Gauge Description:

As of December, 2008, based upon negotiations with AW and FERC, Kaukauna Utilities is providing online gauging for this reach. Unfortunately, this is not a USGS gauge which we can access and report here. However, you can go to Kaukauna Utilities to see their report and table of flows to determine actual reported flow in this reach. Please note that this will be substantially different from the gauge readings reported here. All descriptions on this river-page are based upon the USGS gauge, and are subject to vagaries as noted below.

*Cited USGS gauge is about 8 miles upstream in Appleton. River flow is highly regulated by a series of locks and dams. The riverbed through this stretch is primarily wide, flat bedrock. A significant part of flow is diverted, both into the locks and into a powerplant channel. Thus, the "gauge flow" does not reflect actual flow in any boatable channel. Further, even the boatable channel for this run is broken up by islands (particularly in the lower portion of this reach, where one encounters braided channels), so it is nearly impossible to quantify (from this gauge) the amount of the flow you are boating in any particular channel.

The gauge serves only as a preliminary indicator of likely runnability. The best gauging is visual inspection, looking at the dam upstream of the put-in. There are eight 'releasable' gates in the dam. One releasing is low boatable, two is good/medium, and three is high.

Recently, at the urging of AW and after a formal request from FERC, Kaukauna Utilties has posted a table correlating gate openings to flow along with a daily gate reading. This can be accessed at the Kaukauna Spillway Flow Page.

The detail description of this run includes numerous mentions of 'one-gate', 'two-gates', or 'three-gates' levels. Flows below are based on the Appleton gauge upstream of the diversion (see disclaimer above).