Paddling
Kayaking the Apostles
The wild 21-island archipelago around Wisconsin's Bayfield Peninsula is the preserve of paddlers.
The sky was clear, the wind was still and Lake Superior was as placid as a lily pond.
It was a miracle that wouldn't last. That's why it was torture for the dozen of us to sit through a long kayak safety course on the sandy beach of Bayfield, Wis., forming a ''human knot'' to foster cooperation in case of disaster and listening to trip leader Hovas Schall's horror stories about the big, mercurial lake.
''Kayakers play a game with the weather, and the weather always wins,'' she said darkly. "Sea kayaking is a dangerous sport.''
Wausau's liquid assets
In this sporty town on the Wisconsin River, just go with the flow.
In Wausau, water is power.
Sawmills were first to use the thundering rapids along the Wisconsin River, which have been working hard ever since.
But these rapids generate more than the electricity that lights a bulb – they also draw world-class athletes for thrilling tournaments, such the 2012 world whitewater kayak/canoe championships for juniors and under-23 paddlers, some of them Olympics-bound.
Planning a paddle trip
If you'd like to hit the waterways this summer, you'll find lots of encouragement.
Early spring is not too soon to start planning a summer on the water.
Outdoors and paddle clubs are happy to show the ropes to new members.
Outdoors stores offer boat demos and free classes on trip planning. Rangers at federal wildlife reserves offer guided trips.
Along for the glide
On rivers, guided paddle trips offer a one-way ticket with nonstop scenery.
There's no better way to see nature's best than on a river, the original highway.
The same rivers that carried hunters, explorers and traders now carry us, the sightseers. Paddling along, we see the same things they did: otters, eagles, fish and deer, plus lovely flora and endless sky.
Best of all, you never see the same thing twice.
Kayak klatch
Paddling festivals on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are good places to mingle and learn.
If you're interested in sea kayaking and ready to jump in, kayaking festivals are a good place to improve skills and meet other kayakers. Programs include classes, seminars, demos, on-water tours and, often, races.
Sign up as early as possible for the best selection of classes and tours. Youths get discounts. Below are some of the best festivals in 2013.
June 14-16, Washington Island Canoe & Kayak Event at the tip of Wisconsin's Door County. This festival includes a 22-mile race around the island, plus beginner's and intermediate races, workshops and a Sunday group expedition across the 4½-mile Death's Door to the mainland.
Crazy about kayaks
At a Madison paddle sports expo, women look for a boat of their own.
When some men reach a certain age, they get the urge to buy a zippy little sports car. But when women reach a certain age, they covet a sporty little kayak.
I must be at that age, because nearly every woman I know either has bought a kayak or decided she wants one.
And buying one kayak usually just makes you want another one — call it kayak envy.
Minnesota's Boundary Waters
For canoeists, this vast wilderness is the promised land.
Along Minnesota's northern border with Canada, more than 200,000 people a year find an increasingly rare commodity — absolute wilderness.
The million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is barely changed since voyageurs used its chain of lakes and rivers
to push deep into the continent's interior.
Today, the foot trails over which they carried canoes and 180-pound packs are used by vacationers, who wind their way from lake to lake in search of the perfect combination of woods, water and solitude.
Chasing the Kickapoo
In southwest Wisconsin, a looping river plays peekaboo.
In southwest Wisconsin, following the Kickapoo River is a lot like watching a magic act: No matter how closely you pay attention, eventually what you see is going to disappear into thin air.
When it reappears, it will be in a completely different spot, and you'll have no idea how it got there.
"Look, there it is again," said my husband, as we drove Wisconsin 131 through the Kickapoo Valley. "It's meandering like mad."
Road trip: Wisconsin River
The valleys and bluffs around Prairie du Sac draw paddlers, hikers and Sunday drivers.
At Prairie du Sac, the Wisconsin River finally breaks free.
Lined with so many dams and reservoirs it's often called the nation's hardest-working river, the Wisconsin devotes itself to play after it passes the town.
Then it becomes the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, beloved by canoeists, who like to play on its many sandbars.
Historic boathouses of Minocqua
In a Wisconsin resort town, the wealthy built playrooms on water.
In Minocqua, you have to get in a boat to go on a historic home tour.
In the first part of the 20th century, captains of industry streamed to this village in northeast Wisconsin, called the Island City because it is nearly surrounded by Lake Minocqua.
Their estates are hidden in the trees, but the boathouses were built over water, fanciful structures with gables, balconies, towers and turrets.
15 great rivers for paddling
On a fine day, go sightseeing in a canoe or kayak.
In this region, nearly every river is a good paddling river.
For adventure, try northwest Wisconsin's Bois Brule, which flows into Lake Superior over a series of rapids.
For scenery, head for the cliff-lined Upper Iowa, which National Geographic Adventure magazine calls one of America’s Best Adventure 100, along with rafting in the Grand Canyon.
Paddling the Bois Brule
In northwest Wisconsin, this lively river is cherished by presidents, paddlers, fishermen and wildlife-watchers.
More than any other river in Wisconsin, the Bois Brule has a pedigree.
They call it River of Presidents, but it also attracts senators and millionaires. Named for pines charred by lightning strikes — “burnt wood’’ in Ojibwe, then French — it rises from conifer bogs near Solon Springs and flows toward Lake Superior.
Its cold, spring-fed currents harbor trout, and well-heeled fishermen discovered the river long before loggers moved
in.
Paddling the Chicago River
After years of neglect, this urban waterway has become a place to play.
The Chicago River never has run clear.
Before settlers arrived, it was a lethargic prairie river that ran through a swamp the Potawatomi called Checaugou — for “swamp weed,’’ or “wild onion.’’
Then factories and slaughterhouses turned it into a sewer. At the confluence of the main branch with the north and south branches, Bubbly Creek was named for the methane gas that rose from decomposing carcasses on the river bottom.
Kayaking the Rossport Islands
Off Ontario's Superior coast, a lighthouse is an irresistible destination.
At the top of Lake Superior, there's a dramatic coast lined with rugged cliffs, cobblestone beaches and islands.
It's the home of Parks Canada's new Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area, created last October to protect the waters between the Sibley Peninsula, east of Thunder Bay, and the Slate Islands, off Terrace Bay.
The many islands are big, much like the Apostles in Wisconsin except closer together. That makes them ideal for kayaking. The Slate archipelago, where caribou live, attracts serious kayakers. But the Rossport Islands are perfect for any paddler.
A spin on the Kinni
From friendly River Falls, it's a wild ride on water, then roads.
On Wisconsin's Kinnickinnic River, paddling is a lot like playing pinball — except your boat is the ball.
Quickened by springs and creeks as it flows toward the St. Croix, the Kinni is no lazy river. Cold and insistent, it scoops up a boat and gives it a ride, slapping it between boulders, bumping it over rubble and shooting it over rapids. All the person in the boat has to do is sit tight and steer.
On a warm summer day, it's the coolest possible place to play. So one August, my husband and I drove to River Falls, a college town that calls itself "The City on the Kinni."
Floating Missouri
Streams and springs beg to be explored in the down-home Ozarks.
After a long, hard winter, the sight of blooming forsythia can be intoxicating. And a butterfly? That must be just a fleeting dream.
My daughter spotted those things plus a robin soon after we arrived in Missouri for spring break, and they were enough to make her giddy with excitement.
"Oh, I like this place,'' she cried. "I like the way it looks, the warm spring air, the way it smells. And oh, look, some nice spring grass!''
Whitewater 101
On the Wolf River in northeast Wisconsin, novice kayakers learn the moves at Bear Paw resort.
Whitewater paddlers are, by definition, thrill-seekers.
That's why they seek out the northeast corner of Wisconsin, "the cradle of rivers.'' The big Wisconsin River starts there, as do the Wolf, Peshtigo and Menominee, three of the Upper Midwest's best-known whitewater rivers.
On the Wolf River, Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure Resort has been a whitewater hub since 1994, selling gear to expert wranglers and teaching novices how to handle the rapids, which froth and churn over knots of boulders dropped by the last glacier.
Trying kayaking
Think the sport looks cool? It's easy to get your feet wet.
For a lot of people, canoeing is last year's sport. Kayaking is a step up, like trading in the mini-van for a Miata.
Who wouldn't want a zippy little kayak to pilot all by yourself, without that other person yelling at you from the stern (or bow)?
But a kayak with all the accessories is expensive. And it's hard to decide what kind of boat to buy, because you need a different kind for different bodies of water — whitewater, lakes, rivers and inland seas, such as the Great Lakes.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2013 all rights reserved
