When our college freshman daughter canceled a September weekend trip home, we decided to seize the last-minute opportunity for one last end-of-summer kayak trip. I did some research and decided that we would head to Northeast Iowa, destination Upper Iowa River. I contacted a few outfitters in the area and heard back from the Chimney Rock Canoe Rental and Campground. We made arrangements for a campsite and shuttle service and loaded up for departure the next day.
The Upper Iowa River runs through the northeastern part of Iowa; Decorah is one of the largest towns in the area. This part of the state was left unmarked by the most recent glacier that scoured and "flattened" the rest of the state into its gently rolling hills. The river is marked by 100 foot tall towering limestone bluffs and "chimney"-like formations. A unique conifer forest, the only one of its kind in the state, inhabits the bluffed banks of the river. The river itself is relatively shallow and alternates between rapid ripples and gentle slow-moving current that moves through the bluffs, low-lying farm fields, and pasture-land. It has been designated one of the country's most scenic waterways by National Geographic.
We packed our mini-van with my kayak inside and my husband's longer kayak on top, well-strapped and trussed for the trip. We loaded our bikes as well, in case the kayaking didn't work out. I threw in what we would need for camping, gathered food for a couple of days, and we were on the road by about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. The morning weather was quite chilly, and at the very last minute I ran back into the house and grabbed a bunch of long sleeved shirts, warm pants and extra jackets. That was an inspired act.
The drive to the Decorah area took about 4 hours. We found the Chimney Rock campground with the help of Google maps and our GPS, and checked in with the people there. This is a laid-back establishment, consisting of a huge campground with a bunch of electric sites and lots of tent sites right on the river. There is a shower house, a bit rough in finished touches, but with electricity, hot running water and flush toilets. They do a huge business during the summer renting out their 76 canoes, some kayaks and lots of inner-tubes. This weekend was a quiet one for them, which explained why we could make last-minute plans. We drove down to the river and found a nice camp spot, parked our van and unloaded the boats and stuff we would need for a river trip. At the last minute we both changed into longer pants and added jackets and long-sleeved shirts, as the temperature was in the 50's with little sun.
Presently, the rattle-trap shuttle van drove by our camp spot, loaded up our boats, and hauled us upriver for about 20 minutes or so. The drive was on gravel roads and through beautiful wooded rolling hills. He deposited us by a rocky embankment near Daley's Bridge, where we loaded up our boats and dragged them down the slope and into the water. It was a beautiful trip, and we navigated the small "white" water sections and twists and turns without difficulty. We floated and paddled for about two hours and arrived at the campground, right across from the chimney-like rock formations. We got out of the boats for a bit, and I drove up to the office to let them know that we would be continuing on for the next leg of the trip, something we weren't sure about doing when we first left. They told us where to get out downriver where they would meet us in about another two hours. The next leg of the trip was even more impressive, with more limestone bluffs and heavily wooded banks. We found the take-out spot without any trouble and waited about 10 minutes for the van to come pick us up and take us back to the campground.
Back at camp, we sat in the van for awhile so my feet could warm up. We normally wear rubber sandals and shorts, but we have only ever boated in summer weather. My husband stayed warm enough, but I was fairly chilled, even with longer pants and a jacket. Eventually I thawed out, and we set up the tent (which went quickly and easily) and got a fire going. I put together some pocket stews for dinner, plus some peaches which I cut up and put brown sugar on, wrapped in foil, and baked in the coals with the stews. We warmed up with some hot chocolate while waiting for dinner to cook, then enjoyed the delicious food as the sun started going down. We sat huddled around the fire for awhile, just relaxing and talking and trying to stay warm, then turned in for the night. We were kind of concerned that we would be cold and expected we'd be crawling in the van by midnight, but even though it got down in the mid 40's we stayed quite toasty with sleeping bags, a couple of blankets, and warm sleeping clothes.
In the morning we had a nice hot breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon and hot coffee. I bundled up a bit more for the day, as it was just as cool and cloudy as the previous day. I also put on some ankle-height rubber boot-shoes I had brought along for a possibly muddy campground, and those kept my feet quite toasty even when I had to step into the water to get in and out of my boat. The shuttle took us a little farther upriver, where we put in at a spot that would take about 4 hours to get back to camp. The first two hours were gorgeous, even more than the first day it seemed, and we took our time this time. We had met some expert kayakers the day before and gotten all kinds of tips about places to go in Iowa, plus observed that they spent a fair amount of time not paddling and just looking around and floating. So we applied their example, and stopped many times to inspect the flora, fauna and geography along the river bank. We found a bunch of fossil rocks, marveled at the cliff swallow nests seemingly glued to the side of the bluffs, and saw a turtle, kingfishers, osprey, and dozens of trout which would jump out of the water just ahead of us. The tree colors seemed to change as we floated along, and the air had a distinctly autumn feel to it. At one point, we got a kick out of watching a herd of cows crossing the river from one pasture to another. They were loud and splashed a lot. The cow mess in that area was not very attractive, but otherwise the water along most of the trip was clear and we could see the rocky and sandy bottom.
For the last two hours of the journey, it was the same as the first two we had completed the day before, which gave us even more opportunity to take our time and explore and enjoy. We ended up back at the campground around 2 pm, in time to eat some lunch, have a rest, then break camp and load everything back into the van. We got on the road around 5 pm, stopped in Clear Lake for a fast-food dinner, and were home around 9 pm. While we had been gone, it had rained 2 1/2 inches in the Des Moines area; we were a bit smug that we had avoided the nasty rainy weather. Even though it had been cloudy and chilly, we had not a drop of the wet stuff, the killer of camping trips and ruiner of all things outdoors. Chalk one up for another weekend of summer fun.
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