Canoeing on Sugar Creek
News ·Sunday July 7, 2013 @ 15:46 EDT (link)
We went to Turkey Run state park—well, really just Sugar Creek, which runs through the park—and went canoeing down Sugar Creek. We rented our canoes from Sugar Valley Canoe Trips ($18 for a canoe, paddles, and life jackets, plus leaving a credit card as a deposit against loss or damage), and arrived at the drop-off spot (in their bus) at just past 1300. It was a bit chaotic: there were wooden stairs leading to a small beach, with canoes arriving, and some paddles in a canoe at the top of the steps and some left by people dropping off canoes. One had to grab a canoe as it arrived, and paddles, without any direction or assistance from staff. Easy enough, but it would have been nice to know that was how it worked. I grabbed a canoe, found a paddle of the right height, and Honey got one, and pushed off down the river.
It was very scenic, and very shallow at many points—large rocky and sandy bars and some treacherous snags. We took the 6-mile trip, and arrived at the destination point at around 1515, which was pretty good time according to the website, which suggested 2h30-3h30. We even made a stop to eat: we shared a Coke and had some Pringles on a long sandbar (there was very little shade near places once could stop). Even though swimming was forbidden (prohibidibidado!), at a few points people (or yahoos, sometimes) were stopped and swimming, sometimes out in the middle blocking passage (especially bad due to the frequent shallows).
There was a spot where it was possible to see falcons of some kind—they had a nest in a tree, and were wheeling overhead; magnificent.
The end is pretty rough: one has to drag the canoe up a set of wooden stairs. Near killed me (I was "feeling faint", as Emily would put it) but I bounced back fast and we got on the bus with almost no wait and headed back to our car at the main depot. No pictures, since I wasn't sure what to expect so didn't bring my canoe out.
