Kayak Trip #45 Round Lake, Waushara County, WI - 7-28-12

After spending time on Big Hills Lake earlier in the afternoon, we took a break and then drove a short distance to Round Lake, also near Wild Rose, WI. This is a smaller lake with less big boat traffic. We had a fun time paddling around, chasing some Canada geese and a duck. There are some really nice, big houses on this lake, and we wondered what it would be like to live in some of them. 

Here's a little video of our adventures:

The boat landing is on the southwest side of the lake. See "Location" at the bottom of this post for a map.

Kayak Trip #44 Big Hills Lake, Waushara County, WI - 7-28-12

Today, we took a picnic lunch and headed for Big Hills Lake county park, near Wild Rose. This is the same area we went to last weekend when we visited Kusel Lake. There are quite a few lakes in this area, so we are continuing our quest to explore them. Big Hills Lake is fairly large with quite a bit of boat traffic. We enjoyed playing in the waves that the speed boats made, and as long as we stayed near the shore, they accommodated us nicely. If you'd rather have a calmer paddle, go before or after skiing hours.

See the link to the map at the bottom of this post to find the lake. The boat landing is on the south side of the lake.

Here's a video of our tour of the lake:

Kayaking on Big Hills Lake.

Kayak Trip #43 Kusel Lake - 7-21-12

We decided to explore some new water tonight, so grabbed an early supper and headed down to northern Waushara County, near Wild Rose to check out Kusel Lake. This is a popular lake with several campgrounds and resorts, plus a county park. After driving around a while to find the county park's boat landing, we put in on a sandy beach next to the boat ramp. There were quite a few families swimming in the area, but it was not overly crowded.

After launching, we headed to a little side lagoon where we encountered this turtle and baby. The baby soon slipped into the water, but the big guy (or gal) never moved, except when I got up close, and it pulled its head in. (I was shooting into the sun, so the lighting isn't great.)

Turtles in Kusel Lake

On the far (west) end of the lake, there was a nice lagoon with cat tails and lily pads.

We saw this neat floaty with a built-in swimming pool and lounge chairs. That's sure to keep the kiddies happy! There was also a slide into the water. Looks like a fun place to spend a hot, summer day.

Kusel Lake is quite large, and there were several boats on the water, and quite a few fishermen. We saw this family fishing from shore.

We headed back toward the landing and found a canal leading to a marina where we passed under a footbridge. 

There were a couple of boys playing on a dock who were all excited about seeing a big turtle. This was just after they took their feet out of the water. I saw it, too, and it was quite large. Not sure I'd want my feet anywhere near its mouth. Didn't get a picture as it swam away too quickly.

After loading up the kayaks, we scouted out some other lakes nearby to explore another day. It's a nice area, not terribly far from home, so we'll likely make more trips down that way.

Kayak Trip #42 Sunset on Spencer Lake - 7-17-12

After several days of extremely hot temperatures, we finally cooled off a bit this evening, so decided to head out for a sunset cruise on Spencer Lake. It was a beautiful evening, and there weren't too many other boats on the lake, so it was quite serene. Waved at some friends floating by on a pontoon boat.

Two years ago on this date, my family had a reunion at the campgrounds on the lake, so it was fun to go back and remember the fun day we had then.

The swimming beach at Spencer Lake Christian Center.

Our friends on a pontoon boat

The Dining Hall at the camp where we had our family reunion.

Sunset on Spencer Lake



Movie of our evening on Spencer Lake.

(Also see Trip #3 for more details on Spencer Lake.)

Kayak Trip #41 Little Wolf River from Big Falls to the Dells – 7/14/12

Early this morning, we headed up to Big Falls for our long anticipated return trip, this time with a camera! (See Trip #30.) We put in at the park just upstream from the dam about 8 a.m. Paddling upstream, we encountered numerous ducks, geese, a blue heron, a turtle, and several frogs. Also saw a few fish and lots of tiny minnows. We paddled up to the rapids by the dells, where the current was too strong to go further, so we took out on the rock shelf on the north side of the river about 8:45. There is a hiking trail there, so we went to the top of the dells where Lynn climbed down the rock face toward the water. My fear of heights (really a fear of FALLING…) prevented me from following! Got some nice photos and video from the top of the rocks.

Lynn on the rock face overlooking the dells.

Kayaking up the Little Wolf River from Big Falls to the Dells

We headed back downstream about 9:15 and arrived back at the landing at 9:52. Since we had packed a lunch, we decided to do some exploring by car. We found a neat little park northeast of Big Falls called Keller Lake Park. What a neat place for an early lunch (just before the rain hit)! There was a dam there as well, with water rushing down over rocks with little islands of big rocks in the middle. We walked out to the middle of the stream on top of the rocks and watched as the water cascaded over the dam. As it was starting to rain, we headed back to the car.

Keller Lake Park

Below the dam at Keller Lake

The shower only lasted a few minutes, so we drove around a bit more on the way home. Saw some neat Amish farms along the way. It was a fun day!

Shocks of grain on an Amish farm near Clintonville, WI

Laundry Day at an Amish Farm

See also Trip #30.

Kayak Trip #40 Waupaca River, Hwy 22/54 to Harrington Road - 7/13/12

It was a steamy night with a few much-needed raindrops mixed in. We got in the river about 6:20 p.m. and enjoyed a leisurely paddle down the river getting out just over an hour later. The mist was rising off the water in several areas as the humidity rose in the air. The horseflies were a bit pesky starting out, but left us alone later. Saw lots of birds, and heard critters of some sort splashing into the water. I suspect they were either turtles or bullfrogs as they made a loud splash. At one point, a large tree branch came crashing into the river. Thankful we weren't under it! The highlight of tonight's trip was seeing a BALD EAGLE high in a dead tree. I was able to pull my kayak up to the opposite shore to steady it a bit as I zoomed in on it with my camera. It's times like this that I wish I had my good camera with 16x zoom instead of 4x on this waterproof one, but I'm not willing to risk getting the other one wet. And without this camera, I wouldn't even have a photo. The humidity steamed up my lens a bit, so the photos aren't as sharp as they should be.

The put-in under the bridge. There's a path on the southwest side of the bridge down to the water.

A bald eagle! (Cropped photo, so it's a little pixelated.)

There's room to scoot under the right side of this fallen tree.

Farm bridge with tricky current on the other side. It will spin you around if you're not careful!

A bit steamy out there. My camera lens steamed up, too.

The steep pull-out. Get out on the left side just before the Harrington Rd. bridge.

See Trip #37 as well.

Kayak Trip #39 Upper Chain o' Lakes Sunset - 7/12/12

Our new waterproof camera came today! Of course, we had to go out and try it. Since Lynn got home a bit late tonight, we stayed pretty local and opted for a sunset paddle on the Upper Chain. It was a lovely night with no wind. Took quite a few photos plus a few videos which weren't too great due to poor lighting. We did see a family of sandhill cranes, several ducks, woodpeckers and other birds.

See also Trip #2.

Kayak Trip #38 Crystal River from the town of Rural to Parfreyville - 7/11/12

This is the second half of the Ding's Dock skiff trip that a lot of you have probably been on at some point or other. I hadn't done this since high school or college. The water was pretty shallow at the beginning, and we had lots of bottom scraping and "butt scratchers", but the ripples and small rapids made it a fun trip. And I chased a gray heron down the river for a quarter mile or better. Met some other folks with kayaks like ours, only theirs were brand new. They were just scouting places to go, so we gave them some advice. Turned out to be a very nice evening.

Kayak trip #37 Waupaca River from Hwy. 22/54 to Harrington Rd. - 7/10/12

Had a great time on our paddle tonight on the Waupaca River. We put in at the bridge at Hwy. 22/54 east of town near Fox Valley Technical College which is downstream of the confluence with the Crystal River, so the water level was higher there than further upstream. We kayaked about an hour and a half to the bridge on Harrington Road, just past the airport. It was an easy paddle, with only a few boulders to dodge, a few fallen trees to skirt around, and only one fallen tree completely across the river, but we were able to scoot under the high end. The put-in and take-out were a bit mucky, but not terribly difficult. I'd recommend this stretch to anyone wanting a fairly easy trip.

Kayak trip #36 Little Wolf River from Royalton to the Ostrander Road Bridge – 7/9/12

We kayaked part of the Little Wolf River this evening from County Road O Bridge at Royalton to the Ostrander Road Bridge. Got a late start, so we didn't go any further tonight so we could get out before dark. Lots of "butt scratchers" in the river... low water levels, so we scraped a lot of rocks. I think we'll wait until spring to do that again. It was fun, though, with some nice little rapids. We both stayed upright and dry, for the most part.

Kayak Trip #35 Crystal River, Red Mill to Shadow Lake – 7/7/12

This was a fun stretch of river. The beginning was quite shallow, but soon enough we were in water that was deep enough to paddle. Of course, there were plenty of "butt scratchers", rocks that scraped the bottom of our boats. There was some deadfall to paddle around, and one fallen tree that I had to portage over. Hubby managed to squeeze through the branches, but it took him just as long as it did for me to get out and crawl over. At the put-in, we talked to a lady who said she had done this stretch. We asked if she was able to go under the bridge at Shadow Road, (where Lynn took his first spill on the downstream side,) and she said it was easy enough and that we should go for it. So we did! It was fun and not that difficult. I think our skills are getting better, too. :)

See trip #20.

After last week's hot spell, it was nice to get back on the water. In the meantime, I watched videos from Miles Paddled, Mark Guerke and WI Paddle to keep me in the paddling spirit.

Kayak Trip #34 Upper Chain in the Moonlight – 7/3/11

Our daughter, Holly came to visit for the 4th of July, so we packed up our inflatable and headed for the Upper Chain where we met with our friend, Phil for a moonlight paddle under the full moon. Holly had only kayaked once before, so Lynn let her use his hard kayak, and he took the blow-up. After paddling around the lakes a bit, we headed down the creek between Pope and Marl lakes. The woods were lit up with twinkly, “Christmas” lights, which were actually lightning bugs! It was beautiful! As we got to Marl lake, the moon was just rising in the east over the trees. What a beautiful sight! Big and orange. If it hadn’t been for the mosquitoes that were after us in spite of bug repellant, we might have stayed longer. We paddled back to the landing using a flashlight and moonlight. Pretty neat night!

See also Trip #2.

Kayak Trip #33 Spencer Lake – 7/3/11

We had to go to Spencer Lake Christian Center for an orientation to work (volunteer) in the camp office later in the week, so of course, we brought our kayaks along. After lunch, we had a nice time on and in the lake. We paddled around beautiful Spencer Lake three times, and also spent quite a bit of time playing in the water. It was hot, so swimming was in order for this afternoon. We went before water skiing hours were over, so we had to compete with the big boats, but we did have fun riding the waves they created.

See Trip #3.

Kayak Trip #32 Spencer Lake - 7/1/12

Had a peaceful evening paddling around Spencer Lake. See Trip #3.

Kayak Trip #31 Lake Helen - 6/30/12

After paddling the Little Wolf at Big Falls in the morning, we got some lunch at Roshault and decided to put in at Lake Helen since we had time for an afternoon paddle. Lots of people on this lake with cottages all around, but there is a nice park there. It was enjoyable.

Reading the map to figure out how to get home.

Kayak Trip #30 Little Wolf River, Big Falls to the Dells and Back - 6/30/12

Our favorite trip so far! Got up early and headed north to the park at Big Falls. Sure wish we had a waterproof camera to take in all the beauty of this place. The sides of the river are lined with huge granite rocks in places, and the tranquility of this area is amazing. We paddled upstream until we reached a place called “The Dells” where granite walls on both sides of the river form a narrow chute, with rapids too strong for us to paddle upstream against. We got out on a rock shelf and climbed up on top of the bank. The view was amazing, and unfortunately, all we had was Lynn’s cell phone for a camera, and the lens is scratched up, but I did take a few photos. We plan to go back here as soon as we get a waterproof camera so we can try again!

View from the rock ledge above the Dells

Kayak Trip #29 Spencer Lake – 6/28/12

Paddled around and went swimming. We tried to practice reentering the kayak from the water, but didn't have too much success! It's harder than it looks. See Trip #3.

Kayak Trip #28 Waupaca River, Anderson Road to Brainerd’s Bridge – 6-23-12

After paddling placid waters the last few nights, we were ready for a little more excitement, so we went down the Waupaca River again. Love the little rapids at Brainerd’s Bridge. Yahoo!!

Kayak Trip #27 North Lake - 6/22/12

We decided to venture north this time and explore some new territory. It was a nice lake with some reeds and lily pads around the edges. Saw some fishermen there.

Kayak Trip #26 Stratton Lake – 6/21/12

I took my old camera with me in a Zip-Loc bag and was able to take some nice photos tonight.

Kayak Trip #25 Spencer Lake – 6/19/12

Our favorite lake when we don’t know where else to go. See Trip #3.

Kayak Trip #23 Shadow and Mirror Lakes - 6/17/12

These are our default lakes when we don’t want to travel far as they are less than 10 minutes from our house. See Trip #1.

Kayak Trip #24 Twin Lake – 6/18/12

Twin Lake is down in the north end of Waushara county, maybe a half-hour drive or so. We just wanted to explore some new waters, and this was a nice place to go. It was so humid that we could see steam rising from the waters.

Kayak Trip #22 Crystal River, Red Mill to Shadow Road - 6/11/12

Did a repeat of Trip #20. Fun!

Kayak Trip #21 Waupaca River, Anderson Road to Brainerd’s Bridge Park – 6/10/12

We finally got up the courage to try a little bit bigger river with some class I rapids after talking to some people doing the Waupaca Kayak Adventures tour. We thought that if beginners could handle this river, we should have enough experience to do it as well. Sure enough, it wasn’t that difficult, and it was fun! We only did the last 3rd of the segment that the tour group did because we didn’t have 3 hours to spend. The most fun part was the rapids at Brainerd’s Bridge just before the takeout. Wheee!

The Class I rapids just before the take-out at Brainerd's Bridge Park

Brainerd's Bridge Park footbridges

Two footbridges connecting two islands to the mainland.