Kinnickinnic (87 cfs)

Mark N and I ran the Kinni today. And what a beautiful day to go on this gorgeous river. The air temp probably in the 80s and the spring fed stream nice and cool.

87 cfs is pretty low, even for this rather narrow little river, but we managed without having to get out even once. Albeit we had to work it in a few spots, but thats good for the abdominals, right?

Mark sporting a very trendy visor :-)

We saw quite a bunch of wild life. Several heron, one of which we were chasing ahead of us. A kingfisher. And I did see a good amount of fish in the fairly clear water, so I can see, why there would be anglers as well as fish-catching birds. Particularely cute was a little weasel or martin that was swimming to shore from a little mid stream island.

I didn't take any flower picture, but it was a good year for wild flowers. One of these days I need to learn the names of the local flowers. I used to be pretty good back in Bavaria. I had a friend there who was really knowledgable and who often took us out on identification excursions. He taught us that there are orchids in Bavaria. I had no idea, but now that I do I am very proud of them :-)

Little stretch of legs midway. Would be a nice place for a lunch picnic or bbq, if you can bring it in a canoe.

If you don't know the Kinni and since you can't see it very well in the pictures, it has a lot of class I rapids. It's technically interesting because you have to do a lot of maneuvering around treas and islands. Especially when it is so shallow, it really paid off to keep your eyes peeled and read the water well to find deep enough channels and good lines across the rapids that keep you afloat.

There is a really cool stretch, where you have water trickling down the rocks. Very fun. Pictures don't do it justice. But you guys all have a bit of fantasy, right?

Mark surfing it up! Hey, it may look really small, but was really hard to catch!

Ok, that's little me, just to show that I was there and that am not just downloading other people's experiences of the internet :-)

As far as beauty and charm goes I'd have to say that the Kinni is so far my favorite river!

Thanks Mark for coming out. It was a splendid afternoon! I hope it'll rain so we can do it again and maybe Patti and Jay&Co are free then to join us too!