Upper Platte River Trip Report for October 19, 2009
Who came?
Doug Coster and his friend Steve Radionoff, Lois Goldstein, Marv & Marlene Puska and Mike & Barb Rodenberg
Where did you go?
Upper Platte River from US-31 to Deadstream Road (new take out – see below)
How was it?
Fantastic! It was a beautiful, sunny fall day. We had the river all to ourselves.
What kind of boats were there?
Seven kayaks – lengths 11.5 to 14 feet
Anything noteworthy?
The trip took us about 3 hours, as expected. It was uneventful, except for Marv getting his stocking cap swept off by branches twice. Saw lots of mallard ducks, a blue heron, a green heron and other bird life. There were salmon in the river, but we only saw one angler. The fall colors were past peak, but with sun and temperatures in the mid-50s (not quite warm enough for Lois to swim), it was a great day to be on the river!
Doug Coster, former manager of Crystal Lake Adventure Sports, and a first time paddler with the group, showed us a new take-out place for this trip. It is a piece of State land on Platte Lake only a few hundred yards west of the normal take out at Deadstream Road bridge. The place is not well marked, but it is the first lot you come to after the bridge when traveling west on Deadstream Road. Rather than paddling up the creek to get to the bridge, we stayed in the main channel out to Platte Lake. We then had a short paddle across open water to get to our cars at the northeast end of the lake. It worked out great!
Written by Mike