FrankP wrote:
On Oct 17th my wife & I paddled the Upper Dells from the boat landing in town to Stand Rock and back (about 8 miles) in our inflatable and had a blast. The water level there was great but there is a dam downstream a little from the ramp. Beautiful colors in Oct. How low was the WI River southwest of Mad town last year? I know there are a lot of sandbars and islands along the way from Arena to Spring Green. Were they passable by kayak all summer? I heard you can see many birds and even Bald Eagles. BTW, I heard today the DNR counted over 400 Bald Eagles on the Mississippi in WI but I didn't hear where. That would be very cool to see several of them. We saw one on Tellico Lake in TN last summer and it was the highlight of our 2 kayak trips while we were there.
We live in the Milwaukee area. You could be paddling in Mexico right now you know!
We have never done the upper Dells trip. The time of year you went (and the early spring before the tourboat traffic) is pretty much the only time you are able to do that trip. That area of the river doesn't have the water level issues you experience south and west of Sauk. The river wasn't impassible but I pretty much yanked the rudder up and gave up on that. I think the lower Wisconsin is a great trip. We saw numerous eagles from Muscoda to Boscobel.
We thought about bringing the boat with us to Mexico but ultimately decided not to because we had a couple of gaps in our normal condo rental arrangement and we planned to visit Merida, Campeche, and Bacalar during those gaps. We use public transit when we are here and the idea of schlepping all the boat bags on bus trips throughout the Yucatan was not terribly appealing.