KAYAKING MADISON’S CHAIN OF LAKES
A voyage from recreational havens to thriving wilderness
A dozen tiny dragonflies danced around the bow of my bright yellow sea kayak and dodged my paddle’s blades as they dipped into the water, making a soft popping sound each time the curved wood breached the surface.
My long and slender boat, designed for kayaking in Puget Sound and the Great Lakes, sliced through the pea soup-colored water of the slow-moving Yahara River beside a raft of water lilies dappled with white flowers. In the clouded sky, an osprey swooped down from on high, driving off a bald eagle that was perched on a tree branch 30 feet above the stream.
I paused to watch the birds tussle in midair, surprised that the much larger eagle put up only a little resistance as the osprey drove it away from its territory and, as I saw 50 yards downstream, its nest.
I continued on, marveling at the lightness of my made-in-Osceola Bending Branches paddle as I returned to a gentle but steady stroke rhythm. I was headed for a take-out at Bjoin Park in Stoughton and the end of my two-day adventure. The watery sojourn started in Cherokee Marsh 25 miles to the north and led me from Lake Mendota to Lake Monona and then on to Mud Lake, Lake Waubesa and Lake Kegonsa, with stretches of the Yahara River connecting them all.
The two days of paddling couldn’t have been more different. When I started in the marsh around 10:30 a.m. on a busy weekend, it was well over 80 degrees. I slid over the water, passing large motor craft and a few sailboats docked at a marina at the north end of Mendota, the largest in the chain of lakes at nearly 10,000 acres. Because speedboats were zipping over the water as I headed out onto the lake, I hugged the eastern shore and paddled through coves dotted with swimmers and watercraft and pontoon boats with music blaring.
When I finished my adventure, on a recent cool and foggy Tuesday morning that eventually turned into a light rain, I had much of the lower Yahara waterway from McFarland to
Stoughton to myself. On some sections of that leg south of Babcock County Park, I paddled through huge expanses of reeds and a landscape that probably hasn’t changed much in the past millenniums. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a canoe full of Ho-Chunk approached me as I rounded one of the many bends in the river.
Scientists say the chain of lakes is the remnant of a much larger Lake Mendota that was 14 feet higher at the end of the last glacial period roughly 10,000 years ago. As the ice retreated, the lake shrank to near its present size.
In addition to boaters, birders and hikers, the lakes are also popular with anglers, who fish for large and smallmouth bass, walleyes, northern pike, white bass, perch and bluegills.
At the southern end of Mendota, where a dam (first built in the mid-1800s) at present-day Tenney Park raised the lake about five feet, I cautiously paddled into a lock and held onto a chain while a metal gate closed behind me, leaving me feeling somewhat trapped. The water level slowly dropped and then another gate opened in front of me. I continued my journey through Madison’s Isthmus past numerous anglers and out into Lake Monona via a canal that was traversed by numerous bridges.
Darren Bush is a veteran canoer and kayaker who runs Rutabaga Paddlesports along a canal just off the chain of lakes in Monona. He first experienced the waters that define the Madison area 34 years ago and continues to get out on the lakes and Yahara River as often as he can. His shop also puts on the annual Canoecopia exposition held each spring in Madison.
“The chain is a wonderful asset and great to get out on, especially in the early and late season, as well as on weekdays,” he said. “It’s so accessible and offers so much. You can paddle 60 miles if you want to start even farther to the north and go all the way down to Fulton where the Yahara joins the Rock River. Or you can circumnavigate Lake Mendota, which is about a 25-mile paddle. Just be sure to stop for ice cream at the Memorial Union Terrace at UW-Madison.”
But Bush said his favorite section of the chain is the lower stretch because it often feels so remote and far away from the often busier, upper sections. Still, there are hidden spots on the the northern bodies of water that he likes to share with fellow paddlers. One is at Winnequah Park in the southeast corner of Lake Monona, where two canals are located.
“It’s like a little Venice,” he said. “You paddle through there, come out of the channel and there is the state Capitol. I took some people there who’d lived in Madison for 20 years and they’d never seen that view before. We paddled around a corner and they said, ‘Wow!’ ”
He also recommended the quirky Monona Bait and Ice Cream Shop on the east side of Lake Monona on Winnequah Road at Schluter Beach. The shop sells ice cream, burgers, fries, worms and other bait.
Farther south on the east side of Lake Waubesa, he said, the Green Lantern off Siggelkow Road and the 5100 Bar and Grill on Erling Ave. are good places to eat, as is Springers, a dockside joint off Sunnyside Street on the northeast side of Lake Kegonsa.
Bush said the chain of lakes is full of surprises, a place where canoers and kayakers can paddle past multimillion dollar homes — including the Governor’s Mansion in Maple Bluff on Lake Mendota — and then a mile or two south find modest dwellings with crumbling docks.
There’s even a ghostly bridge on Dyerson Road, he noted, that crosses a lonely stretch of the Yahara River between Babcock Park and Fish Camp County Park at the north end of Lake Kegonsa.
Legend has it that some poor soul ran his car off the bridge years ago and drowned. That driver supposedly continues to haunt the structure, driving his old black vehicle almost into the bumper of unsuspecting motorists, screaming hysterically and then disappearing.
Lucky for me, my paddle through that section of the chain took place in the morning. So no ghosts.
More information: My put-in was at the edge of the Cherokee Marsh at Yahara Heights County Park off Highway 113, while the take-out was at Bjoin Park in Stoughton. Both are about 90 miles west of Milwaukee.
Paddlers can rent canoes by the hour or for multiday trips from Rutabaga Paddlesports, 220 W. Broadway, Monona. Another excellent resource is the Yahara Waterways Trail Guide, published by UW Extension. See cleanwater.uwex.edu/pubs/pdf/yahara.pdf.