Kayaking Wisconsin: Finding new trails from hetherh on Vimeo.
by Hether Hoffmann
Harrington Beach State Park is a beautiful park on Lake Michigan about two hours north of Chicago. I hiked at this park when I was a kid and during college. Milwaukee sea kayak instructor, John Browning, developed the Wisconsin Lake Michigan Watertrail website (http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/watertrail/countys/ozaukee-wisconsin.html). I read about the planning of a kayak campsite at the park several years ago via his very informative website. In 2009, a 75-site campground was completed at Harrington Beach. In addition to the kayak campsite, there are several walk-in sites, one group campsite, and car campground.
On Friday, Pat L. and I headed up to Port Washington, WI to check out the launch site at the harbor. I had called the marina the day before about overnight parking. The overnight permit is $2.50 available in the main building. We had talked about several alternate trip options in case we decided not to launch that afternoon. We arrived at the marina at about 4:00 p.m. The decision was made not to launch due to building waves, late launch time and not having paddled this area. We continued driving to the state park, registered, and were given an overnight kayak camping parking permit. After hiking ½ mile, we set up our camp, made dinner, explored the quarry lake, and enjoyed our evening campfire.
On Saturday, Pat and I drove to Hwy D and launched our kayaks. We headed north about 5mi, landed at Amsterdam Park, and ate lunch. After paddling back to our campsite, we decided to explore the local area and the Cedar Beach Inn (only serves Friday night fish fry-call ahead). After we got back, Ken B. and his wife Mary were chatting with Russ and Jen as they also set up camp. We all decided to paddle a bit more during the late afternoon hours. After dinner and a gorgeous sunset hike around the quarry lake, we enjoyed a campfire, tea, and a bit of wine.
On Sunday, we gladly fueled our tanks at the park’s pancake breakfast with the profits going to projects within the park. After breakfast, Russ, Jen, and I paddled back to Port Washington where Pat met us for a late lunch.
Harrington Beach State Park is great place for a quick weekend trip. It has options for everyone from non-paddlers to advanced paddlers. I found the early summer trip to be a great incentive to get gear organized for summer season, review skills, and of course reconnect with paddling buddies.