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2025 Year End Review

And so concludes the 2025 season. Thanks to all the readers who stuck around to follow the blog. Not all of you did! I lost a considerable number of visits, comments, and guest reviews in 2025. To this day I’m not sure why. My main theory is that AI is stealing a lot of my traffic. I used to get many Google referrals from people asking river questions and who in turn got redirected here. But now Google sends them to their internal Gemini page. This is a shame as AI is often inaccurate. I’ve seen examples where it provides (and hallucinates) completely wrong information for things like river distance, river conditions, and river depths. Regardless, I’m still planning on doing plenty of trips in 2026.

Looking Back:

BIGGEST TRIP DISAPPOINTMENTS: It was a good season, but there were a few strike-outs.

Kickapoo River: I missed the famous ice flows by one week.
Lily River: It’s not unusual to have to deal with some shallow water. But several trips this year involved long and sustained stretches of wading. The Lily “River” was the worst.
Lemonweir-East Fork: Too many logjams.
And that’s it…all the other 2025 trips were winners.

Favorite 2025 Trips: There were far fewer 5 star trips this season (just 9). Here are the trips I enjoyed the most (which won’t align perfectly with star ratings):

MOST POPULAR TRIPS WITH USERS:

Bear Creek (IA) (Terrific scenery)
Lytle Creek (IA) (Response from Iowa visitors was positive)
Pecatonica River – Mineral Point Branch (Underrated trip)
Eau Claire River – East Branch (Ok trip, but not as good as the lower Eau Claire)
Embarrass River (Planning on doing more of this river in the future)

LEAST POPULAR TRIPS WITH USERS:

Maquoketa River (Skewed as this was the last trip of the season)
Blue Heron Water Trail (My Mississippi trips have never proved popular…still going to do them in the future!)
Jump River (Cool river…looking forward to more trips)
Waupaca River (Really nice stretch)
Cranberry Flowage (Knew this wasn’t going to be popular…still had a good time)

Water Trail Updates:

Bearskin Creek: The landing by the mouth was temporarily closed due to construction, but should be fine now. At this point there are two beaver dams and one logjam to deal with…well worth it (Jake and Bob).
Sugar River: A new logjam reported downstream from Oak Grove Road but upstream from Hwy 69 (Mike).
White River: There is a logjam in White Lake Park (Cary).
Nine Springs Creek: Only two minor logjams upstream from the E-Way Parking Lot (Lee).
Hemlock Creek: Logjams are now a serious problem (Shawn).
Black Earth Creek: There are several blockages and a low fence upstream from Olson Road (Aleksei).
Bark River: There are logjams upstream from Cty K near Mequon, and also between Nixon Park and the Hartland Marsh (Jeff).
Starkweather Creek: Significant cleanup work was done on the creek (Glen).
Bass Creek: Past Cty H there are now many logjams (Bob).
Black Earth Creek: There are serious logjams between Lion’s Park to Blynn (Ben).
Black Earth Creek: There is a difficult logjam just upstream from Scherbel Road (Rick).
Baraboo River: The Rock Springs access points are in poor shape (Bernie).
Wildcat Creek: There is a logjam south of Perch Road and another by the mouth and the baseball fence (Scott).
Billings Creek: Many logjams were reported but most were easy to portage (Zach).
Maunesha River: New logjams popped up on the stretch above Stony Brook (Ben). Note, this was in July and the Maunesha River Alliance might have cleared them out since then.
Badger Mill Creek: Major logjam located by the Main Street bridge (Ben).
Baraboo River: There was a significant cleanup effort on the Baraboo between Union Center and Wonewoc. This stretch is now (mostly) navigable (Ben).
Bark River: Figure 40 downed trees between Dousman and Atkins Wayside (Tara).
Robinson Creek: The main upper stretch is now mostly logjam free, but there are a few downed trees to weave past (Eric).
Oconomowoc River: There is a new logjam between La Belle Cemetery and Lapham Street. Exact coordinates are 43.114960397435915, -88.48762805698316.
Horicon Marsh: The main Green Head Launch might be closed now. You might be able to launch at the end of the road. Further upstream there is another access option, but it’s on the north shore (a pain to shuttle).
Milwaukee River: There are two logjams upstream from Goeden County Park.
Mecan River: Some obstacles between Cumberland and JJ/Y/Dakota but no complete blockages (Eric).
Six Mile Creek: Section between Woodland Drive to Governor Nelson State Park is now open (Ben).

Looking Forward:

Advertising: I ran Google ads on the website for the second half of 2024 and most of 2025. I didn’t realize it at the time (I use an adblocker), but Google started spamming my main content (not just the footer) with obtrusive ads. I only realized this when Google disabled my adblocker from the Chrome store and I accidentally saw the mess Google created. At any rate, I’m worried this might have scared visitors away, so I’ve seriously dialed back the ads. I might get rid of these altogether in the future (but it is nice that they help pay for gas money).

Website Suggestions: If you see issues, let me know. I know I miss stuff.

Future Trips: I’m kind of running out of easy trips to do. Future trips mean 2+ hour car drives, repeats, doing marginal prospects, and/or doing water trails in poor condition. Note, I’m not sure I’ll keep up my aggressive 30+ trip goal in 2026. But there are still plenty of cool ideas left on my todo list. Here are some of my goals for next year:

Southwest Wisconsin: Hope to do more Lower Wisconsin, Mississippi and some of the local sloughs. I’m also overdue to return to the Grant and Platte Rivers.
South Central Wisconsin: Still tons to explore on the Sugar and Yahara. Hope to do the upper Little Sugar in early 2026.
Southeast Wisconsin: Figure more trips on the Milwaukee, Bark, Cedar Creek, Illinois Fox, and Turtle Creek. Several lakes in the area are also worth checking out.
West Central Wisconsin: I had hoped to do the Bad Axe and Timber Coulee Creeks in 2025, but that will have to wait for 2026. Still more to do on the La Crosse and Kickapoo Rivers.
Central Wisconsin: Hope to return to the Baraboo River and Duck Creek. I’ve already done the entire Neenah Creek, but will have to find an excuse to redo some of that too.
East Central Wisconsin: Still lots to explore on the Beaver Dam River and Crawfish. I hope to do a fall color paddle on the Upper Rock, which I’ve done several years in a row.
Northwest Wisconsin: I just didn’t get to the Lower Chippewa, despite it being a big priority. I also hope to do more Black, Eau Claire, Jump, Little Eau Pleine and Yellow River trips.
North Central Wisconsin: Almost did the New Wood River…that will have to wait for 2026. Top of the todo list is the Pelican River and additional stretches on Bearskin Creek, Copper River, and Pine River. Still tons to explore on the Upper Wisconsin and Lower Big Rib.
Northeast Wisconsin: Top priority are more stretches of the Embarrass River, which is a great watershed. Would love to do more of the Little Wolf and Big Wolf. The Plover, Oconto, and Red Rivers are all overdue for a trip.
Far North: These are tougher for me to do, as I try to stay within a 3-hour driving radius from home. But we’ll see.
Minnesota: Top priority are more stretches of Deer Creek, which will likely be an April paddle. I really need to add the Zumbro and Cannon to the website…and of course tons to do yet on the Root.
Iowa: Lots to explore…maybe the Upper Yellow and Maquoketa River – North Fork could be spring trips and the Upper Iowa and Maquoketa River might be fall trips. Still lots to do on the Turkey.
Illinois: I really wanted to do the Kishwaukee or Piscasaw Creek in early November, but it didn’t work out. The Pecatonica Bottoms might be fun to explore too.