Recent River Conditions

Please note the date of each entry below.

Summary

The East Branch Little Calumet can be paddled from Brummitt Road upstream ~ a half mile, and downstream one mile to the large beaver dam in the swamp north of Indian Boundary Road. The swamp is shallow and requireds caution, as does the portage under SR-49. The river can also be paddled from Keith Walner Nature Preserve upstream to SR-49, and downtream a few hundred yards. From Howe Road, you can paddle upstream a quarter mile and downstream about one mile. [24 May 2025]

Deep River is navigable from below Lake George to the Rock Riffles. [24 May 2025]

Galien River is clear from Lake Michigan to US-12. [17 May 2025]

Trail Creek is clear from Lake Michigan to the edge of Friendship Botanic Garden. [24 May 2025]

Conditions can change rapidly and NWIPA makes no assertions of the current conditions.

East Branch Little Calumet River

Surveyed 23 May 2025

The best places to paddle are (1) putting in at Brummitt Road and going 0.5 miles upstream, and heading downstream to the big beaver dam in the swamp north of Indian Boundary Road. Other areas have obstructions.

Dale Engquist Nature Preserve to Brummitt Road:  A large tree blocks the river near private bridges midway between Dale Engquist and Brummitt Road. Do not trespass. We suggest only access the lower part of this section by paddling up from Brummitt Road

Brummitt Road to Keith Walner Nature Preserve: Clear!  But you’ll need to pull over a beaver dam in the swamp north of Indian Boundary, and be aware that water between there in SR49 is very low!

Keith Walner Nature Preserve to US-20: Obstructions will be encountered west of the launch at Walner Preserve. We will not be clearing this section until later in the summer

US-20 to Howe Road: Several obstructions are present between US-20 and the bend when the river reaches it Howe Road. It is clear the last 0.25 miles above the launch.

Howe Road to Salt Creek:  We are operating in the section right now. The river is clear for about 0.75 miles west of the Howe Road launch. Stay tuned for updates.

Salt Creek to Lake Michigan:  Clear from the Portage Lakefront beach upstream to Salt Creek, and then perhaps a half mile further up both the East Branch Little Calumet and Salt Creek before hitting obstructions.

Check US Geological Survey stream data here.

The

Trail Creek

Surveyed May 2025

Trail Creek is clear from Lake Michigan upstream past Hansen Park to the edge of Friendship Park. We plan to clear within Friendship Park up to the footbridge on May 27th.

Check US Geological Survey stream data here.

Deep River

Deep River was paddled early May 2025.

The river can be paddled from the below Lake George to the Rock Riffle projects. All launch areas are open. Note that there is no launch at the Rock Riffle.

The notes below are from a shoreline survey in the Fall of 2021.

With the construction of the Rock Riffle Project to mitigate the old and dangerous dam just downstream of Liverpool Road, the crest of the new structure is 2.5 feet lower than was the crest of the old dam, and this has negatively impacted navigability on the 7 miles of Deep River from just below the new railroad bridge at the Rugby Field access site to Liverpool Road.

The drop in river elevation has taken away the dam pool – which allowed for paddling and motorboating on Deep River in virtually all flows.  Travel was possible both upstream and downstream because the river current was dispersed in the water backed up by the old dam.

Now with the dam pool gone, there is no excess water in the river, visible current in the river, the water is much shallower (at normal flows), and the paddler may have to search for the deepest river channel.  Not only that, the combination of current and shallow water makes paddling upstream more challenging than it used to be.

There are at leat four places (possibly more) where passage may be difficult:

a)     Just downstream of the railroad bridge by the Rugby Field access.  Used to be that one could float through the narrow opening just downstream of the bridge.  Now with the dam pool gone, old bricks, concrete chunks, and railroad ties are exposed, which may necessitate getting out of one’s boat 

b)     At the Rt. 51 bridge.  Before the dam project was finished, several of the spans under the bridge were blocked by logs/wood.  Now with the river lower, passage may be further impeded.

c)     Just downstream of the Riverview Park access, there is a small island in the middle of the river, and passage past this island was always in very shallow water.  Now, passage on the left side of the island is impossible at normal flows, and there is only a very small opening on the right side of the island.

d)     Just upstream of the Veteran’s Memorial/Bicentennial Park access.  Visible not far upstream are logs collecting floating algae and other logs that might be difficult to paddle through

There may be other formerly submerged logs or debris in other places that make passage difficult.

The above comments are written based on shore-scouting the river.  If any readers have additional comments (and photos) based on paddling the river, please email them to blueways@nwipa.org

For reference, the river was scouted at a flow of 93 cfs at the USGS gage just below Lake George

US Geological Survey stream data here.

Galien River

Lower section surveyed May 17, 2025. Section between US-12 and Glassman Park has not been surveyed this year.

The river is clear between Lake Michigan and US-12/Red Arrow Highway.

WARNING! The gap between the water surface and the bottom of the Red Arrow Highway bridge varies in height daily. Note also that there is no public landing on the west side of the bridge, preventing portage around the bridge.

Two common routes that avoid the low bridge involve paddling upstream and back. Putting in at the public access on Red Arrow Highway, one encounters some narrow but passable spots 3 miles upstream to Glassman Park. Putting in at New Buffalo's beach or boat ramp, there are no obstructions in the main channel up 2.5 miles to the Red Arrow Bridge; on the day surveyed, water levels were so high it was possible to cut off a quarter mile by paddling through the wetlands as shown by dashed line.

US Geological Survey stream data here.