Kayaking in Central Wisconsin

At 24 years of age I have lived in Wausau Wisconsin my entire life, but only in the past two years have I discovered the amazing Kayaking opportunities my home area has to offer. Wausau is a wonderful town with vast natural resources always just minutes, if not seconds away. From the age of 3 to 21 I lived on Lake Wausau with my parents, so we always had boats around, though I must admit it wasn't until about the age of 20 that I began to Kayak. I Kayaked a couple times before at my Grandfathers cottage in Three Lakes ( about an hour and 45 minutes north) but never really pursued it much as an activity, and even from about the ages of 20 to 23 my experiences did not consist of more than just paddling around on Lake Wausau. I believe it was last year that two of my friends and I first pulled my Kayaks up from my parents dock, strapped them to the roof of our SUV and headed west of town tothe Rib River in Marathon City. We thought we where in for a 2, maybe 3 hour paddle, and 8 hours later when we finally rolled into Lake Wausau we where tired. But we had a great time. This photo was probably taken only a few hours into the paddle, the water level was high from a recent rain storm, the sun was out, and we were having a great time. I still paddle the Rib River frequently. It is one of my favorite day trips, being only a 20 minute drive from Wausau, and ending in my parents back yard, it is an incredibly convenient place to escape, see lots of wildlife, and have an isolated day of paddling. It wasn't long after this photo was taken that I began looking for other rivers to paddle, and the most obvious choice was the Eau Claire. The Eau Claire has since become one of my favorite rivers in the area to paddle, the first access point is only 5 minutes from my apartment in downtown Wausau, and it has various parks, bridges, and points of access lining its shores so that you can paddle for 2 hours, or 8 hours, depending on your preference. It has abundant wildlife, beautiful scenery, and stretches that are slow and winding, others with class 1 rapids.The Eau Claire river has become the river I blog about most on my Central Wisconsin Kayaking/Outdoors Blog, The Beef Cave Adventure Side, where I give other area Kayakers information on different stretches of river including photos, places to put in and take out, duration of paddling, distance, difficulty, etc... And its peculiar name, The Beef Cave Adventure Side, is in fact the result of another Kayaking trip I took last year. After my summer of discovering paddling in Central Wisconsin, my good friend Gerald invited me along for a Canoe/Kayak trip down the Kickapoo River (about a 2 hours drive from Wausau). Having seen photos of the river I was anxious to go. Gerald is one of those creative types, he is the creative director for an area marketing company and organizer of the local music festival Why Not Wausau?, so the conversation on our paddle quickly turned strange. We began making jokes about a mythical restaurant full of innuendo called of course, The Beef Cave, and following our trip, this video was born;

                                From the time we finished our trip it wasn't long until we began planning our trip for next year (coming up in a couple weeks now) and The Beef Cave became an inside joke to more and more people around us, and it became to us, an idea for a way to promote the wonderful resources in our own back yard of Wausau Wisconsin. As many avid Kayakers are aware downtown Wausau is home to a very high quality stretch of Whitewater which is plays host to freestyle and Slalom competitions drawing teams and competitors from around the world. They even offer whitewater lessons through their website WausauWhitewater.org, classes which I have taken advantage of this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed. Needless to say I have become an avid kayaker myself, I try to paddle as many days a week as I can, for a while I was able to get out everyday, I have paddled the Eau Claire River, The Wisconsin River, Lake Wausau, The Rib River, The Kickapoo River, and I plan to paddle many more before this summer is over. Over the winter I hope to buy a Whitewater Kayak, probably a Jackson Fun, and keep the my Blog up to date with information about winter camping, hiking, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. I hope that eventually my Blog may serve as an effective means for people interested in Kayaking to get information on getting involved in the sport, especially in the Central Wisconsin area, as well as an area for current paddlers to find information about the resources in their own back yard. Please check out my Blog at The Beef Cave Adventure Side, and share it with your friends.