By Bob Todd
Actually, the hike was a bit boring. From Millstream Gardens to Silver Mines. But that was my fault for hurrying. And the wind.
I’ve been all over the St. Francis River shut-ins at Millstream Gardens. And I’ve hiked up to the old dam at Silver Mines. But I’d never hiked in between, even though a crow could make it by flying straight about two miles.
I started in at the head of the shut-ins. Pat would drive down and wait for me at the Silvermines parking lot. She had some work to do, and would see how well her new laptop computer worked in this kind of situation.
It was a bit after 1, and I estimated the actual hike would cover four miles. Unlike a fast runner who can cover a mile in four minutes, it takes me more like 60 minutes on a rough trail, if I just browse along.
I’d only floated this stretch of river once before - then in a raft with fairly high water. But I knew there should be a deep, slow pool or two somewhere in the canyon. I figured bass from the rapids should be congregated for winter in the deep pool by now. I had along a rod, a few jigs, a few grubs.
To make time to fish, I started off at a fairly fast pace.
The Conservation Department owns Millstream Gardens. There are three named whitewater drops in the rapids, and people visit the area regularly in the spring to watch kayaks and whitewater canoes being maneuvered down the river.
This part of the trail was once a wagon trail that Elmer Tiemann used to take visitors to see the rapids. Then the trail narrows and veers from its overlook of the river canyon. It goes up one side of a hollow, crosses, and turns back toward the river.
Fresh survey marks in the woods and the familiar MDC blue paint showed a boundary. The trail continues on U.S. Forest Service land.
It was not an active wildlife day. Squirrels and one old owl were all I saw. But then, I was moving along pretty fast to see wildlife, and the wind made hearing difficult.
The trail bent back away from the river again and I feared it would take me to a ridge top campground rather than to the old dam on the river.
So I left the trail and headed downhill toward the river. I estimated I’d come halfway, and was “ahead of schedule” now. If this took longer, I could afford a little time and still get down to Pat with daylight to spare.
Autumn/Winter is the best time to hike this trail, I believe. You can see through to the river without leaves on the trees and as the river came into view, I could see I was not yet to any sort of pool - just more rocky rapids.
I struck a pretty good game trail that went along the hillside. Found a fairly recent campfire site where someone had camped. And not long after, I found a path that was surely made by humans, though it had obviously not been followed for awhile. (If you find a path that goes under things that make you stoop or go around, chances are wildlife made the path. Us upright animals make taller trails.)
Together, the trails worked down the hillside, finally coming to a more pronounced path just above the river. Ahead, across, was a long bluff and no sign of whitewater.
It is a beautiful hole of water. Large rocks visible on the path side, fading to deep greenish black as the depth increases. How I wished to have a canoe and time to explore this hole with a full tackle box.
Instead, I made some casts from the bank. I could not reach more than halfway to where I knew the bass had to be. I considered stripping down so I could wade out, but it was too cold, and the water deepens so quickly I would not gain much advantage.
I fished from several locations along the trail side, but never could reach the most promising looking water.
So I moved on, following a path along the river. And there was another deep, slow hole, but equally as hard to fish from the bank.
In September when it was so dry, I could have carried waders in a back pack and donned them here to wade across. But now the river was carrying too much water to cross in waders and it will likely be next summer sometime before it gets low enough again. And the rapids above are the most difficult in the Midwest - not really suited for canoeing with expensive fishing gear.
I came to a picnic area - closed by the Forest Service for the season. From there, a more developed and traveled trail climbs the side of the canyon and follows downstream to the old dam, and then on to the parking lot. This part of the trail gets almost as much traffic as the Millstream Gardens trail.
Pat was napping. She’d got some work done, but it wasn’t very comfortable using the laptop on a granite rock.
IDEA
All along the way, I pictured in my mind two families or two groups from one family. One group would start at Millstream and leave its car there. The other would leave from Silvermines and leave a vehicle there.
They’d start in earlier than I had, and they’d follow the river rather than the hiking trail that goes through the woods.
Where the two parties meet along the river, they’d build a fire and roast some hot dogs, or at least have lunch together. Then group A would continue on to car B, and group B would continue on to car A.
Everyone would get to travel the whole way without having to backtrack. It is not so great a distance that moving at a crisp pace would be critical. Time for kids to throw rocks in the river.
And with a well-defined trail up the hillside from the river, the adventure could be cut short by going up and striking that trail if the weather soured or if a kid fell in and got all wet.
It sure sounded like something we would have done when we were younger and more agile. A great adventure for a winter day.

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