Day 2 Ice Ice and More Ice

Daily stats

Start: 7:50 AM - Pine Bluff (Lake Wisconsin)
Finish: 3:30 PM - Spring Green WI
Time: 7:40
Daily dist: 38 miles
Total dist: 58 miles
Companions: None
Weather: Snow to partly cloudy highs in upper 20’s
Notes: Dealt with ice accumulations on gear and boat

Ice, ice everywhere. I’ve seen salt accumulate on my paddling clothing many times in the past but I’ve never seen ice build up on my boat and gear, but that was the case today while I paddled through a snow storm. We woke to about an inch of fresh snow on the ground and dealt with slippery roads as we drove to the put in just after day break. After arriving at the put in we had an interesting experience when it came to getting the boat off the truck when we discovered that the wet hull had frozen to the foam pads the night before. We took the boat (with pads attached) off the truck and used the MSR bag of warm drinking water I’d brought to thaw the pads off the hull. Rather than carry the boat to the water I slid it across the grass to the waters edge. The wind was up which was a good thing because it had pulverized the ice that lined the shore the night before into piles of little shards.

I quickly launched and headed off to my first destination, the Merrimac ferry. This is the last remaining ferry operating within the state of Wisconsin. Linking the town of Merrimac to the north with the small hamlets and on to the bigger city of Madison to the south. It is a cable ferry meaning that to move across the river it pulls itself along on a pair of large steel cables. When I was planning this trip I used the ferry schedule as an indicator that the lake wouldn’t be frozen in early December. I was in the understanding that the ferry quit running in the end of November so I was a bit surprised to see it still operating. Mom and Dad were going to use this floating shortcut to get to the bigger (and hopefully less snow covered) roads on the north side of the lake. After watching the ferry containing my parents and truck pass by I continued on my way.

The morning’s paddle passed without incident and I made it to the Lake Wisconsin dam in a few hours. I had brought my cart to make the portage around the dam a bit easier but never pulled it out opting instead to take advantage of the snow and slide the kayak to the put in below the dam. If Portage is the French word for “to carry” I’m wondering what the French word is for “to slide.” This dam is noteworthy in that it’s the last dam on the Wisconsin river. For a person that starts at the headwaters in northern Wisconsin and carries around all 22 of the dams on the river, it is a welcome site. Below the dam is 90 miles of free flowing water all the way to the Mississippi.

Apparently eagles appreciate the free flowing water as they were almost constant company for the rest of the day. At one point I could see a nesting pair, two juveniles, and another huge adult at the same time. Photographing these majestic icons with a simple point-and-shoot is generally a waste of time but I did get a shot of a nest tree and one bird.

Just below the dam is the town of Prairie Du Sac a trip follower had alerted me to a surprise below the old train bridge which I discovered on an old bridge support.

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