Day 1 (Launch day)

Daily stats

Start: 12:50 PM - Riverside Park Portage WI
Finish: 4:15 PM - Pine Bluff (Lake Wisconsin)
Time: 3:25
Daily dist: 20 miles
Total dist: 20 miles
Companions: Doug (on a stand up board)
Weather: Fair sunny and calm high in upper 30s
Notes: Start day with over 40 people at the put in.

The launch today was about as perfect as I could have ever imagined. A whole pile of my family made the trek all the way down to have brunch at a local restaurant then drive over to see me off. I expected that a small handful of locals would turn up for the launch so you can imagine my surprise when we arrived at Riverside park to discover a crowd of at least thirty people patiently waiting in the cold for us to arrive.

On the way to the restaurant a wrong turn gave me a chance to pre scout the route and I was very relived to see that Lake Wisconsin (the last lake on the Wisconsin river) was not frozen as the lakes are up north.

With a bunch of help from family and friends we got the boat off my truck and set it up for everyone to sign. Meanwhile I changed into my dry suit and gear then gave a bit of a speech to the group. I was afraid that watching me climb into my boat and paddle away would be as interesting as watching paint dry but the spirit of the moment made it special and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I was joined by Doug on a stand up board the first couple miles until he turned into a back channel to pull off the river early so he could get to the ski hill before the end of the day. Despite the relatively warm bright sunny day, thoughts of skiing drove home the reality of my late season departure and served as a bit of foreshadowing to how the day would end.

I made great time averaging almost six miles per hour with the current helping me along. I was paddling for about an hour before I heard a gong bell ring and a person shout then turned to see a couple waving from the back deck of their riverside home. They wished me good luck and said they had a place in Florida where they‘d be staying this winter. I promised to stay in touch to see if we could cross paths down there in a few months.

Two hours into the days paddle (about 3:00) I called my support crew to give them the fix on where I figured I’d be coming ashore for the night. I had selected a back bay where the highway ran right along side the water where it’d be easy to find one another. As I paddled into the slack water of the dam created lake I found myself avoiding occasional slabs of ice floating free in the water. The rocks and trees along the eastern shore were gobbed with ice as though they’d been dipped in watery wax. Apparently the winds and chilly temperatures we had late last week combined to form rough splashing waves that froze to form the globular clusters. All of this again should have served as a warning to what I discovered when I turned the corner around the last point to reveal the bay that was my destination.

Inside this formerly windward bay all of the ice that had formed from last weeks storm had been blown into interlocking slabs of ¾” ice. This “flow” extended a half mile from shore and a mile to my west. Any thoughts of pushing through the tangle were quickly squelched when I tried to push the bow of my boat into unyielding mess. Even if I had managed to wiggle a half mile through the icy maze it was sure to freeze solid over night leaving me stranded and requiring me to violate my only rule and accept a ride further down the route. As daylight waned I checked my map and located a headland that juts into the lake leaving it more exposed to the wind which should have stripped it clean of ice from last weeks storm. So I alerted my shore crew and made haste in the rapidly approaching twilight to my new destination. My hunch proved to be true and the shore of this almost island was not choked in with ice. I did have to push through about ten yards of half inch ice but with luck it won’t freeze much further out overnight tonight and I’ll be able to get underway tomorrow without too much trouble

With a little frantic searching my parents finally found my chilled carcass waiting along side the road.

We quickly loaded up my boat and gear and they whisked me off to the nights accommodations they had already scouted. This will be the program for the next week or so as they help me put on big miles in an empty boat to get me just a little further south before I commit to camping out in the snow and cold. On one side I do feel a bit like I’m cheating but on the other (especially with the nasty weather that’s predicted for later this week) I am very glad they have volunteered to give me a boost on my way in the beginning of this trip.

Tomorrow the plan is to give me a ride back up to where I left off. Mom and Dad were going to cruise back up to Portage to grab a couple copies of the local newspaper with the article about the trip then move on down the river to Spring Green near tomorrows takeout destination.