During the seasons of 1995, 1996, and 1997 a group from the Hoofer Outing Club made several trips to paddle as many of the regions best steep creeks as we could. We ran many of the rivers first boated by Fred Young with the Hoofers in the early 70's and even knocked off a couple first descents of our own. This web page is the product of those adventures which were shared by Guy Babbitt, Steve "Guido" Corsi, Mike Evanston, Mike Giddings, Harry House, Bill Obrien, Tom O'Keefe, Tom St. Germaine, and anyone else that we could drag along. Mike Giddings provided the original home for the site at www.barbarian.com which has since been sold to a rugby gear company. It is now hosted at his new domain of www.paddleguides.com. Tom O'Keefe provided most of the original descriptions and photos although many others have made contributions. Mike also produced a video of our adventures titled Wiscosnin Cheese: Dairlyland Boating which provides a rather entertaining look at the region's rivers. It's currently making it's way through the underground circuit but maybe Mike will produce the version for distribution someday (the digital files used to make the original were lost in a computer crash).

While our core group of students dispersed across the country we still gather every few years to paddle together. The site will remain as long as people are still willing to contribute information and help keep it up to date. Just send an email to Tom if you see any corrections that are needed or would like to contribute to a run description. They can usually be made within a week.

Several people have asked why none of Minnesota's North Shore runs are included. With so much closer to Madison we never made it up to the North Shore as a group--had we all remained I'm sure that would have been our next destination. Some of the region's most spectular creeks can be found there. The best source of information is an underground guidebook by Jim Rada or any of the local paddlers. Ask around in the Minnesota paddling community.