Planning: The Root River is a smaller river located in southeastern Wisconsin and flows southeast through mostly urban areas before reaching Lake Michigan.  Bridges frequently occur, making for a variety of access points and trip possibilities.  I chose to start at Mile 7 bridge and take out at the highway 31 bridge, about a 7 mile trip, but low water level struggles ended my paddling earlier than I planned.

Paddling: This was a rough one.  I should have looked more into the water levels before attempting to paddle this section of the Root river and paid for it in paddling on a nonexistent current, scooting and getting out to walk repeatedly, and eventually cutting my losses and ending the trip short where I could.  The water level was an issue early on but become an unavoidable one after 4 Mile bridge, where a series of rock beds and riffles occurred and I’d have to do more walking than I could paddle.  Outside of the low water level, there was also a full blockage that I had to portage about a half mile after putting in at 7 Mile bridge.

Observations: I wasn’t much in the observation mode with the paddling struggles I was experiencing, but recall trees typically lining both banks, no houses but some private property signs, and three bridges about a mile or so apart.  There weren’t any other paddlers, but I did come across two blue heron, a bald eagle, some ducks, an osprey, some geese, two owls, and some small fish and lots of crayfish, which I eerily noticed while I was walking my way through the extra shallow spots of river.

Reflecting: The most obvious and impacting thing here is making sure the water level is much higher than it was for me on this trip.  If you can time it better, this could be a nice paddling experience with the narrow river often surrounded by trees and having some fun riffles to it.  But I’d also try to avoid the major blockage between 7 Mile and 6 Mile bridges, so maybe putting in at 6 Mile instead.