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| RIVER: | Skillet Creek |
| LOCATION: | Baraboo, Wisconsin |
| AMENITIES: | Click for area amenities (food, lodging, etc.) |
| PUT-IN: | Gasser Road, just west of Hwy.12 |
| TAKE-OUT: | CTH.W, just east of Lehman Rd.
(Note: A new parking area exists for Pewitt's Nest, which has recently been opened to the public. Do not park along the road near the river -- much of the area is posted "No Parking.") |
| SHUTTLE: | From the take-out on CTH.W, proceed west about 0.1 mile to Lehman Road. Left (S) about 0.5 mile to Gasser Road, left (E) 1.1 mile to put-in. |
| DIST: | 1.8 miles |
| TIME: | 1.5 hours |
| CLASS: | III-IV |
| CHARACTER: | Amazing falls and 60' deep slot canyon in south-central Wisconsin! |
| GRADIENT: | 50 FPM average, 80 FPM in max half-mile. |
| GAUGE: | Visual, at Pewitt's Nest.
Generally it will be a matter of getting there as soon as you can after the area has received heavy rains. This creek will have a relatively 'narrow' window of opportunity due trying to 'balance' the flow for the relatively wide/shallow areas versus the constricted nature of the gorge areas of the run. If you manage to be there and find the level looks too high, kill an hour or so and it will probably have changed. Do not put in without scouting first at Pewitt's Nest. Make certain to carefully assess the flows in the narrow, constricted gorge. Make certain there is no new wood blocking passage down these drops. |
| SEASON: | Spring/heavy-rains. With only about 7 square miles of drainage above the put-in, this will be runnable very seldom. |
| What? A class III-IV run in South Central Wisconsin? That almost nobody has heard of? Yup. That's right. At the risk of creating expectations which are too great, this little bit of a creek has some of the most awesome scenery I've seen on any river in the state, and a couple of drops which are suggestive of the U.P. (MI) or North Shore (MN)! |
The run starts (appropriately enough, for the heart of Wisconsin) by paddling through a cow pasture. Be prepared to deal with a couple fences spanning the stream within this first ¼ mile. (Beware: some may be electrified. Look for insulators on fenceposts as clues.) As soon as the last fence is dealt with, the creek bends to the left as rocky outcroppings appear on the right shore. A rock-rubble shoals is encountered leading into a private driveway bridge, followed by another leading away. While it is a sweet little rapids, the sound of the next falls will speed your strokes.
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As the river twists to the right, be ready to scout from river left (respecting the property and privacy of the home with the awesome view of the falls from river right).
Skillet Falls is a steep, stepped drop (about 10-12 feet) into a good shallow pool in a sandstone-walled grotto. |
Leaving the pool, the river heads left, over another short (1.5') ledge into a longer shallow pool.
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A vertical walled grotto surrounds this area.
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This sequence finishes with a smooth low-angle bedrock slide into the final shallow pool.
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A stretch of flatwater follows for you to relax and marvel at what you've just run, and realize that "you ain't seen nothin' yet!" Unfortunately, before the next action you will have to endure numerous snags and deadfalls. Wherever possible, keep to left at islands and highwater 'cutoffs' at meanders. (The main channel in a couple meanders contains worse snags.)
After one such meander, be on the lookout for a series of fencposts in the streambed (may be submerged at moderate-to-high flows), followed quickly by a drive-thru shoals, and a wooden foot-bridge in the creek. At good flows it will be possible to boat around or over this bridge, but be aware that a portage may be necessary or advisable here. (This bridge appears to be falling into disrepair and may wash out before long. There is no telling where it may end up, or whether it is likely to be replaced.) |
After a clear straightway, followed by a quick right/left zig-zag, you come to a bit of a clearing (a farm field) on the right, and you will see the creek start to 'canyon up'. This is the start of Pewitt's Nest. Immediately upon seeing the gorge, exit to scout the entire gorge from river right. This area is DNR property, and designated a "State Natural Area", and has just recently been opened to the public.
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The gorge contains four ledge/drops in fairly quick succesion. The first two ledge/drops are about 3' each, and are relatively straight-forward.
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However, running them puts you deeper into the 60' deep, fairly sheer-walled slot canyon. While there are good sized pools between the successive drops, scouting or reasonably exiting the gorge once you run the first couple drops would be exceedingly difficult when there is sufficient water to consider boating this reach.
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The last two drops are very constricted little slots which pour about 6-7' each into deep pools. Unfortunately for boaters, these slots are very likely to hold wood. Again, make sure you scout well before running any of the drops in this sequence!
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Summer of 2001 storms flushed a jumble of trees into the third falls and pool. These are now cleared, but new ones could come down at any time of high water.
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Utmost caution is urged. Make certain to scout these drops carefully from overhead. With flows adequate to make Skillet Falls (in the first part of the run) anything more than exceedingly scrapey, these last two drops are likely to create big holes in their respective deep, swirling pools.
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Rescue by others (should it be necessary) will be next-to-impossible due to the deep, steep walled gorge.
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A large tree trunk blocked the fourth falls for several years. This is now gone, but a huge tree stands vertical in the pool below the drop in a spot which could cause some problems. Since this tree is likely to shift over time, the falls should be carefully scouted on each new high-water event.
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Once you pass through (or around) Pewitt's Nest, the river tames out considerably. Again, snags and deadfalls will be encountered, along with a few random rapids and much shorter streamside sandstone 'bluffs' leading you fairly quickly to the take-out.
Note: Most sincere apologies for the poor quality of the vidcaps (photos) here. They were taken at a time of low water (obviously), when I hiked up the creek expressly to get video footage to document the drops. On the occasions I have run this reach, there were not sufficient boaters along to allow for someone to take photographs or video to document the actual runs, and I neglected to take the camera with (on our pre-launch look at the falls) to get photos of the falls with good water. |