Kayaking the Galena River - New Diggings, WI - Hwy W to W. Council Hill Road - February 2024

Put-in at the dedicated landing at Highway W west of New Diggings, WI. There is a paved parking lot, sidewalk to the river, and a nice grassy bank to launch from. The take-out is at the bridge on W. Council Hill Road. There is a good amount of roadside parking, a mowed path to the river, downstream river left, and the bank is low and grassy. The first train tunnel is only about a 1 mile after the put-in. You’ll see the old bridge foundation standing proud to the left. The second train tunnel is ½ mile after the Beebe Road bridge (where the gauge is located). The tunnel is pretty visible to the left.

The river gauge on Beebe Road (called the Galena River at Buncombe gauge) was 2.9’ when we ran it. The water level was good, scrapy but good. There were maybe a few hang-ups but nothing serious and we never had to get out of our boats. That said, you will scrape a fair amount at this level which is to be expected in the Driftless. Wel, well, the price of admission.
Link to the river gauge: https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydro...

There were a few cattle wires across the river on this section; I think we encountered (4) wires. Unsure if they were electrified or not but one can assume so since there were cattle actively grazing. I recommend bringing a Y-er if you have one; if not, make one and bring it. Here is a link to the Y-er. https://milespaddled.com/the-y-er-a-h...