Autumn Boating Photos--What Have You Got?

[WI-Tom]

Got out for a chilly-ish but colorful day on some local-ish water last weekend:

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[WI-Tom]

This may be my favorite time of year to be on the water--this is a stretch of the Chippewa River between two dams, getting close to what counts as "up north" around these parts.

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[WI-Tom]

Dark water sprinkled with leaves, peak colors. Canada geese V-ing through the sky overhead in a flurry of mournful honking. And a smooth-rowing boat to take it all in. You'd never know you're less than a mile from the world of roads and cities.

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[WI-Tom]

A tight scattering of islands with narrow channels threaded through them--some dead ends, some not; and some narrow and snaggy enough that paddling SUP style is the best way to sneak through to open waters.

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[WI-Tom]

Aldo Leopold: To those devoid of imagination, a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.

Me: Three hours, five miles more or less; no maps, no charts, no plans.

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Time well spent.

[WI-Tom]

I brought the sailing rig, and there was a nice 10-knot breeze--but I didn't even bother stepping the mast:

[Hugh MacD]

Thanks for sharing that!

[cstevens]

Beautiful!

[Bobcat]

Nice

I was out on Sunday on a bit bigger stretch of water:

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[The Q]

A famous sight on the broads part of an old helter Skelter used as a holiday home since 1914... getting its feet wet a few days ago..

[The Q]

A famous sight on the broads part of an old helter Skelter used as a holiday home since 1914... getting its feet wet a few days ago.. happens quite often in the Autumn

[WI-Tom]

A famous sight on the broads part of an old helter Skelter used as a holiday home since 1914... getting its feet wet a few days ago.. happens quite often in the Autumn

Cool--that's Arthur Ransome "The Big Six" and "Coot Club" territory, isn't it?

Tom

[Paul356]

Sail-camping on Rainy Lake, MN, mid-September:20200916_073645.jpg

[Paul356]

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[Paul356]

trying to post a video, but this is the orneriest site i ever did see. --pb

[Thad]

We try to be ornery enough. Thanks for the pics.

[John hartmann]

Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence. This is looking west, toward the Summerland Group, from the upstream end of Ironsides Island.

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Ironsides again, north side. Classic Canadian Shield topography.
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The bottom photo is Hemlock (on the left) and Snipe Island over the bows of the Peterborough. My favorite time of year here; few powerboats, plenty of waterfowl. The light and color in this place are always remarkable.

[John hartmann]

A few more photos from this time of year, from a trip to this stretch of river a couple of years ago:
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[npbarker]

Beautiful. Makes me want to trailer north on a warm weekend (if we get any more of those).

I moved from away the Chesapeake Bay region a decade ago, so these days autumn on the lakes and rivers around Madison, WI make for my favorite place/time to get on the water. Here are a few from the last several years.

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[npbarker]

A couple more.... one in Madison and a couple north around the Dells

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[WI-Tom]

Cool! Thanks for the photos, everyone. Nice to see another couple of forum members with Wisconsin connections--I have never boated through the Dells (yet), but would love to.

Tom

[Johnjohn]

DCCE3679-3966-4E8E-847B-C4EB50CB9DEC.jpg16AE3EC3-B8F0-4CFB-8C02-44C94B95B991.jpgPinecrest Lake, Ca before sunrise. Water dropping fast this time of year. Pretty rocky but mostly smoke free. 5600’ elevation. John

[swoody126]

LOVERLY IMAGES

MORE PLEASE

sw

[John hartmann]

This morning’s row. Blueberries, dying pines and granite:
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Though the river is in sunshine, there is a band of showers skirting parallel to the river just inland as we pass Lilly Bay:
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[npbarker]

I avoided the crowds and the spectacle of the Dells area like the plague for my first several years in Madison. But I finally realized a couple things a few years ago: The landscape is actually quite stunning (Mirror Lake is especially beautiful), and the whole area is much quieter (especially on the water) before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.

That's true on the lakes around Madison as well--April and October (when the weather cooperates) are a great time to share the water with the paddlers and migratory birds, as opposed to the scores of powerboats that turn the lakes into sloshing bathtubs of confused wave patterns.

On the right day the Dells are magic. The whole area is great for paddling or rowing (especially putting in at Mirror Lake), and there's a put-in just south of Louis Bluff (north of all the Dells hubub) where the WI river opens up enough for small boat daysailing, or for a sail & oar day if you choose to row south toward town, through the sandstone gorges.

Nathan

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[Mike Huntsinger]

Wi-Tom,
Fabulous photos all! Am most envious of all the little backwaters, creeks, and inlets pictured. I live in the California Delta area and we like to think we have a swell place for rowing, paddling, sailing, etc. but it can't compare to what you have shared with us. I have been living in a smoke filled cloud for months now, due to the wildfires and have absolutely no desire to get out rowing in such miserable conditions. Your pictures are "what its all about". Thank you.

Mike Huntsinger, (bateau Sleaulane and double gig Dasher).

[WI-Tom]

This morning’s row. Blueberries, dying pines and granite:
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John,

what river? Where is this? Looks great.

Tom

[WI-Tom]

Wi-Tom,
Fabulous photos all! Am most envious of all the little backwaters, creeks, and inlets pictured. I live in the California Delta area and we like to think we have a swell place for rowing, paddling, sailing, etc. but it can't compare to what you have shared with us. I have been living in a smoke filled cloud for months now, due to the wildfires and have absolutely no desire to get out rowing in such miserable conditions. Your pictures are "what its all about". Thank you.

Mike Huntsinger, (bateau Sleaulane and double gig Dasher).

Thanks--I do like the little winding "backroads" of the north(ish) waters around here. Stay safe in the fires!

Tom

[WI-Tom]

Well, I had a dentist appointment this week--and rather than go back to work afterwards, I had taken the whole day off hoping for decent(ish) weather, because I had left a few channels and backwaters unexplored on my weekend visit to the Chippewa River. It was raining steadily by the time I got to the ramp, but when I cast off it was looking a lot better.

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That bridge is the only road in to the boat ramp--island on the right, main shore on the left.

[WI-Tom]

I suspected this little passage would let me slip through--and so it proved.

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Quick shifts between cold rain and hot sun, and back. And back again.

[WI-Tom]

I had to hop out and drag the boat over a sandbar at the channel's inner mouth. I stopped ashore to wait out what I hoped would be a brief cold rain, leaving the boat parked securely on the sand.

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[WI-Tom]

Here I crossed paths with the route I had taken on the weekend--but just briefly--before heading down some more unexplored backwaters, where I tied up at an autumn-woods island to wander around under the trees a while.

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[WI-Tom]

Somewhere in the inner islands I came across this little footbridge--just enough room to slip through underneath.

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[WI-Tom]

A cold rain, in earnest now. The sun hidden behind clouds. I snuck along on my winding way, all zipped up in my borrowed rainjacket, thrift-store fleece, and wool cap--perfectly content. Another low bridge (barely enough water to float through, but float through we did, without so much as scraping a rock), and tied up alongshore again when the sun returned.

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[WI-Tom]

E.B. White: A person afflicted with poetic longings of one sort or another...does have to forswear certain easy rituals, such as earning a living and running the world's errands.

Me:

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