Pecatonica River

I didn't realize it was the farmer's job to make sure the trip was up to your standards. He/she doesn't owe you anything and the more you people bitch and moan to them is the reason certain other boaters don't respect you and the "high-horse" attitudes. SMH

Thanks for the review/guide. Completed this on 9-13-20. It had rained the previous day but we still bottomed out in some of the rapids upriver of Livingston Branch. The PECATONICA RIVER AT DARLINGTON Gauge was over 600 CFS but it didn't seem to correlate to the upstream portion being deeper. Very pretty river. The rapids at this level were fun and still in the class 1 range. Finally we ran into two down'ed trees/logjams that we had to portage over - not too bad.

We thought we'd try the Pecatonica from Calamine to Darlington. River at 220 cfs. We assumed it would likely be free of obstruction from the work to clear the river for the annual canoe race. About 0.5 miles from put-in, we came across an impressive obstruction of large trees from both sides, crossing the entire river. Steep river banks made portaging challenging. Not sure if was passable (high risk of getting caught up in a strainer while zig-zagging thru) but we assumed the canoe race had been cancelled this year due to COVID (which I later confirmed it had been) and that there might be additional major barriers if no clean up had occurred since 2019. Thus, we called it a day and worked back to the put-in sight.

I did this trip today 7/16/19 The river was at about 320 CFS and 4.2 ft..a bit below optimal but totally doable. I put in about at the bridge a mile north on Hwy O near the intersection with Rock Rd. There were enough rocks directly under the bridge that I was able to get in without geting muddy. I chose that as a put in because I was doing a bike shuttle and the Cheese County trail meets Hwy O just 100 yds north of the bridge and runs straight to the take out at Calamine. The trail is not paved, but it is level and was in pretty good shape, but does get a lot of use by ATV's. There were only 2 major log jams, one just north of the Mineral Point branch come in and one where you have the first one marked, there were a couple of other small jams but nothing that required portaging or getting out of the boat, just had to push ,pull, slide, or duck under. A few good rock formations but too much foliage to see them all, but still a nice way to spend a 90 degree day

I paddled with a group of 27 on the Pecatonica River on June 22, 2019. The Darlington River gauge was at 360 CFS, which I agree is at a marginal water level. We looked at the Hwy G crossing, but because of all the Wild Parsnip and the width of the River elected to put in at CTH E in Mifflin. Our take out was at CTH A, river left, which was reasonable. Ample parking along the wide shoulders of the road. The actual distance is 5.2 mile. This trip took us 3.5 hours. Water clarity was murky for our trip. We encountered 1 barb wire fence which we held down, thus allowing the others to paddle over. 1 very shallow rocky bottom which we dredge via tossing a few rocks out of the way which allowed the rest of the group to pass thru a little easier. The last mile of the trip presented several challenges. 1 logjam at which 2 of us, on standing on top of the tree, hoisted kayak and paddlers over as there was not an option to portage. Another logjam that we cleared river left to allow portaging the shore line and river right to allow a limbo spot. We also made an opening in a couple other deadfalls to allow passage. We had one very low limbo spot along the way. We took out on river left right at the CTH A bridge. The road shoulders allowed for ample and unobstructed parking. I would imagine that this trip could easily be done in 2.5 to 3 hours. Otherwise a very enjoyable trip, with riffles, chutes, twisting corners and scenery.