Potpourri Paddle

A great weekend to be out on the water; a bit of a potpourri of paddling as I managed to hit a variety of rivers and lakes.
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Saturday found John and I out on the Bark river at Burnt Village. Five minutes in to the paddle we came upon a Alpaca. John paddled over, the Alpaca was quite inquisitive. I kept back as I had Koa in the canoe. We most certainly did not need our paddle to go down as the domesticated South American camelid Vs. The domesticated Australian Canis lupus familiaris incident of 2010!
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A great day for a paddle. After weeks and weeks of high wind, we finally came upon a day calm as the day is long. The Bark river offers a very remote feel between Rome WI and Fort Atkinson. Flood plain surrounds this jewel of a waterway so very little build up on this section.
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The Bark River is a tributary of the Rock River, about 55 mi long. Via the Rock River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. According to legend it has also been known historically as the "Peelbark River."
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We paddled down to the confluence of the Bark and Rock rivers and pulled out at the Rock River Canoe Company. This photo is for Manitou; traditional skin on frame. Get your spear on Mark.! :-)
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John finally found his calling as a manikin; He really wanted to get back into the canoe kayak industry; looking good John!
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Sunday had me paddling the Yahara River. Big ass boats linking big ass lakes. Actually pretty cool, you feel like your on some big waterway on some grand adventure. Easily could be a WaterTribe 100 event.

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I chased down a group of newbie kayakers on a lesson from Rutabaga and watched them practice wet exits. What a hoot (literally), the water is a tad chilly. The shrills and gasps could be heard for miles.

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Tucked in on Lake Menona; the wind picked up on Sunday. Our calm was short lived, still beautiful out on the water. It is the second-largest of a chain of four lakes along the Yahara River (also including Mendota, Kegonsa, and Waubesa) in the area and forms the south shore of the isthmus that forms downtown Madison.

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The name 'Monona' is a Chippewa word believed to mean 'beautiful', although the lake was originally named by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) 'Tchee-ho-bo-kee-xa-te-la' or 'Teepee Lake'

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The Yahara river; this gets pretty busy during the summer, kinda like the ICW on the weekend; and the boats that use it are just as big. There is a no wake posting which is seldom understood; which is defined to be moving fast enough to have control of your vessel. Again, miss understood by most yahoos on the water.

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But today pretty much had it to myself early in the season. A few fisherman digging it too; lots of smiles and nods. We call that Midwestern hospitality eh.