The Sheboygan is a river that I already knew of but not one that I thought I’d ever paddle. That changed when I got Mike Svob’s book Paddling Southern Wisconsin. Here he has roughly the last 40 miles of the river mapped out and detailed for possible trips. Looking to find a decent day trip between dams, I settled on paddling about an 11-mile section from county road JM in Johnsonville to county road TT just north of Sheboygan Falls. When the day came I drove to the put in and parked there just off the road, deciding I’d paddle first then hike back.
After inflating my inflatable kayak and packing everything into it, I walked down to the river and had an easy put in off some flat rocks. Once on the Sheboygan, I noticed the reddish-brown color of the water, which had enough clarity to spot boulders and small rocks on the sandy river bottom. There was also a good amount of aquatic life or weeds scattered and throughout some sections, while it remained mostly clear of downed trees, with only a couple resulting tight squeezes. It winded a decent amount, while a couple islands occurred and at least one creek came into the river. The current was nice and established early on, with occasional riffles and a few possible class I rapids in there at this water level. At times the river widened out and slowed down and once passed by a golf course on river right. It had banks of grass and deciduous trees and only a handful of houses off the river. Bridges were aplenty though, with six occurring between my put in and takeout. Most had just side of the road parking and improvised carry in access. As for people, I spotted early one person at the J bridge either putting in or taking out, and later on passed two kayakers around the O bridge. Wildlife spottings were limited to only some small birds, a couple frogs, and a blue heron though.
So after less than three hours I reached my takeout at TT bridge, where there was a low grass bank on river right that made for an easy transition back onto land. After deflating my Sea Eagle 330 and packing it into my dry bag of a backpack, I started walking back to the put in. About 1.5 hours later I was back to my car in Johnsonville and officially ended my Sheboygan River trip. Looking back on it, the water surprised me for its color and clarity, not to mention its current and riffles to light rapids. It makes me wonder if more of this river is like this and I plan to find out, most likely paddling the section just upriver of this one in the near future.