The Register’s Editorials   

Pedal or Paddle, but hit the road    (my response follows)

Iowa’s scenery is our blue-chip stock. Get out and enjoy it.

An Iowa to Come Home to. (Third in a Series)

Photo: Gerry Rowland holds one of the Des Moines "river trail" signs he places along interior Iowa’s biggest waterway.

The cat in the hat is Gerry Rowland, who works weekdays at the state library in Des Moines and on weekends crusades to promote canoeing on Iowa’s rivers. When families show up for a first venture onto the river, children are often nervous about climbing into a tipsy canoe-even when Mom or Dad’s piloting (ok, sometimes because Mom or Dad’s piloting). But when the youngsters see Rowland out on the water in his Dr. Seuss hat, they relax.

The hat is getting lots of exposure. Rowland wore it on a recent 400 mile solo kayak float down the Des Moines River from around Estherville to the confluence with the Mississippi. He wore it a few days back at the Van Buren County canoe weekend in which 70 canoe-loads floated to an overnight campout at Keosauqua, then on to historic Bentonsport and Bonaparte and through the whitewater of an old lock and dam to Farmington. He’ll wear it again on Saturday, Aug. 12, for Ottumwa’s second annual River Ripple--which, in a single year, seems to have become THE Iowa canoe outing.

Last year’s Ripple drew 217 people in 115 canoes and kayaks. Until someone can prove otherwise, that stands as the largest muscle-powered flotilla ever to take to an Iowa waterway. Dave Kraemer, editor of the Ottumwa Courier and ringmaster of the Ripple, sees the non-profit event ($15 for lunch and a t-shirt) as good for Ottumwa and good for outdoor Iowa. It coincides with Ottumwa’s Swiftwater Festival, which features everything to a rubber duck race to a Civil War battle re-enactment.

Too few people know which rivers offer good float trips; too few access points have canoe rentals nearby. Too few who would like to try canoeing know that on a quiet river, doing "right" comes naturally and, by their second outing, they’ll be hunting the "V" of a rapids.

Iowa’s greatest attractions are out-of doors. Making Iowa the place to come home to ultimately involves preserving and enhancing the scenery--and making it more accessible. Iowans are looking for outdoor recreational activities close to home; outdoor Iowa offers them. If we show the way, they will come.

For instance:

27 years ago, Register columnists Don Kaul and John Karras enraptured by the bloom of a new love--bicycling--announced they were peddling across Iowa for a week in the summer, and invited anyone equally inspired (read "crazy") to join in. Thousands did. As you read this, the sweat is beginning to break from the brows of the thousands taking part in this year’s 28th trek, called RAGBRAI.

Several years ago, the Register carried a feature story about hiking shoes. At the end of the story we added a note saying that the Central Iowa Sierra Club was planning to hike the Kate Shelley trail near Boone the following weekend, and anyone interested was invited. Close to 200 showed up from every corner of the Iowa map. It was the biggest single day outing the trail had ever seen.

Iowans by the drove will puff, peddle and paddle: just show them the trail-heads and the accesses.

As cat-in-the-hat Rowland says, getting more people out on the river means getting more people interested in preserving our river corridors, exploring our history (which is so closely linked to waterways), and promoting soil holding (and water purifying) conservation practices. Iowa looks best in green; the Iowa that Grant Wood saw is the Iowa that stirs the pride of heritage in an Iowan and the pangs of longing in an outsider. From the Loess Hills sentinels on our western border to the Mississippi bluffs on the east, our scenery is our blue-chip stock: its health is our duty.

My response:

Bill Leonard has written a wonderful editorial  (Paddle or paddle, but hit the trail, July 25, 2000).  He has captured the spirit and the vision of my river crusade, or perhaps I have read enough Register articles on the need to save our rivers and green spaces that we speak a common language.  I invite readers who share our love of outdoor Iowa to visit www.desmoinesriver.org for more information about the river, my river adventures, the work of the Des Moines River Water Trail task force, and the activities of the Central Iowa Paddlers.

I surely have a burning desire to share with other Iowans the wonderful access points and beautiful scenery along 400 miles of the Des Moines.  This has become a high priority for a lot of people.  Our river trail task force has developed a very attractive river trail logo that can be used along all of Iowa's water trails, river and lake. We will be placing trail signs all along the river in the next year, as will groups along many of Iowa's rivers.   I have provided my GPS coordinates to the DNR to help them upgrade the Canoe Guide and to assist in the development of a brochure to encourage use of the river.  I've also been paddling with many canoeists and kayakers (including Bill and his wife) over the past several years, and I think I've been an encouragement to several groups that have organized successful float trips.

In his editorial, Bill has given me a mystique that I would like to transfer to the river.  We've had several conversations over the years, and I never know if I'm on the record (although the sounds of the keys on his typewriter are one clue).  Several characterizations need clarification.  My river adventures took place over several years.  I paddled the 400 miles of the Des Moines river Water Trail on weekends, 1 or 2 days at a time.  Someday I'll do the whole trip over 2-3 weeks, but not yet.   I also must say that on Aug. 12, 2000, I'll be in Storm Lake for the 50th anniversary of  my mother and father in-law.  I would love to be in both places, but family comes first.  Next year I'll do the Ripple.

If there is anything I wish I could add to Bill Leonard's wonderful piece, it would be to give credit to those who have worked so hard to make the river what it is.  I would offer my heartfelt thanks to the dedicated professionals of the county conservation boards of Iowa, who have worked for so many years to preserve and enhance our precious natural resources.  The county conservation boards have built and maintained many of the parks and the boat ramps that I was so delighted to discover.  I have also become aware of the incredible work by the Iowa DNR, in our state parks, along our waterways, and in the regulation and nurturing of our earth, air, and water.  The participants in the water trail task force have also been of immense help in the water trail campaign, especially Jim Mills from the Army Corps of Engineers and Dick LeCroy of the Highland Park Business Club.  Others who have been a help and inspiration include Dave Kraemer of the Ottumwa Courier and Ruth Egeland of Keokuk, who has told the story of the river trail at www.keokukia.com.

Always, the river, the people, the plants and the wildlife make for a rich and memorable experience.  Come down to the river for an experience you'll never forget.   Find out what makes Bill Leonard and me return again and again to Iowa's beautiful waterways.  Oh, and the web site for the River Ripple on Aug. 12 is www.riverripple.com for registration and trip information.