Saw my motorcycle racing doc and asked him if he ever heard of the Arlo Guthrie song…
He sang it… LOL
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Hey PJC, thanks for the offer to paddle together, I hope to take you up on it. Maybe we can get Carl to come too, he’s usually not hard to convince to go for a paddle. I usually pop out to the Lone Rock area at least once a year but this virus stuff has thrown quite a curve ball at my routine and I’ve been pretty darn happy just to get on the water locally. Took this pic on the St Joseph a couple of hours ago.
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You have a point here…
The “scene of the crime” is on the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway located in southern Wisconsin. If you look at a state map showing the counties you’ll see the Wisconsin river which forms the boundary for many of our counties. It runs north/south for about 350 miles and then takes a turn to the west/southwest. The part after that turn is the Lower Wisconsin and marks the point where there are no more dams - too sandy to foot them. Here is a set of maps:
http://lwr.state.wi.us/section.asp?linkid=233&locid=50
This little homecoming event I was writing about is on map 4, running from Long Lake (the “slough” just outside Lone Rock where we put in) to the point where the Pine River joins the Wisconsin.
I apologize for being negligent in mentioning that - what I was trying to get at was not so much to promote the river or try to get others to visit. I was trying to capture the observations of what has changed and what hasn’t; That the things we sometimes assume are natural and long-lasting (islands, beaches, springs, eagle nests) are sometimes more ephemeral than the stories, tranquility, friendships, memories that seem less so. I was hoping that this would strike a chord with all the paddlers here - the sea kayakers, white water guys, birders, campers - anybody who has come to know a particular bit of water well and holds fond memories of times spent there. Most of us have places like this that we frequent and often take for granted because they are so darned familiar. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve paddled this stretch in a hurry to get to a take out before dark, or get camp pitched, meet someone, etc. Often I haven’t taken the time to really appreciate it, though I knew it well. It took an absence to help me appreciate it and I suspect I’m not the only one who sometimes does this. So I thought maybe a post like this would strike a chord with other paddlers.
And the topic drifts a bit, as conversations often do.
I don’t know what more to say - I feel a bit like Johnny Carson when one of his jokes fell flat and he tries to explain why its funny. Falls even flatter.
Anyhow, thanks for your service, sorry for any frustration you may have felt, and I’ll try to take criticism productively. Hope to hear from you again, where you paddle, what you paddle, and what you enjoy.
BTW, I took off for town yesterday afternoon after rain interrupted my mowing project to do grocery shopping, visit my girlfriend, get caught up with the newspapers, etc. so I was away from my computer till just now, Otherwise I would have replied sooner.
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I doubt we shall be reading/hearing any more from the likes of jimfrichmond; so apologies or explanations are as Charlie Chan once quipped, “Like TV on honeymoon, unnecessary!”
These are the same types who post a topic over on Advice forum and then are never heard from again. Even when it’s their own self- created thread (Forget about any replies/thanks to others with informative responses…And another reason I don’t bother with Advice forum any longer.) Angry trolls only usually spend one quick night under a bridge, then quickly move on when they find the locals won’t feed them. 
.
Now where were we?
Oh yeah, PJC–You mentioned the Kickapoo. No, I hadn’t heard about it, but doesn’t surprise me. I’ll have to give a call to a friend of mine in La Crosse to get the whole insiders dirty low down. 
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A Homecoming is an apt title and something we can relate to no matter where we are. Pat you brought back memories of a soggy Ozark Twin Brooks Rendezvous where Eric pitched the tarp with his engineering precision and Rena asked me to look on the way home for a particular paddle ( as we were going by a very good canoe shop)
Homecoming… a very short paddle off our dock yesterday on our home lake . For the first time in three months my neighbor emerged from her property to join us in her rec kayak… So nice to be able to visit from a pretty safe distance and to do something “normal”. The wildlife is thriving… Loons swam between our boats as if to say Welcome Back ( yes that is anthropormorphizing! but it was such a nice feeling). Eagle on a dead pine and little turtles and frogs abounding.
It did feel in a sense like coming home!
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If you ever visit that friend in LaCrosse you might want to do a paddle on the Kickapoo. No whitewater or anything, its a small, very twisty stream that runs through tall bluffs and is especially nice when the spring ephemeral wildflowers are in bloom. Ontario to Rockton to Lafarge sections are often paddled and usually kept clear by the liveries. (Its a party river in high summer…might be wise to avoid it at that time.) Other sections usually involve dealing with deadfall, but are nice nevertheless.
In fall if you paddle it down to the Wisconsin you go from high steep hills covered with the red/russet of oaks in the Kickapoo valley to a world of golden maples and larger rolling hills in the valley of the Wisconsin. Its a striking color change of the background everywhere you look. Kinda’ odd and notable.
And a longish days paddle from there you’re into the arrow root and lily pads of the muddy Mississippi.
Depending on where you put in on the Kickapoo, you can do three rivers in three days.
Been a while since we’ve seen a B&B vibe here. But one wants to give the benefit of the doubt and there’s really no reason to be secretive about the location either… its all good.
Well, then it worked at least once. 
Twin Bridges is getting to feel a little “homey”, too. Were you down there (Oh almost forgot - Northfork (of the White) R. in the Ozarks) on that trip after the flooding? Dang, I was glad not to be anywhere near that river in full flood stage.
Here’s a snapshot from that trip… that’s a picnic table up there. The shot was taken from the water.
Heading out again, I’ll be back to a computer tomorrow.
Be well all!
I’m not ever going to be the same now when the doc says that colonoscopy word.
LOL After Hurricane Irma there were picnic tables all over the place. Bushes, fences, gates… We would turn them over thinking they wouldn’t blow away… that just made them float better…
I wish I’d taken a few seconds more to better frame that picture… because of a shallow gravel beach on the left, the only really good path was to paddle directly under that table. I’ve often said I’m not a racer, but I assure you I picked up my cadence a bit while going under that thing. Whole different kind of river hazard, that.
There were trees down all over the landings and flood plain generally - that was a really significant flood, even for the Ozarks.
Still, it was nothing like the mess I’ve seen in the aftermath of a hurricane like you guys see down there… I paddled for one splendid day on Village Creek in E. Texas a few months after Rita (If I’m recalling correctly) passed through. The piles of trees left behind on the river were just amazing. Tornadoes are one thing, but hurricanes are a whole different animal.
Hurricanes are often accompanied by tornadoes. After Hugo, parts of Charleston , SC looked like mad lumberjacks had been at it. Oaks down and pines twisted in half.