I just finished kayaking the entire 137-mile Maumee River from Fort Wayne, IN to Toledo, OH. Hammockable every night, so it was a success! I went from 168lb to 157lb after this trip! Crazy amounts of energy burned each day.
This is my very first “real” Youtube video other than some product reviews, so it was a big learning experience in Adobe Premier Pro. I’m pretty happy with the results though. (added pics below)
Going into this I joked (and knew deep down) it would be about 20% fun and 80% a straight up endurance test. By 11am on Day 2, it was immediately apparent that the weather would be the biggest obstacle on this trip. The full June sun was absolutely punishing. Then the humidity kicked in. I literally could not drink enough water. Getting in and out of this type of sea kayak, which is like getting into a Formula 1 car, made it nearly impossible to get out every time. I was drinking about 2 gallons of water per day, so my routine was peeing into a Ziploc bag, dumping it, and rinsing out with river water. Dirty.
My body held up great. Surprisingly my arms were not the slightest bit sore; the same as any day sitting in an office all day. That was very strange, but obviously not a complaint! I popped an Advil the first night and second night just in case as a preventative measure.
With very little current (dead still most of the time) it made for 7-11 hour days of hard paddling with just a few short breaks and a long one here and there. Longer days included portages. The last day's push towards Toledo was sickening. The sun was stronger than ever, hot, no shade, straight wide runs of river and no apparent flow whatsoever. I found myself hiding under I-90, I-280 and whatever else was on the way for shade.
They don’t call it the Muddy Maumee for nothing. It was a pretty dirty trip. Right from the beginning I was on all fours clawing at a 45° slope trying to portage the first dam (Hosey Dam) in Fort Wayne. A 57lb, 17’ kayak is very awkward even on small stairs or easy boat ramp portages…I had neither this entire trip. Regardless of the water, it was very refreshing getting a bath most nights. “Reset the clock” I like to call it. Mosquitoes were bad one night, but it didn’t matter because I retreated to the hammock for sleep in the broad eight o’clock daylight.
The rapids….oh those rapids. I’d be lying if I said they didn’t have me worried. Two weeks prior the river gauge at New Haven, IN went from 4.28’ to 18.52’ in a few days after heavy rain. Moderate flood stage. That’s what I got after doing rain dances nightly since the entire 137-mile stretch of river was exceptionally low all of early May. So way TOO much…then it started falling…TOO fast! My eye was on the Waterville, OH gauge. The “magic number” is 2.2’ there. Any lower and it’s just not runnable with exposed rocks and dry patches through 7 miles of rapids. So I hit that area at 2.8’. I was pushing it and the hull of my kayak would agree.
I’ve heard of some others doing this trip, usually in March, April or May. I’m envious. Running this river at 8000cfs, 6000cfs or even 4000cfs (depending on location) would be an absolute cakewalk. Basically paddling for course-correction in a sense. But of course you don’t want much higher or you’re looking at Class III rapids…or do you? It was a lot of fun hitting those when the rocks were far enough below the water. I don’t know a lot about white water but I’m sure I had mild Class I.
I couldn’t have asked for a better kayak than the Wilderness Systems Tempest 170. It’s a bullet. And the retractable skeg is absolute magic. I occasionally found myself playing around in the wind with that up and down…just amazed by that tiny plastic fin. It never really got windy, but one day those 10mph gusts started getting annoying. With the skeg down it was like paddling on glass. A 17’ wall of plastic on open water catches more wind than you think.
Every morning I started firing on all cylinders. I got into my routine right from the beginning. Everything just worked. The hammock, the clothing, everything down to a $1 bandana saved the day. I hauled my 40° top quilt, tent, and Thermarest pad around for nothing. I absolutely did not use them, but I had to be prepared. And the Crocs! Still the best shoe for stuff like this. Still not a fashionable piece of gear.
Approximate mileage:
Day 1: 21 miles
Day 2: 24 miles
Day 3: 41 miles
Day 4: 26 miles
Day 5: 25 miles
Partial Gear List:
Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 Kayak
Carlisle Magic Plus Kayak Paddle - 220cm
Warbonnet Blackbird Hammock, 1.6 Single Layer
Warbonnet Thunderfly Tarp, 20D Silpoly
Hammockgear Phincubator custom 62” Underquilt
Sea To Summit Coolmax sleeping bag liner
MSR Autoflow Water Filter with granular activated carbon addon
Various Outdoor Research drybags (10-15L sizes)
Columbia Silver Ridge Shorts
Vapor Apparel UPF 50+ long sleeve sun shirt
Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap
Various battery packs to recharge iPhone
BRS-3000 stove and 8oz Isobutane canister
TOAKS Titanium 600ml Pot
(iPhone 8 and Adobe Premier Pro for this video)
Weather:
Day 1: 73°/59° Partly Cloudy
Day 2: 92°/60° Sunny
Day 3: 83°/67° Overcast
Day 4: 87°/66° Mostly Sunny
Day 5: 91° Sunny
Water Data:
New Haven, OH June 1: 1600cfs
Antwerp, OH June 2: 1800cfs
Defiance, OH June 3: 2500cfs
Waterville, OH June 4: 3400cfs
Water Temperature: 68-72°
54 minutes! I was impossible cutting this down. Here's a cheat sheet, but try to watch it all so you don't miss anything
8:40 Deer spotting
13:05 Where I almost threw in the towel
13:50 Swimmin’ hole!
16:53 More deer
11:04 Eagle (I think?)
23:00 Vending machine fail
26:20 Drinking Maumee’s finest
32:14 Bypassing the dam by canal
36:00 First rapids “bath”
37:00 Downriver look at Bear Rapids
40:22 How I got caught in my underwear
42:22 Approaching Roche de Boeuf, Interurban Bridge and rapids
44:30 Great look at the Interurban Bridge
45:05 Another rapids bath
46:30 Turkeyfoot Rapids (last section)
48:09 What are these birds?
48:30 First look at Toledo
51:57 Nice view of Toledo
53:30 Celebratory beer! (Facebook Live grab, lower quality)
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