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Hoosier Canoe & Kayak Club

Sand Creek

  • April 08, 2023
  • near North Vernon

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 SAND CREEK IS A GO AS PLANNED BELOW

Please join us for the annual HCKC Spring flatwater trip on Sand Creek this year. As usual we will run the 12.1 miles from the Westport Dam access to just downstream from the Brewersville Bridge. This is one of the clubs longest-continuous scheduled trips now for several decades and has always been a club favorite on the calendar. Along this route we will pass not one but two different 200 year old limestone cut mill race water tunnels which are quite unique for a Hoosier stream. We will take our standard lunch stop at the outlet of the first mill race. Numerous exposed overhanging rock ledges are the norm along this stretch of clear free-flowing water with a decent gradient of 5.2 f.p.m.  Our meeting place will be at the Westport Dam access area which is about  1/4 mile downstream of the renovated 1880 Westport Covered Bridge off of County Road 1100 south (Delorme atlas page 52 B-3) at 10 am.  Boats will be dropped off here and then we will proceed for the shuttle (18 miles total) to the take-out at Brewersville and back to the put-in. The Westport Dam access is located 2 miles east of the Westport/SR 3 flashing light. Travel Main Street east through ''downtown'' Westport (turns into CR 1100 South after leaving town) for two miles and cross Sand Creek (concrete bridge) and immediately look to your right (south) where vehicles will be parked at the access. The concrete bridge and the covered bridge are adjacent to each other with the covered bridge being located upstream from the concrete bridge. Please understand that the streams in SE Indiana are extremely moody and can be very water dependent. The levels can fluctuate in a matter of 24 hours and an alternative must be chosen. A good example was last year (2022) when the temps at the meeting time were 31 degrees with an inch of  snow but the main reason for cancellation on that particular day was the extreme low water levels for the Springtime. The Vernon Fork Muscatatuck was paddled the next day as a substitute. In 2021 the total was 17 paddlers from three states ranging in a geographic area of Cincinnati to Louisville to Chicago and in many points in between. If the water levels are going to cooperate by mid-week I will post something in ''concrete'' for the planned trip. Otherwise on Friday I will drive 40  miles north to the farthest upstream area near Greensburg to examine all of the ditches and small feeder streams to make a call on whether it is a ''go'' or a substitute will have to be put in place. Contact me by 9pm on Friday, April 7 at canoeindiana@yahoo.com or (812) 767-1317 and pleas leave a contact number as people have become lost before and ended up in Cincinnati due to bad technology. I will have my cell with me Saturday morning if people are running late.                                                                       Sincerely, Richard Tekulve  (trip leader since 2006)

2021 Sand Creek Trip Photos



Hoosier Canoe & Kayak Club

Background image provided by Karl Zemlin www.zemlinphoto.com

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