Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 3

By now, you may have seen or heard all of our noise around the KAW 173 Journey. Yep, that’s us. We are about to get really loud! We hope that all of our friends can join us along the way – either at the Community Visits at the boat ramp or on the river with one of our Public Paddles (please wear life jackets on the river and masks on the ramp). You can learn more here: https://kansasriver.org/kaw173-jc-to-kc-on-the-water-trail/

I’ve certainly learned a thing or two over the years about planning a river trip, but this takes it to a whole new level. Planning for the folks to meet us and the public outreach is one thing, but the really challenging part has been to set the river schedule, set a pace, and make sure we have enough water to drink. We think we’ve got it all planned out, but I’m smart enough to know we don’t have it all figured out. What I do know is that we have great people that have rogered up to help us along the way – and for that I am very grateful.

Speaking of grateful – let me share a little with you about the team that I am kayaking with for 173 miles and 8 days. These 6 people have been long time volunteers for Friends of the Kaw as well as one of our long time Board members. These are people that know the river, know kayaking, camping and outdoor survival. I am honored to be on this journey with them and I know that they’ve got my back – and I’ve got theirs. We’ve paddled many miles together, camped many nights together on sandbars – and we are ready. We depart this Friday, July 17 from Junction City and will arrive at Kaw Point Park on Saturday, July 25 – if all goes as “planned”.

I’ve decided that for me – this is a journey of myself as much as it is for Friends of the Kaw. I plan to immerse myself in the calling of the river, listen to the wildlife as I meander through their home, and enjoy my friends and their gifts to the journey. I plan to be “present over perfect” – and live in the moment. We would love for you to join us – be present – and immerse yourself in the beauty of the river.

I will be writing a blog, such as this, every evening to share my experience. It will be as much a gift to myself to write about it, but I do hope that you find some value in the words on the page.

So join us – either in person, through the writing of our blog, or on one of our social media channels – let us help you connect to the Kansas River. We could use your good thoughts, good vibes, prayers, energy – whatever the earth and universe can share – we could use it! See you – literally “on the river”!

Dawn, your Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 2

It feels really good to be back on the Kansas River with the public. Last weekend, we took a group out on the Kansas River from Junction City to Ogden for one of our educational paddle trips. This was the first time that we had had the public on the river since April 2019 before the floods hit. We’ve had other events, and we’ve certainly been on the river doing river checks, but it had been a long time since we’ve had a public river event.

We also are in the process of working on a project on a piece of property along the Kansas River. We posted on our social media photos of a beautiful riparian buffer forest and we look forward to sharing more details soon. In other news, we continue to check the river and monitor for pollution. And as you can imagine, with COVID-19 cases increasing, we are making plans for a different version of Beers of the Kaw and will have an announcement soon.

By now, if you follow us on social media, you have seen that we are in full swing planning for the KAW 173…our journey to paddle all 173 miles of the Kansas River over a period of 7 to 10 days. Along the way, we will have community visits at several boat ramps as well as public paddles where the public can join us on a section of the river. All of these dates and times have been scheduled. To see the complete schedule to join us, go here: https://kansasriver.org/kaw173-jc-to-kc-on-the-water-trail/

We hope that many of you can join us on these public paddles, or if you’d rather meet us on land, come to one of our community visits. We’d love to see you and hear about your connections to the Kansas River Water Trail. I will also blog every day from the river about what I see…people, wildlife, community connections, and the beauty of it all!

Our journey will be challenging, but we’ve been planning this for over two years and feel ready. Initial plans were to do this trip in 2019 and those were canceled due to the flooding. So our team is certainly ready and we are prepared as best we can be. We look forward to seeing you all along the way.

My best to you all and wishes for good health.

For the river,

Dawn Buehler

Your Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel – Blog No. 1

About two weeks ago, I kayaked 48 miles of the Kansas River with some of our long time volunteer Kaw River Guide’s. Our goal for this trip, was to practice preparation for an even greater challenge, to kayak all 173 miles of the Kansas River, all at once, later this summer. We are in the final weeks of preparation and will be making an announcement soon about our journey. I sincerely hope that you will all join us in spirit on this journey, and maybe even some of you will join us to paddle for some of the pre-designated sections of the river where we would love to have some company.

The last few months have been challenging for all of us and certainly FOK as well. We’ve been blessed with plenty of work to keep our minds busy including updates to our website, new updates coming for our river access map, creation of a virtual kids about water program, many grants written, and coming into the home stretch of our beloved Riverbank Restoration Project. We are grateful that we have had opportunities to remain busy.

One of the projects that we’ve been working on since the flood waters receded last December 2019, is doing a complete river check of the entire Kansas River to check for new erosion and pollution. What is quite amazing, is that we continue to see new dumping sites in 2020 and new violations of dumping sediment into our rivers. Lucky for all of us that Friends of the Kaw exists along with our countless members, because if you dump trash from your property into the Kansas River, we will find it and we will enforce it. Let’s just say we’ve been busy this spring. If you see dumping, please report it to riverkeeper@kansasriver.org. Let’s do this together…keep our river clean!

As always, thank you to each one of you for your continued and steady support. We are so very grateful.

If we can help you find ways to connect to the Kansas River, please give us a call or send us an email. We are happy to help you protect, advocate, and discover the Kansas River.

For the river,

Dawn

Your Kansas Riverkeeper