2007 Paddle to Work Day: June 14, 2007

"Paddle to Work Day" will be celebrated as part of Take a Stake in the Lakes Week (formerly Yahara Lakes Week) on Thursday, June 14 (rain date Friday June 15), when people will paddle and row to their places of employment. Those who can't paddle on the 14th should paddle to work any day between June 11 and 15.

One commuter flotilla of many canoes and kayaks will leave from Starkweather Creek at Olbrich Park on Lake Monona (3300 Atwood Avenue in Madison) at approximately 6:30 a.m., picking up fellow paddlers at Hudson Park, Yahara Place Park, Morrison Park, BB Clarke Beach, and arriving at Law Park near Monona Terrace Convention Center at approximately 7:30 a.m. Boats may be left at Law Park (and any other City of Madison Park) all day to accommodate paddlers wanting to paddle back home after work.

The flotilla leaving from Olbrich will include two 25-foot long replicas of voyageur canoes used hundreds of years ago by fur traders, in the days before desk jobs and voicemail. Today’s modern voyageurs will demonstrate how practical it can be to paddle to work on the more than 22,000 acres of surface waters in Dane County.

People paddling from Lake Mendota to campus have several docking options. They may tie their boats to the plastic floating western-most dock at the UW Porter Boathouse (home of the UW Crew Team), or leave their boats on land off to the side of the boathouse. Paddlers must avoid the other Crew Team dock and the concrete apron leading down to the water from the boathouse bay doors.

Paddlers may also lock their boats to the tethering cable on Willow Beach in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve on campus, near Goodnight Hall. Explore the Preserve's online interactive map at www.lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu or check www.map.wisc.edu to locate Willow Beach..

Free access to the tether cable is good for Paddle to Work Day only. Contact Bob Wright at 263-5181 for seasonal boat storage rental information.

Send your planned routes and schedules to lakes@co.dane.wi.us or call them in to 224-3764. This information will be shared with other paddlers to facilitate even larger flotillas at many locations! Use these contact points also to reserve your spot in a voyageur canoe, or request loan of another boat for the morning commute.

Paddlers should use their own good judgment about the weather, and not paddle in high winds or lightning. If you do paddle to work, please send an email to lakes@co.dane.wi.us with a short description of your experiences.

Paddle to Work Day, now in its ninth year, was noted in the June 2005 issue of Outside Magazine as one of the reasons Madison and Dane County are ideal locations for outdoor enthusiasts. Take a Stake in the Lakes Week, a program of the Dane County Lakes & Watershed Commission, takes place June 9-17. Its purpose is to focus public attention on our water resources, raise awareness of the importance of our lakes, streams and wetlands in our quality of life and the ways in which our lives affect the quality of our waters.