The original plan was for an overnight trip. We were planning on starting at Lake Durant, paddling into the Rock River, into Rock Lake, Rock Lake outlet back into the Rock River and down to the Essex Chain of Lakes outlet. We were to camp here and hike up into the Essex Chain.
The next day we would continue down to the Cedar River and then down to the Hudson River and paddle the Hudson River Gorge back to North River. During the planning phase Rick and I could not come up with two coinciding days to make it happen. Rick had EMS meetings and I had trees to plant later in the week.
Then the rain started. It rained hard and the rivers, already bank full, quickly elevated to flood status. We decided on a day trip and planned on taking out at the confluence with the Hudson and Indian Rivers and hike back up to the truck at the gate. The road had washed out, so we were not able to drive all the way to the gate. But we figured: close enough.
As we drove out past the Lake Abanakee dam the Forest Rangers were preparing their airboat to retrieve a series of docks that had broken loose and were hung up in the cable above the dam. With the water level continuing to rise there was a very real risk of the docks floating into the sluiceway. We stopped and they asked that we call to let them know when we would get off the river.
The road was flooded and we carefully drove out through the water wondering if it would be passable when we were through at the end of the day. As we drove north on RT30 the Cedar River was out of the riverbank and the golf course was flooded. Water looked to be a few feet up the nets.
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| Photo by: Rick Morse |
When we reached the get in at Lake Durant the water was spilling through the two culverts in torrents.
Not far downstream we came to a steel bridge. The water was just a foot below the bottom beam so we hopped out real quick to scurry around the obstacle. It was not the last obstacle. As we reached Rock Lake we saw to our dismay that it was still mostly iced in, but the floodwaters provided a path to the outlet. We had not counted on ice. Later, when I spoke with the Ranger he admitted that he hadn’t thought of the ice. The major concern was not the ice in the lake but the ice breaking up and flowing out the Rock River! There were some very large pieces and the smaller pieces congested the current. We had to time our passage with breaks in the ice flow. Around the next corner there was a steel cable too low to paddle under, yet the water was not high enough to go over it. We found a sneak channel river left backed up by strainers, which were easily navigated.
The ice proved to not be a factor as the multitude of rapids and bends pulverized and filtered the ice. Many rapids blended together with few eddys to catch. There were constant horizon lines where we would drift up. Look for a clear channel or an eddy to catch and then drop in. There were two horizons that had, what we considered, unrunable drops. Actually the first looked like it would go but this far back in the woods no one was going to probe. So we walked this one and another drop on the Rock River.
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| Photo by: Rick Morse |
Our original plan was to hike up the Essex Chain of Lakes Outlet. However, even now our time was limited and we were further behind schedule than anticipated. We still had to reach the Cedar and deal with a river that was already flooded without the added flow from the Rock River. When we reached the Essex Chain outlet I was amazed at the water dumping off a 70 feet cascade. The confluence was larger than Rock Lake and all the surrounding woods were flooded well past any high water mark. We stayed long enough to snap a few pictures then peeled out in the roiling current.
Soon we were at the confluence with the Cedar and where the rivers merged were large boils as the currents collided. We paddled across as occasional trees, logs and what looked like 16 feet of guardrail floated by.
The Cedar was explosive as we boat scouted our way downstream. We did not want to enter any drop without an escape route into a safe eddy, but this was not always feasible. We carried around what is normally an island and re-launched downstream.
We new the Cedar narrows up considerably where it joins the Hudson. When we got there what we saw was an Eastern version of the right side of Lava Falls. Two of us managed to eddy out on river right above while the third person was swept into the maelstrom. I fully expected a swim as I watched him disappear from sight engulfed into a tractor-trailer size hole. There was a flash of a paddle blade and then he was washed free and paddled to river right below the hole. My friend in the eddy with me shook his head negative and said he was walking down from where we were. I peeled out into the current and drove hard left hitting a crashing diagonal wave that pushed me back right towards the hole. A brace stroke at this time would have meant a ride in the hole, but I kept hammering out forward strokes and slid deep into the wave next to the hole. Again, I kept hitting forward strokes and I rode up and off the peak of the wave. I now had to spin right and paddle to the right shore eddy. There was a smaller yet more retentive hole downstream and large irregular waves as the volume of water was pushed in every direction.
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| Photo by: Rick Morse |
I skitterd across the boil line into the eddy and we waited for our third person to hike down. It didn’t take long and we paddled back and swung into the Hudson River. Here the Hudson is wide but there were still very large waves and hydraulics. We floated and paddled down to the Indian River where we took out to hike up to the truck.
The hike up to the truck was longer than anticipated as we added about a half-mile due to the road washed out. After loading up the truck we continued up the road. There was quite a bit of mud as the warm temperatures had thawed the dirt. The lake level had continued to rise but we were able to get across and finished retrieving the other vehicle.
When I got home I called the Forest Ranger to let him know we were safely off the river. After a brief chat he asked, "did you see the bridge from the Cedar River golf course?" I told him I saw something that looked like a guardrail float by a couple miles above the Hudson River... He said," yep.. I told them they'd never see that bridge again!"
It was a great day to go exploring and paddle some high water. We all agreed that it could have become ‘interesting’ if any of us had taken a swim. About 14 miles of wilderness paddling.
