href="#litres_trial_promo">Baraboo River C, for more information on the range.)
After a longish straightaway, the river will begin to meander gently as trees come closer to the banks; there are billowy weeping willows in one particularly pretty bend. A few more meanders lead to a tight right turn immediately followed by one to the left, where you’ll find five foundation pylons in the water supporting a nonexistent bridge, a sort of Fox River Stonehenge.
Quietwater makes for some beautiful reflections.
A few more gradual bends follow as you’ll begin to hear the sound of traffic coming from the bridge across WI 33. On the right bank, upstream of the bridge, is the Surgeons’ Quarters, the only surviving building of Fort Winnebago, one of three such forts protecting the trade route between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. Built in 1828, the handsome old building is open to the public. (Fun fact: For a brief spell, some 30 years before going on to become the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis was stationed here.)
Below the bridge is a wayside on the right (Fox River B), but you’ll paddle past this for close to a mile before the river heads north, then east, through shallow, sandy shoals. After a quick succession of left–right–left turns, you’ll come upon the Portage Canal, technically an outlet from the Wisconsin River to the Fox River (more on that following).
Turn left into the canal, paddle 300 feet up to the derelict lock and dam, and take out on the right at the grass. Just down the road is the Historic Indian Agency House, a home first built in 1832 by the US government to house the Indian agent John Kinzie and his wife for the purposes of “negotiating” with the Ho-Chunk (a.k.a. Winnebago). Today, it can be toured for a fee between May 15 and October 15.
• THE • FUDGE •
ADDITIONAL TRIPS You might consider paddling the canal itself, about 2.3 miles from end to end. There is an imperceptible gradient from the Wisconsin River side to the Fox River, so paddling from the latter to the former is pretty easy. It’s stagnant water, however, prone to some pretty funky algae sludge in warm weather, and the canal tends to be very shallow. But the tunnels, tall old mill buildings, concrete walls, and medieval fortress–looking gate, all closer to the Wisconsin River end, make for a fun and scenic side trip.
There is no direct access to the Wisconsin River anymore. That said, it’s a short 300-foot walk to the big river over the levee. Consider this: If a raindrop falls to the south of the levee, it eventually makes its way down to the Mississippi River via the Wisconsin River, past St. Louis and Memphis and New Orleans, and into the Gulf of Mexico. If that same raindrop fell to the north of the levee, it would end up in the canal, travel down the Fox River, into Lake Michigan, through Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario (tumbling down Niagara Falls in the meantime), past Montreal and Quebec along the St. Lawrence River, and into the Atlantic Ocean.
CAMPING AND RENTALS Indian Trails Campground is situated on a small lake a few miles east of Portage (W6445 Haynes Road, Pardeeville; 608-429-3244).
FOOD FOR THOUGHT For a savory meal or sweet treat, stop by Le Croissant Bakery and Restaurant (235 W. Pleasant St., Portage; 608-742-5466).
SHOUT-OUTS For Historic Indian Agency House tour information, call 608-742-6362 or go to agencyhouse.org.
Special thanks to the Friends of the Fox and the Fox Wisconsin Heritage Parkway, advocacy groups working to preserve and promote the river’s heritage. And for a fascinating read, check your public library or antiquarian bookseller for a copy of Reuben Gold Thwaites’s Historic Waterways: 600 Miles of Canoeing Down the Rock, Fox, and Wisconsin Rivers, published in 1888.
Two blocks west of the canal take-out, on West Edgewater Street, is a Greek Revival home built by Zona Gale—writer, activist, and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for drama—as a gift to her parents.
6 Fox River B: PORTAGE TO BUFFALO IN COLUMBIA AND MARQUETTE COUNTIES
• THE • FACTS •
Put-in/take-out WI 33 at Wayside Park/County Road O
Distance/time 10.5 mi/Allow for 4 hrs
Gradient/water level 2 fpm/See the NOAA gage at Pardeeville, but there’s usually plenty of water to paddle this trip.
Water type Quietwater with one Class I rapid from a ledge at a removed dam
Canoe or kayak Either
Skill level Beginner
Time of year to paddle Anytime
Landscape A pretty mix of marsh, drumlins, and hardwood forest
OVERVIEW A trip steeped in history, human and geologic. Here,s you will mimic the ghosts of commercial barges and paddle-wheel boats of a bygone age, when the city of Portage was the link between the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway and the Mississippi River–Gulf of Mexico, while the Fox River itself threads its way through glacial deposits left in the last ice age. Expect to see sandhill cranes, great blue herons, sandpipers, and lots of turtles.
SHUTTLE 9 miles. From the take-out, head east on WI 33, then turn left onto CR F. Turn left again onto CR O to reach the bridge.
TAKE-OUT N43° 40.320' W89° 23.760'
PUT-IN N43° 33.300' W89° 26.100'
• THE • FLAVOR •
PUT IN AT WAYSIDE PARK ON WI 33, just east of downtown Portage. For the first 0.5 mile, the river is unusually narrow and shallow, 40 feet wide and 1 foot deep (or less). If you happen to get stuck on the bottom, don’t be discouraged or deduce that it will be like this for the remainder of the trip; it won’t. Just butt-scoot your way to deeper parts, or take your boat for a short walk. The water is clear, with a mostly sandy bottom, and the river has a slow current.
After 1 mile the river widens out to 60 feet (and it is wider still in other parts downstream), so deadfall and obstructions should not ordinarily be problematic. Soon, on the left, you’ll see the channel of the old canal, upstream from which lie the ramshackle remains of the lock and dam. It’s a popular spot for fishing. After the canal, a series of straightaways with gentle bends takes you through an attractive environment of 10-foot-tall banks topped with tall grass waving in the breeze and stands of pines lined behind.
The river here widens out even more, and there are no signs of development anywhere. In fact, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail—which follows the path of the last glacial advance 12,000 years ago—is on your left for half of this entire trip. Also to your left, in the distance, you’ll begin seeing drumlins. You’ll pass under a low-clearance wooden footbridge; portage around it if it is impassable. The first road bridge you’ll come upon is at Clark Road, preceded by the remains of concrete abutments.
Another long straightaway continues below the bridge. The landscape is especially pretty where the river is cleft a few hundred yards downstream
