My friend Darren Bush has been taking an annual canoe trip on the Wisconsin River with his friends for the last 10 years, every Autumn. This year I was lucky enough to be invited to participate, with the caveat that there are a few rules:
- No tandem canoes (unless they’re paddled solo).
- No girls.
- No sniveling.
Not a very difficult set of rules to abide by.
The usual plan is to hit the water in the afternoon and paddle until a sand bar suitable for camping is found. Due to record rainfall the river was very high, and the sand bars were all underwater, so we spent the night at a state park instead, sharing food and stories around a campfire. The next morning we got up, packed up our tents and sleeping bags, shuttled the vehicles to the take out and launched our canoes.
16 of us spent a great day covering over 20 miles on the Lower Wisconsin. The high water made for a strong current, so it was a pretty leisurely day. I think I was paddling backwards for at least 3 or 4 of those 26 miles so I could photograph people more easily.
A big thanks to Darren for the invite, to Brad for the chance to share some photos of the trip, and to all the guys for welcoming me into the group.
.:.
About David Morlock:
My love of photography grew out of a love of wild places I could travel by canoe, especially in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota.
I currently live in Cambridge Minnesota with my wife and two daughters. In addition to doing outdoor photography professionally, I also photograph weddings, portraits, do some commercial and editorial work, and some construction and architectural photography. My photography website is www.morlockphotography.com
