Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 15

KAW 173 Weekend #2 – Wamego to Topeka (38 Miles)

If you are a native Kansan, well…you know that planning anything outdoors is an hourly challenge.  This trip proved to be right in line with a typical Kansas July with a heat warning to start the weekend, followed by a cold front, rain chances and cooler temps. 

A few of us arrived at Kaw River State Park to pre-shuttle cars and boats.  I stepped out of the FOK truck and immediately felt the Kansas humidity.  I sure hope everyone heard our pleas to bring enough water, because if there is one thing you need on a Kansas River trip, it is enough water.  I’d rather lug 5 gallons down the river and only use 4 gallons that the other way around.

Our group convened at the Wamego Boat Ramp after shuttling cars.  Thanks to Board Member, Mike, we had all vehicles at Topeka for the end of the trip.  We launched about 3:30 PM under hot and sunny skies and planned to make it about 6 miles to one of our favorite sandbars at the bend before the Vermillion River.  Let’s just say, it was a gorgeous evening and sandbar experience, but we all sweltered in our tents!  But that is the great part of an outdoor experience – the good, the bad, and the challenges of being immersed in the outdoors. 

On Saturday, we shoved off our camp and made our way to Belvue.  We had decided the night before that a few from our group would walk into Belvue and get treats for the group from Loretta’s Artisanal Bakery and Café.  David, Greg, Steve and Andy came back with a load of goodies!  We enjoyed cinnamon rolls, lemon bars, donut twists, and bread!  It was a perfect treat before making our way on the 30 mile stretch to Topeka. 

The section of the Kansas River between Belvue and Topeka is spectacular.  Is there a better, brighter word to use?  Perhaps, but let’s just say that the word ‘spectacular” is the most perfect word to describe this section of the Kansas River that is still a bit wild – and truly a prairie river – with beautiful braided sandbars that are the hallmark of the Kaw.  If there is a peaceful slice of Kansas heaven, it is here around the halfway point that I think I’ve found it.  The braided sandbars are everywhere – no escaping the adventure of trying to “chase the channel” – and navigating between watching the river and watching the scenery.  Did I already say it is spectacular?

The afternoon showed a few light rain showers in the area, so we got off the river and found the backside of an island to protect us from any potential storms and hunkered down for about 20 minutes.  It was just rain and it passed, and then we were on our way. 

We found a perfect -yes, perfect – sandbar around the halfway point in the 30-mile stretch.  We had a beautiful bend bar for camping, lots of driftwood for a fire, plenty of places to explore, and signs of wildlife.  The temperatures dropped that evening into the upper 60’s after the cold front and I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we slept well! 

Sunday morning was a leisurely shove off at the campsite.  We enjoyed exploring the rest of the braided sandbars, chasing the channel, and picking up trash along the way.  I’m so proud of our group – always trying so hard to keep our river clean and helping others discover the Kansas River, sharing stories, gear do’s and don’ts, and the beauty of this special place.

We arrived at Kaw River State Park boat ramp in Topeka in the late afternoon.  A little tired from a long weekend of paddling, sun kissed, but otherwise fulfilled from a weekend immersed in nature. 

We will all gather again the last week of August to explore the 3^rd section of the KAW 173 from Topeka to Lawrence – we hope you will follow along.  Thanks to everyone that watches our Facebook Live stories and follows our journey.  It keeps us motivated to know that there are people out there following along.

If you’ve made it to the end of this blog post, do me a favor?  Share the story of the Kansas River with a friend of family member?  It takes all of us to protect our river, and we believe it starts with helping people discover it.

Protect. Advocate. Discover.

Until next time…

For the river,

Dawn

Your Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 14

Getting ready for KAW 173 Weekend #2 Wamego to Topeka (38 Miles)

It’s been a whirlwind month at FOK.  Summer is always busy for us and we love very bit of it.  We’ve had many public and educational events to round out the month on top of advocacy and grant writing.  And in the middle of all of that, I tried to take a few days off to recharge.  We are grateful for many press opportunities lately with a podcast from Kansas Reflector, as well as an interview with KCUR’s Steve Kraske and the “Up to Date” show!  What a highlight for FOK to be on the local NPR station.  Our little non-profit is still chugging along, thanks to all of you and opportunities like this to share our story. 

It’s hard to believe that the end of July is almost here and we are embarking on Weekend #2 of the KAW 173!  We hope that you will follow along on our Facebook page as we do LIVE posts on the sandbar.  We will leave Wamego on Friday afternoon and go all the way to Kaw River State Park in Topeka.  This is a 30 mile stretch between Belvue and Topeka with no access ramps.  It’s a quiet, peaceful and wild stretch of the Kaw with many opportunities to see wildlife and immerse yourself in nature.  And the stars!  The stars are so bright that you can feel the river and prairie in a magical way.

So, follow along…and next time, join us!

For the river,

Dawn Buehler

Your Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 13

KAW 173 Weekend #1 Junction City to Wamego (45 Miles)

We rolled into the parking lot at Junction City and I checked the radar for the thousandth time.  Thunderstorms were forecast for the eastern part of the state, but in Kansas you just never know what it’s going to do.  I was hoping the west side of the river would be spared. 

The humidity was high as we unloaded our boats and gear and shuffled up and down the boat ramp.  We still had another shuttle run to make, but half of us would stay and gear squared away.  We finally launched the 173 team off of Junction City in two waves and arrived at our sandbar 6 miles downstream in time for the edge of a small shower to just clip us.  Yeah, we got wet but let me tell you, it was refreshing! 

After the brief shower, the clouds parted and the sun came out for a beautiful evening.  We enjoyed getting to know each other around the campfire, sharing funny stories and the bonfire question:  what was your favorite river to kayak and why?  We learned about many different river experiences around the campfire that night. We also did a little sandbar CSI….where we find animal tracks and try to figure out which creature created the tracks and why! 

Up early the next morning and we know we’ve got 21 miles ahead to Manhattan, so we shove off and enjoy the beautiful Kaw morning.  The sounds of the song birds, quiet trickle of the river, shade of the banks, and the coolness that comes off the Cottonwood trees in the early morning.  It’s a spectacular place to be. 

People often ask me, “what is your favorite section of the river?”  Well…you see, my heart lives in the section from Eudora to De Soto…my home and the place of my childhood farm.  There is something so special about that section…yes, it is beautiful, but I think for me it’s the memories.  My second favorite place on the river, though….is Ogden to Manhattan.  Have you ever seen the Flint Hills from a kayak on the Kaw?  If you have, you know what I’m talking about.  The crisp color of green rolling hills with the Kansas River woven in between in the valley.  This lush green tree canopy that creates a path in between and a vessel for me to travel through this most magnificent place that I can only see from the river.  You can literally feel yourself in the Flint Hills…. the river behind you is above, the river in front of you is below…and you are riding the river down the hill.  To feel it and realize it, is an amazing experience. 

We arrived at Manhattan in the late afternoon, resupplied with water and bid farewell to a couple of friends that were ending at Manhattan.  The rest of the crew went on to the sandbar for the night and again enjoyed a beautiful evening around the campfire.  I can’t explain what happens around a campfire, but if you’ve ever been there, then you just know.  Magical friendships form and experience cemented together that forever bind you to that day.

Along the entire KAW 173 weekend, we saw bald eagles, blue heron, deer, turtle tracks, otter tracks, racoon tracks, and a pretty little sand frog that seemed to perfectly blend in with the sandbar.  We are always grateful for the time spent in their home. 

On Sunday, we decided we would get on the river early because we heard that the coffee shop in St. George had donuts and it was open until 11:00 am according to Google.  However, Google failed!  We arrived at St. George and no donuts, but the memory of paddling for donuts lives on!  We had a great time joking about who would get the donuts and who would not….and if there were only a few, how we would split them and many other moments of fun and laughter.  We went on to enjoy a wonderful day of paddling all the way to Wamego, arriving in early afternoon.  Just enough time to grab a bite to eat at the local deli or a cup of coffee at the coffee shop before heading home. 

Our KAW 173 Weekend #1 was a success – thanks to great flows, great weather and even better team of folks to enjoy the experience.  We made new friendships and enjoyed spending time with old friends too. 

Our next adventure along the Kansas River Water Trail is the last weekend in July.  We will depart Wamego and paddle 38 miles to Topeka – right through one of the most gorgeous and quiet sections of the Kaw.

In the meantime, we’ve got a few public paddles (actually a lot) …and a bunch of events to tend to.  Oh…and advocacy, there’s always advocacy!

See you on the river,

Dawn

You Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 12

Chasing the Channel….All the way to Kaw Point!

I grabbed the side handles of my most trusted piece of river equipment, my kayak, and hauled it out of the barn and into the back of my pick-up truck.  A couple of straps later and she’s ready to roll down the highway towards Junction City to meet up with another 20 or so adventurous souls who will join me to once again kayak the entire Kansas River – all 173 miles of it – over four separate weekends this summer.  As I rummage through my gear, I make sure I’ve restocked important supplies like lip sunscreen, hand sanitizer and plenty of packs of tuna, my river staple.  Lots of apples – check.  Nuts and cranberries, yeah got those too.  Last year, when we spent 9 days kayaking the entire Kansas River, I spent weeks getting ready.  I even put my kayak on my front porch so that I could pack it and repack it to make sure it all fit before I got to the boat ramp.  I was not interested in learning that I had packed too much at the boat ramp!  This year, things are much more laid back.  Been there, done that, but I still need to make sure I’m prepared for the myriad of Kansas weather events such as heat warnings and thunderstorms.  The most important thing that you need on the river in a Kansas summer, besides your life jacket, is water – and plenty of it.  I think I’m ready to go, but I don’t worry about it too much.  I have plenty of wonderful river friends that have my back and if I need it, they will always help me out.  That’s what friends do for each other, and our Kaw River Guides have become family to me. 

There will never be a match to last year’s 9-day event, but we are really excited about taking other adventurers along on this journey and help them discover the Kansas River in a whole new way.  I love nothing more than sharing this wonderful resource with anyone that wants to come along. 

The four weekends allow everyone to get away and explore, but doesn’t require giving up an entire week – and then some – of vacation time.  This also allows people of varying degrees of adventure to get out there and see what it’s all about.  I am excited about their experience…for each of those coming along…to discover a Kansas River sunset, the quiet of the early morning on the Kaw, the gut check when you need to make it a few more miles, the heat, wind, thunderstorms, and whatever else nature throws at us. I can’t wait to see all of the beaver, otter tracks, bald eagles, deer dancing across the water, and soaking in a cold beverage at the end of the long day with my muscles aching from a good workout and smelling of sunscreen and sweat. For me, that’s the filler.  The filler is what we do in between when we are born and when we die.  The filler is how we live our life and what we do with it.  The filler for me, is connecting with the outdoors and immersing myself in pure nature, letting myself be in the moment.  There is truly nothing better.  You combine those outdoor adventure experiences with my friends and family – and I’ve got all I will ever need. 

So, on Friday, we start this new journey and it is my hope that all of you come along.  We will be doing Facebook live posts of the sandbar, sunsets, setting up camp, and our beloved sandbar CSI (finding tracks and figuring out who they belong to).  So come along…. follow us on Facebook and catch a glimpse of something spectacular.

See you out there!

For the river,

Dawn

Your Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 10

It’s been a whirlwind spring already along the Kansas River and our events are in full swing.  Before I get too much further, you can see all of our events on our calendar on our website:  https://kansasriver.org/eventcalendar/

There have been a few exciting things that we have been working on, but if you don’t follow us on social media then you may not know about it.  On Saturday, April 10^th we cleaned up Battery Cases in the Kansas River at Manhattan for the 4^th year.  We are slowly getting rid of all of the black dots all over the sandbars from Manhattan to St. George.  We had a great group of volunteers and partners that made it happen.  We also removed an old deep freeze and a refrigerator, both items we found over the winter. 

We also recently took a trip down the Kansas River through Topeka for a river check and were able to go through the new Topeka Weir chute!  We put up a video on our Facebook page if you’d like to see the view from my kayak.  We are so grateful for this safe passage for boats and for the ability of aquatic life to move up and down the river through this section.  There is a grand opening scheduled for Friday, May 7 in Topeka, sponsored by the City of Topeka and the Topeka Riverfront Advisory Committee.  If you have the chance, go and take a look at the new design.  We think you will love it too!  By the way, the second phase of the project will fix the south side of the river later this year, so the safe passage is only complete on the north side at this time.

As we start to celebration our 30th Year of Friends of the Kaw this year, we welcomed home some of our founders and early board members to participate in a documentary, to be published later this year. We are working with MattyDMedia out of Lawrence and are so excited to share this documentary with you later this fall!

We continued to monitor pollution and dump sites along the entire 173-mile-long river and turn those in to the agencies responsible for enforcement.  If you find any new dump sites or pollution, feel free to contact us at riverkeeper@kansasriver.org and let’s work together to keep our river clean!  The month of April is EARTH month, and to celebrate we have many cleanup events scheduled.  We hope to see you at one of those events, or out on the Kaw for one of our paddle trips.  Let us know how we can help you connect to the Kansas River.

Until next time….

For the river,
Dawn Buehler

Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 9

Spring is surely coming…

My last blog post was at the end of the year, reflecting on a great year of work for the Kansas River, despite being in a pandemic.  Fast forward to now and we have been incredibly busy.  You might think that we have little to do all winter, but actually the winter is a very different kind of “swamped”.  We spend our winter writing grants to fund our important projects, holding fundraiser events, participating in community discussions around water, getting our gear ready to go for spring…and the most fun thing we do is plan our calendar for the entire year!  Yes, we plan it all over the winter, down to every event.  By the way, please consider buying a ticket to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival – showing tomorrow night, Friday February 26….and if you can’t watch it on Friday, you have an on demand feature where you can go back and watch it through March 3, 2021.  Tickets here:  https://qudio.com/event/FriendsoftheKaw/register

What kinds of grants are we applying for?  We applied for a grant to do a Restoration Project in Topeka, a Rain Garden Restoration in DeSoto, and a grant for equipment for our work for the river!  Whew…and we are not done yet.  We are also planning some grants for amenities along the Kansas River Water Trail.  

By now, most of you have probably read our news about my Appointment by Governor Laura Kelly to the Chair of the Kansas Water Authority.  What an honor to have been asked and confirmed by the Kansas Senate.

Many of you might be asking yourselves, what is the Kansas Water Authority and how did Dawn get involved?  In the big picture way of thinking, the Kansas Water Office (KWO) is the planning agency for the state.  Established in 1981, the Kansas Water Authority (KWA) is within and a part of the KWO.  The Kansas Water Authority is comprised of 24 members of which 13 are voting members that are appointed from across the state, and 11 ex-officio members that are the directors or Secretaries of the various agencies that work on water.  This 24-member board is responsible for advising the Governor, the Legislature, and the Director of the KWO on water policy issues, approving the State Water Plan, budget recommendations, federal contracts, administrative regulations and legislation proposed by the KWO. 

The Kansas Water Plan also includes the Kansas Water Vision, the mission statement of which is to “provide Kansans with the framework, policy and tools, developed in concert with stakeholders, to manage, secure and protect a reliable, long term statewide water supply while balancing conservation with economic growth”.  Within the Kansas Water Vision are 14 Regional Advisory Committees (RAC) that work on goals and action plans in their respective local areas and watersheds and make recommendations to the Kansas Water Authority.  I have spent the last 6 years on the Kansas RAC, mostly recently as the Chair, assisting our 13-member committee with writing the goals and action plans that impact the Kansas basin, which includes the Kansas River.  It is here as a member of the RAC that I learned about the long-term water issues impacting our state. 

So what can you do to get involved?  Learn more about the work being done by the Regional Advisory Committees, Kansas Water Office and Kansas Water Authority here: https://kwo.ks.gov/  The meeting are public and you can really learn more about the issues by attending.  TALK about water…with everyone!  Share the importance of water to our state, our economy, ecosystem and recreation with your family, friends and local community leadership.  Watch our Kaw Minute on the Kansas Water Authority here:  https://youtu.be/1LcI3AlnhhQ

I hope to see you all on the river soon – we have some major cleanups planned for this year including another big tire cleanup near Shawnee.  We also have our tentative calendar scheduled and you can take a look:  https://kansasriver.org/calendar/

Notice the KAW 173?  We will be offering for folks to sign up to come along on four (3) day weekend adventures to paddle the entire Kansas River!  Lots of fun coming up this year….I am so grateful you are coming along for the ride – either virtually or on the river! 

Let me know if I can help you connect to the Kansas River!

For the river,
Dawn, your Kansas Riverkeeper