Indiana Rivers

[Kay-Noe 2]

The Millersville guage showed about 140 cfs, and about 2.5 feet at about 7am with temps in the 80s and a 30% chance of thunderstorms after 2pm.
That would should leave enough time to get through what I predicted would take 4-6 hours of casual paddling in my new 12 ft Kay-Noe.

I ventured out for my 2nd trip and first solo on Fall Creek and after some shuttle complication hit the water about a little before 9am.

The water and mud at the put in smelled and looked pretty nasty, but the flow in the center looked good. There were a couple of places where there was some questionable foam swirling around discharge pipes.

After a few hundred yards I encountered a day camp excursion with about 6 canoes with what looked like 10-12 year old kids taking their first paddle strokes. Their leader said they planned to take out at just before 71st street. I last saw them at the old dam, it looked like they were trying to take the middle route.

The water was just over the middle chute and my back end got stuck, but I wiggled free and continued on.

The water must have been over the large pipes, because I didn't see them even though I was looking for them as we had stopped to check out the area last time.

I didn't see much wildlife beyond the huge herons, including the one who decided to be my guide. He seemed to stay with me most of the trip, landing in front of me and flying forward again to scout my way.

I would have appreciated his feedback and birds eye view as there were 2 trees that made the river completely impassable, and a third that had one squeak through on the extreme right. On the tree I did get through I had scouted for 10 minutes and found only high banks and water too deep to see through on the other side. I finally decided that my best bet was to get back in the boat and attempt to cross on water. There was about 2.5 feet clearance in a space only 4 or 5 feet wide, followed immediately by a very hard left turn that had to be taken while leaning forward for clearance. Adding to the drama when I looked up during the turn I came eyeball to eyeball with a relatively large spider who was equally surprised to see me.

There were 5 or 6 'rapids' including one where I bottomed out again. Suicide Falls at 465 was a fun and easy shot just left of center.

I took out at 56th street around 2pm happy and excited for my next trip!
Fall Creek is such a great asset to have in our backyard!

[Thinsole]

Aye - a fine August trip! How long would ye have, given the temperature calculations, before ye got hypothermia on that fine day?