Setting: Sunny weekday afternoon temp in the 70’s. We had never paddled the whole section, and we wanted to get out there before the expected motorboat madness of July 4 weekend.
Water level at Berlin: 1180 cfs. Median for July 2 is ~850. There is also a gage at Princeton, which does seem to pretty much follow the Berlin gage. Paddling Southern Wisconsin books suggests the Berlin gage.
Put in: 3:45 pm at the excellent concrete boat ramp in Princeton at the park at the end of Jefferson St. There is adequate parking and a porta-potty.
Shuttle: 5 mi, 15 min. East on Jefferson St, south(right) on Mechanic St, east(left) on Main St/Hwy 23/73, north (left) at the Piggly Wiggly onto Hwy 3, which is or becomes County Rd J. Continue straight north on Huckleberry Rd at the somewhat scary intersection where J turns east. After about 2.5 mi on Huckleberry Rd, Lock Rd is a left turn at the brown DNR sign for the White River/Fox River Fishery Area. The large parking lot is at the end of Lock Rd.
The Paddle: Gentle current and mostly isolated wooded surroundings. We passed the St Marie Rd put-in/take-out on the left which we had used for a no-shuttle paddle last year. We paddled a short distance into a creek (Black Creek?) which entered from the left about 3 mi from the put in . Some day, with water levels no lower, it might be fun to see how far we could paddle upstream into the creek.
Take out: 5:50 pm at the excellent concrete ramp at the old White River lock and dam site.
Wildlife: heron, swallows, many kingfishers and flycatchers.
Length: 6 miles