Lake Michigan Circle Tour by Motorcycle: Day Five
We awoke early to a bright, shiny day, grabbed a quick continental breakfast from the lobby of the Super 8, packed our bikes, and headed out of town. Destination? Shotgun Eddy White Water Rafting!
We rode back through Shawano past the Menominee Casino before hooking a left onto a nice curvy, hilly, tree-lined country road for about 10 miles before reaching a gravel entrance for Shotgun Eddy. On the way, I spotted an Bald Eagle flying gracefully above us.
Shotgun Eddy isn't much to see. It's a collection of ramshackle buildings, including a registration area, a few changing “rooms” that had seen better days, a campground and more. Still, we weren't staying here, and the rafts looked in good shape. The price was also right; we chose to do the slightly shorter “Otter Slide” trip, which they bill as a short version of their full day “Smokey Falls” 6 hour trip. The Otter Slide is supposed to clock in at around 4-1/2 hours, though we ended up doing it in 4.
The Otter Slide is $30.00 per person plus shuttle fee. The shuttle, a later model van, took us to Otter Slide to put in. The driver slid our rafts, two in our case, down the embankment to the water's edge, handed us all flotation vests, and let us know to head to the left side after the final waterfall to reach the pickup spot.
The Otter Slide is considered Class III-IV: Class III means “strong current, big drops, narrow paths, high whitewater and strong whirlpools.” Class IV is billed as “extreme current, waterfalls, high whitewater and large dips.” I'd say those descriptions were pretty much right on. Minimum age requirements for Otter Slide are 12-18, depending on water level, and parental consent is required. They also recommend previous rafting experience.
Shotgun Eddy does have other trips that aren't as extreme, for families with kids, or those who just want a more leisurely trip down the Wolf River.
Wolf River, Keshena, Wisconsin
I had forgotten to pack a swimsuit, so I just wore an extra pair of cargo shorts I'd brought, as well as a baseball cap and sunglasses. The only other things I brought with me were a ziplock bag with beef jerky for snacking, and a small tube of sunscreen. Both ended up being good choices.
Since my camera wasn't waterproof, I didn't bring it. Afterwards, I really regretted not having a camera, since the scenery was gorgeous and we saw some great wildlife!
I would highly recommend anyone doing a trip like this to pack a swimsuit, towel, good water shoes, sunglasses, sun block and a small cooler with watertight bags or Tupperware containers for food and drink. A good, truly waterproof camera, or maybe an iPhone in a good waterproof, shockproof case would be good too.
Tim and I paired up in one boat, with Mike and Dean in the other, and we set off down the river. It was pretty lazy rafting for a while. We goofed around, practiced synchronizing our paddling and generally enjoyed the view.
We saw some great wildlife, including a handful of large turtles sunning themselves on rocks, a deer that had waded up to its neck in the water, a river otter that thought better of jumping into the river once he'd spotted us pesky humans, and that aforementioned Bald Eagle who swooped down over top of us, skimmed the water and finally settled into the trees at a bend in the river.
Aside from the whitewater and falls themselves, seeing the wildlife was probably the best part of the experience for me.
After we negotiated some rapids, we finally came to the first waterfall, about a four foot drop. You hear the rushing water before you see it. Tim and I didn't prepare very well. Our first mistake was to leave me, the heavier of the two, in the front of the boat. When we went over the falls, the forward weight kept our nose down and ended up letting a lot of water into the boat. Oops! Still, we didn't injure ourselves and we didn't capsize, so it wasn't all bad!
After we cleared the falls, we landed on some rocks, tipped the boat to empty the water out, and adjusted our position so that we were sitting side by side. This worked better for paddling as well as the rest of the rapids and falls.
We went through a few more sets of rapids that we did a pretty good job of negotiating before the final approach to the Smokey Falls at the end. The Falls are between two steep rock walls, and consist of two sets of falls, the first being about four or five feet and the second set a good six to eight feet. We did ok going over the first falls, keeping the raft fairly straight, if not completely water-free. We bounded down the second falls while still trying to recover from the first, smashing right into a large finger of rock jutting out of the water directly in the middle. This bounced me all over the place, making it hard to steer, and we ended up veering to the right and getting caught in a pretty strong whirlpool that trapped us between the Fall's undertow and some more rocks. We paddled like mad and after an exhausting effort, finally managed to free ourselves. We still had to paddle hard to the left in order to make the landing spot.
All of this fun and chaos took place with an audience, as there is a foot bridge over the left arm of the river to an island with a wooden observation deck looking over the falls. We were cheered on by a few people above. I'm sure they were having a good laugh at us, but we still had fun.
As I'd never done whitewater rafting before, I'd say my first experience was a lot of fun. I definitely learned a few things about what to do, and more importantly, what to not do!
Our driver arrived just after we did, loading up the rafts. We had a short wait to make sure no other rafters arrived, and then headed back to base camp, where we changed clothes, dried off and headed back out on the road.
By now it was mid-afternoon and we were hungry, so we rode back into Shawano and stopped at Yesterday's Diner for some well-deserved lunch. The Diner has a big old car set at an angle on the roof, so it's hard to miss. We chatted with the owner, who recommended their sweetbread, bring some out for us for free even! We all ordered some home made milkshakes and malts, as well as burgers, and feasted like kings.
As a bonus, they even had free Wi-Fi. These small local restaurants and diners know how to compete against the chain restaurants, and we certainly made good use of the internet connection while we were there, posting twitter and facebook updates, checking in on FourSquare, checking email, and looking at route options via Google Maps. Technology has really changed how we travel.
While there we checked on the weather ahead of us, which indicated a pretty nasty storm front moving across from Iowa and Minnesota into Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, our hoped-for destination for the night. We decided to head into Appleton, less than an hour away, and check the weather again there.
After arriving in Appleton and making a stop at a Hardee's parking lot, we checked the weather again. Not good. Straightline winds and massive rain and lightning were rolling into the Chicago area, with another front of equal intensity due in southern and central Wisconsin a bit later. We consider our options, including riding as far as we could until we rain into the bad weather. I was really hoping to get home that night, but I also didn't want to risk my life in a really nasty thunderstorm. Best case, we'd end up under an overpass somewhere; worst case, we'd be caught in the open.
We decided we just weren't going to be able to make it home on Friday. Tim used Google Maps on his iPhone to locate a Holiday Inn Express nearby, and we rode a short distance and decamped for the evening.
Turns out the Holiday Inn was hosting a large wedding reception when we arrived, and they upgraded us to executive level rooms since they were out of regular rooms. Hey, fine with us! We hauled all our crap up to the rooms, took a little breather and then decided to head out to see the new A-TEAM movie, since we were stuck for the evening. The Holiday Inn shuttle driver dropped us off at the nearby theater and picked us up after. Back at the motel, we ordered pizza to be delivered and called it a night after dinner.
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