Saturday - September 19th: Portage, WI to Prairie du Sac, WI

Up and at ‘em early and had a very easy paddle through the Portage area and made it to the I-94 bridge by around 9:00 AM. I mention the I-94 bridge for that is the freeway we take whenever going south and I’ve looked down on this river many times. From above, it looks a little intimidating for a canoe -down here not so.

From here the little info I have tells me it will take about 8 hours of paddling to get to Prairie du Sac. That means I’d arrive around five o’clock. Fortunately these estimated paddling times are way off for I’ve found all along I usually do each section in about half the time, maybe a little more than half depending on obstacles. So I figured I’d be there early afternoon and on my way to Green Bay by 3:00.

Basically there was not much to this paddle for after the I - 94 bridge I was soon on Lake Wisconsin which again is a huge flowage of over 9,500 acres and takes me all the way to my “LAST” dam at Prairie du Sac.

Again the weather was perfect so it was an easy lake paddle. I’m getting close to the end now for once I get below the Prairie du Sac Dam the last 94 miles is designated as a wilderness river. I will begin that section next Monday when I get back from the Packers game. As much as I’ve enjoyed the journey I do not like the lake/flowage paddling so I’m glad this is now over.

Fittingly when I got to the dam I took out just before the dam at a golf course. When I left for this journey I’d just finishing playing in a golf tournament so I guess this was the perfect place. Besides, once again the take-out at the dam did not look that good.

I’m not sure what golf hole I was at but I got many stares as I put my bike trailer together and towed my canoe away. By the way I made it there by 2:00PM.

As expected (maybe I worried a little) I found my car, packed up and was on my way to Green Bay by 3:00. Actually I will meet Jim and Newt in New London, WI. Motels are cheaper there and we are cheap!

Note: Check out my Photos album for a few photos of the crazy tailgaters at the game.