John Wenck
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 307
Location: Des Moines
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 Posted:
Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:08 pm Post
subject: North Fork Maquoketa River Oct 14, 2008 |
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This is now one of my
favorite rivers thanks to Larry Gullet who offered this trip to
the public on one of its more secluded stretches. This was a 14
mile trip starting at the bridge going over Whitewater Creek
just south of Cascade and ending at Ozark Bridge.
I have to back up, though. Sandy and I stayed the night previous
at the Grant Wood Country Bed & Breakfast just northeast of
Monticello. I have to say that our stay was wonderful. We had
two rooms upstairs--a TV or Game room, and the bedroom. The
large queen bed was very cozy and more comfortable than most
B&B’s we’ve stayed in, and the view from the walkout balcony was
superb. The house is far enough outside Monticello that the
stars were extraordinarily bright. The breakfast casserole in
the morning was on par with the rest of the stay—I had two
servings (no surprise there
 .
The owners, Doug & Micaela Monk were wonderful hosts. Our nice
conversation had to end early because we had to meet Larry and
the others at 9:00AM at the put-in (about 20 miles away). The
Monks told us that they’re willing to shuttle paddlers anytime.
The B&B is strategically located close to both the Wapsi and
Maquoketa Rivers. Their website is
www.grantwoodcountrybedandbreakfast.com. I highly recommend
it. Doug is a bit of a historian and researched the old military
road between Iowa City and Dubuque, and then walked it the whole
way. He told us he’s wanted to paddle the length of the
Maquoketa River for a while now. Both he and Micaela just bought
kayaks. So, if you’re ever looking for a place to stay for the
night and need a shuttle, look them up!
Words really can’t describe our trip down the North Fork. It was
one of those crisp fall mornings that really couldn’t have been
any better. The weather cooperated and the timing was just about
right for seeing beautiful fall colors. Thanks to Larry we
learned the call of the yellow-billed cuckoo. We heard quite a
few of them throughout the day. 10 of us participated on this
lengthy sojourn. One of the beauties of this stretch is that it
lacks the traffic of the more popular Pictured Rocks stretch on
the parent river. With accesses spaced so far apart, one has to
really commit themselves to a day long paddle.
We visited Searyl’s Cave State Preserve—a steep hike up from the
river, but well worth the trip. A couple dormant bats were
visible just inside the cave, which had a pond of water that
appeared to go on indefinitely. I almost expected Gollum to rise
up out of the water.
The steep tree-lined banks and large limestone or dolomite
boulders certainly gave this river a lot of character. I laughed
out loud when reading Nate’s book about rocks as large as
elephants on this stretch, but there they were as big as life
itself, and quite a few of them, too.
We passed over an historic ford that once was used by early
settlers to get their stagecoaches from one side to the other.
Just upstream of this ford were some bridge pylons, but no
bridge. A local told us that the bridge was destroyed one winter
in the early 1900s after the town blew up the natural waterfall
that gave the town its name—ice from this explosion drifted down
and wiped out the bridge. The town’s folk blamed the natural
falls for the terrible flooding the year before.
Overall, this paddle ended up being high up on the list of my
best ever paddles—very memorable and worth a trip back.
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