapted themselves to look like rattlesnakes right down to the shape of their heads, their coloration, and the fact that when threatened they will coil up like a rattler and shake their tail! They are constrictors. Don't try to pick one up though - when frightened they emit a fowl "fox like" odor which smells almost like a skunk! Farmers love them because they eat mice and other small rodents and are generally not an agressive snake. We have a five and a half foot long one on display at Fullersburg where I volunteer. Miss you and Ana! Melinda