Mallison Falls Portage

9/7/12  Friday afternoon
"Wanna put in at Mallison Falls, behind the Correction Center? Around noon?"
Dave calls and leaves a voice mail in the morning. I get out of work half day. It's a beautiful, warm, September summer day.

Behind the Correction Center? Isn't a river the usual place escaped convicts go to hide their scent so dogs can't track them?  Men on the run from the law. Isn't that where George and Lennie hid in Of Mice And Men?  

So despite the risk that my kayak might be commandeered by desperate escapees, I tell him, "Yup. I'm in."


This is a picture of the dam/falls taken from the road.  Just over the dam the water current is S T R O N G. The portage site is just around that jutted out area just beyond the white water.

Here is the entry point. A steep embankment, a rocky edge, then the bliss of strong current that sweeps us away.   You don't have to paddle.  Just let yourself float, while enjoying the view.

Brave Dave - apparently stuck on the rocks

Came to this railroad culvert. Looks like a big keyhole.  Paddled in, to a small, quiet, area, sunlit and bird-occupied. 

 Here is where the culvert led to.

Down river, a downed log is the irresistible docking spot for painted turtles. This one was not in any hurry to drop into the cool water; soaking as much warm sun as he could before my stalking presence forced him into the river. 

Further still, this peace-infused spot beckoned the young and young-at-heart to swing and splash into the clear, cool refreshment that is a river in summer. Don't know who decides where to hang a rope-swing, but this seems the quintessential spot to do it. 

Can't seem to get enough river shots.  You could snap the landscape all the way down and never tire of the beauty.  

It took us over two hours to reach our take-out site (which happens to be the Lincoln Street portage that I put in and take out from nearly every time I kayak here after work) so it can take anywhere from 2-3 hours, depending on  the strength of the current and the effort of the paddler. I tend to be the 'let it flow and take me' kind, so it takes longer since I am a quasi-lazy kayaker.  But more athletic types will make it in an hour and a half.

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9-14-12
Got dropped off at Mallison Falls a week later and paddle-strolled downstream.  Wow. 

Snapped this pic of a tree that reminded me the first, and now second time, of a fossilized bird, extending its neck over and upside down (perhaps to better reach a tree'd tidbit?)

Half way down I needed a pee break and landed at this clearing where some cool locals probably gather around a communal fire and tell stories and dance around the fire at night.  The spot was immaculate. 

Fire Pit

Blog Mama

Yet another painted turtle