Monthly Archives: August 2014

Adventures with a Very Special Visitor

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mononaterraceLast week Friday, we had a very special visitor. Lion Tamer made a hastily planned trip to Wisconsin, and we wanted to take advantage of our last opportunity this summer to show him the Madison waters. This was only our second time through the Yahara River channel, and it proved just as memorable as the first.

We had a bit different weather for this trip; Friday was 85 degrees and bright sun. Our trusty Lund slicing through the water provided just enough breeze though, and we really appreciated the occasional shade given by the oaks shadowing the channel and passing underneath all the cross bridges. C did an awesome job with the trailering and unloading at the boat launch. He backed the trailer in on the second try; Lion Tamer must have been our good luck charm (ha). We settled into our seats; this was the first time we have had 3 people on the boat. I found the back swivel chair to be just as comfortable as our customary captains’ chairs, and we still would have plenty of room to accomodate two more people.

C set the crusing speed at a comfortable 25 mph, the water was the smoothest we have ever seen on Lake Mendota. No waves to speak of, just the occasional wake left behind from another boat crusing. I could tell Lion Tamer loved every minute – the fresh air, the birds bobbing on the water, the mechanics of how the Tenney Lock operates. We had a bit of a wait going south down through the lock. Two of the mystery MMSD pontoon boats (who can explain why?) were waiting to come up to Mendota. Once they were through, we had the lock to ourselves and lowered about 4-5 feet. We set off through the channel, with little to greet us aside from the occasional lazy fisherman and of course ducks. Dozens and dozens of ducks, each more brazen than the last. This was mid-afternoon, so it didn’t seem to be quite as much of a feeding frenzy as the evening cruise C and I took a couple weeks ago. But still, ducks swimming right into the oncoming path of the boat, unfazed and indeed quite confident that it is they who own the waterway.

We made it to Lake Monona, I enjoyed pointing out to Lion Tamer the familiar sights from my early days after having moved across the state line. We cruised past the downtown, and enjoyed seeing the landmarks from a different angle than normal. Both the sun and the hour were getting late, so we set back retracing out path through the channel and back towards our state park landing dock. Another memorable day on the water is in the books.

The Mighty Yahara (well it’s cool anyway)

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Gracie has been wanting to see the sights of the Yahara river since last year when we got our other boat. I wanted to as well, but I had reservations. She’s a bit big and because I had never been through this stretch or talked to any locals who knew about it I had my qualms.

After our successful  Lake of Pines channel crossing, I knew our fishing boat would have no problem with this journey so Thursday was the day and we set off.

The Yahara river runs into the north end of Lake Mendota from De Forest. The river then empties from Mendota’s south east side at the Tenney Park lock into Lake Monona. The lock has to be a drop of at least 6 if not 8 feet.

We had already obtained out annual county park lock pass and we were ready.

It took about a minute and a half to drop us into the Yahara river at the Tenney Park level. We proceeded through the channel under several road bridges and rail trestles, including our daily commuting menace – East Washington Avenue.

Once through the river we were on Lake Monona and we took a tour around the northern half and followed the continuing path of the Yahara until just past and around the bend from the beltline.  Gracie and her bikini even got a shout out from a dump truck driver – well a nice horn blast anyway.

Gracie met a seagull and while I am used to having ducks swim away from a passing boat, these well trained freeloaders swim towards the boat demonstrating that getting handouts is customary.

We returned up the Yahara and back into Monona to finish our tour around the lake. We past Monona Terrace – one of many scenic wastes of money  in this county – and then back to the Yahara where we trailed a group of paddle boarders until we finally reached East Washington Avenue.

One of the great joys of our little adventure is that the next time we are stuck on East Wash in the morning or on the beltline we can look down and remember the relaxing afternoon that we had and how we got to enjoy it from a completely different perspective. Our returning voyage did not disappoint as we were able to cross under the East Wash bridge while cars were stuck waiting above us for yet another one of those inexplicably ill-timed freight trains that travel at less than one-half of a mile per hour.

Filling the lock and going back up to the Mendota Lake level seemed to take about four or five minutes and then we headed back to the boat launch. In all, I think the entire trip was just over 20 miles.

It was a lot of fun. Even the fishing wasn’t disappointing, but that is because we didn’t even try to fish.

Next time we will plan for a little bit more time and take the last leg of the Yahara into Lake Waubesa.

One thing for certain – little Gracie would have been much harder to move through the river. There was at least one bridge that would have been hard to clear and based on the scrapes under that bridge, other boaters have learned the hard way that the bridge clearance is very low.

 

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