Annewakee

Just a historical tidbit from a native.

I grew up in Douglas county. Back in the late 80's I helped a friend that did custom upholstery. We did some work for the property owner on the upstream, uphill side of the bridge and delivered all of it over a period of a couple of months. After about the 3rd trip or so, I inquired about the glimpses of water through the trees. He took us back to the lake. It was gorgeous, pristine, and slap full of grown alligators. He put them in the lake 10-15 years before. He harvested them for the hide and the meat. It also had a thriving cottonmouth population that had reached an age and size most snakes don't.

That spillway on the north side comes from that lake(I ca ll it that because it is fed and drained by a creek.). Back in the mid 90's, a gator turned up in that manicured pond just pass the bridge headed toward 92. It was a young adult...8 ft or so. Douglas county sheriff and the local DNR milked that gator for a week because it led all three local newscasts untill they finally hooked the poor thing on a big surf rig.

Thing is, there was no shortage of locals that had the means, skills, and tools to have had that gator on the truck within 24 hrs. There was no shortage of locals that was dying for the chance to catch that gator. I'm sure the sheriff was offered some fat checks for the priviledge. However, catching the gator was a clumsy, amatuer, effort that put the gator under stress way longer than it should. It took hours after the catchee viciously set the hook with multiple, violent upswings of the tree like surf rod trying to turn the gator....by the look on his face caught on camera when the gator turned and ran, he thought he did. He dang near got drug in.

It took hours to land the gator...who was pretty much dead by then.

It's the only time in my life I've been embarrased by the DCSD. Really it was the DNR's guy to blame....he made the call. Being DNR...he should've known the basics behind catching a gator. Short lines tied off to something anchored to land, built to hold a thrashing bull, the gator comes up, eats the bait, then sits peacefully enjoying it's meal. Here's the trick...While the gator is eating, one must sneak up close enough to get a kill shot before the gator see you or hears you which will result in an angry gator on a short rope in shallow water close to you...thrashing so violently getting a kill shot is not an option. The window for a kill shot on a gator...just like a pig, is about the size of a LL baseball on his head.

Anyway, the property owner was elderly back then. I'm sure he's gone. I bet he passed it down to relatives...the property still looks about the same.

Billy

Ran it a couple of days ago. The big rock on river left at powerslam is gone now. Left line is super fast super fun. The old bridge support that had the red line used as a gauge is gone now too because they are building a new bridge.... I'll work on getting something out there. Sweetwater went up to only 2.25 and we still had good water. Lots of new strainers!!

I would say that the red line is a little high but still runnable. Optimal would be about -2' but it's still runnable down to around -5 I think...... although that would be pretty boney.

Whats the correlation with the red line on the gauge bridge piling??

Did it today 11/28 We put on at 10. Sweetwater was 4.67 feet and rising. It was definitely low. Doable but too low to be any fun. One thing I have to add is that powerslam is definitely not 12 feet high, it is a 7-8 foot ledge. Oh and i saw the 'thing' it was a large cubic piece of rock that formed a minor sieve and has huge pinning possibilities. It would be a great run with high water.

I believe the vertical drop above the put-in is the spillway of a residential lake. I've never walked up there, it's all private property on either side above the bridge. I assume you could put in above the lake, paddle across the lake, and run the spillway but I'm not sure. If anyone finds out, let us all know.

It was too big to run after tropical storm bill dumped on us today. Whats the vertical drop upstream of the put-in?

We went to hurricane. It was awesome!!!

WOW!! Great photos and movies Chad! I'd never seen it at that level. The 'mini-thing' at PowerSlam looks even nastier at high water... certain PAIN! At that level, would you rate PowerSlam and the following 1/4 mile section IV?

sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken.
there was a strainer at this level on far right...probablly not an issue at lower levels
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
this exploding wave is cause by an undercut/boulder seive that is normally well out of the water. very nasty!
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
if this ledge looks really scrapy it's probably too low...if it looks side surfable it's good to go...play-able is really good...and when it washses out into a wave it's too high for most of us
sweetwater peaked at 11.8ft right when these pics were taken
notice the water well out of the banks. the water was 1ft below the bottom of the bridge support when I got there and the water just barely out of the banks.

On 10-29 we took a look at Annewakee late in the afternoon. Sweetwater was pumping at 5.5 but the ledge above the anawakee put-in was looking really scrappy. We passed and took the 4 minute drive back to sweetwater.

At PowerSLAM we ran the far right line at lower water than in the pictures. The center was dry and just to the right of it you could see a shallow shelf right at the base of the drop. The far right line was plenty deep at the bottom. The hole was still grabby even at low water. The left side of the drop has a nasty undercut/sieve rock formation that would be super nasty. I really liked the rapid 50 yrds downstream from PowerSLAM. At lower water with only a little play it took us about 2 1/2 hours. There were about 4 or 5 deadfalls to contend with below the first mile of rapids.

Anneewakee Creek apparently is much more flashy than Sweetwater, that is, it apparently drops pretty quickly. We paddled it today after work, and Sweetwater was close to 5.5 ft from last night's rain, having crested just a few hours before we got on Anneewakee, yet Anneewakee was much lower than on Patrick's run. For a correlation, I would guess that it's important that Sweetwater is rising or that it has rained recently. If you look at the small ledge hole just upstream of the put-in and it looks like a decent, fun hole, then the level is probably good. If it looks like a small, shallow pourover, it's going to be pretty low. It was still a fun run, some very fun little sticky holes here and there, but not nearly as exciting as it would be higher water.

Photos are from early March 2002.

Great photos Patrick!!!

Looking at the strong side of the hole.
This is the first big drop on the creek. Run this river left to avoid the river right/center hole after the drop.

Mike gets taken for a ride on Annewakee Creek. We found the boat a mile or so downstream. D!

This is a fun section. There's lots of waves and good boogie water.

It was low but I haven't seen this creek w/ good water since Ivan.... (good
water TR HERE). I figured it was at least elf-able so we hit it. Sweetwater was at 3 ft.
This creek is really fun w/ water. Visit www.lithiumkayaking.com
.

It was low..... that's all.

Great boof. I forgot this guys name so if anyone knows him let me know. For more
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We think that the flow peaked about the time we were at powerslam. There was debri hung up on the top of the bridge support when we got back but the water had come back down to the red line. Very flashy creek. For more
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What a great run. Annawakee went above the red line on this run. For more
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That's me on PowerSlam. This is a fun drop but the holes are very retentive. For more
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There is a big rock causing that boil but there is a nice pillow that will push you off of it if you get over there. For more
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This run is full of strainers now. Some in bad spots. For more
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Sweetwater Creek (Online Guage) reached 4ft. that day. This is the 1st big drop on the run
Me playing in and trying to stay clear of the other side of PutIn Hole.
Mike & Dale paddling through the playspot-rich Powerline Rapid
About to drop into 1 of the many great waves in PowerLine on Annewakee Creek.
This is the biggest rapid on the run. Running far river left was NOT an option. The hole at the bottom is strong.
Mike getting ready to run the middle line on PowerSLAM!
Mike demonstrates excellent form mid-drop.
Shallow rock shelf... SLAM! It gets ugly from here.
The shallow rock shelf has pointed poor mike a little far to the right :(
I think a creekboat would have been able to pull away from this but a Disco.... Uh, no.
Not a good situation to be in.
As soon as he started to wash free, Mike decided to go for a swim. Not a good place to swim. Dale gets ready to throw him a rope.
Mike throws in the towel and heads for shore.. Hey mike, where's your boat going?? 2 miles downstream. THIS has been a Disastro moment.