Ind. drought takes bite out of canoeing business

MARSHALL, Ind. (AP) -- While drought conditions across Indiana persist, water levels along the Sugar Creek through Turkey Run State Park are sufficient to allow canoers the opportunity to float miles through the park.

"It's not been the drought as much as the heat," Ron Lambermont, founder of Sugar Valley Canoe Trips and Sugar Creek Campground, said of a reduction in business during June and July as temperatures regularly hit 100 degrees or higher.

Last year "business was unbelievably good," in July and August, Lambermont said, but high and dangerous waters in Sugar Creek last year resulted in "very light business" in April, May and June.

"This year is just the opposite where the water level is fun and safe for families. The level is lower. We are probably at end of August (water) levels now," he said Monday.

"This year, we are projecting to probably be about 35 to 40 percent down" on business, Lambermont said, "primarily due to heat, with many days at 103 degrees and higher.

"The heat has just been crazy. We are a couch potato society now, with air conditioning and computers. That outdoor activity is competing with the air conditioning," Lambermont said.

A bus takes canoers upstream, where they can take a 3-mile, 6-mile and 10-mile trip down Sugar Creek through Turkey Run State Park. The company usually also offers a 12-mile and 15-mile trip, starting farther upstream in Shades Park.

But not this year.

"It is terrible for the first three miles through Shades Park, just rocks and no water, so we stopped that," Lambermont said.

Lambermont went down a 6-mile trip on Sugar Creek last week. He had to get up three times from his canoe, he said, but just briefly, for 5- to 6-foot stretches, and was able to continue to canoe. Much of Sugar Creek is now about 10 to 12 inches deep through the state park, which is below an average of 18 to 20 inches for this time of year, Lambermont said.

"We are in a sand, gravel aquifer here from the glaciers, so we get lots of spring water along here" he said of Sugar Creek through Turkey Run State Park.

About 900 canoers went on the creek on Saturday and about 400 on Sunday, and Lambermont expected about 100 people canoed on Monday.

Heat was not a concern for many who took to Sugar Creek Monday.

"I've never done this before," said Tabitha Sells of Heritage Lake in Putnam County as she prepared to go on a 3-mile canoe trip. The temperature had already hit 99 degrees about 2 p.m. near the state park's main entrance along Indiana 47.

"It's not the heat, but the time limit" that concerned Sells, who had to work later in the day.

Kohutek Complam of Indianapolis said it was also his first time to canoe the creek. He, however, chose the shortest trip "because it's too warm to go farther."

The heat was of little concern to Chris Wheeler and his wife, Stacey, who took their two sons and two dogs on a 10-mile canoe trip. "We don't worry about the heat," Chris Wheeler said, as he and his wife both work in steel mills in Valparaiso.

"The water is low, but not bad. We dragged twice on the bottom. It wasn't bad," Chris Wheeler said. The family took the trip in two canoes. "We drove about 2 1/2 hours to get here," he said.

"We come here once a year," Stacey Wheeler said, as her family moved its canoes out of the water just beneath the Cox Ford Bridge, a covered bridge, built in 1913, that spans Sugar Creek.

Roy Leman of Eureka, Ill., along with about 16 extended family members, took the 3-mile canoe trip, stopping several times to cool off in Sugar Creek and relax in shaded areas.

"We were concerned about the low water, but we came anyway," Leman said. "It was not as bad as we thought it could have been."

"I don't think the heat was bad either," said his sister, Lisa Knecht, adding that family members have made the trip an annual event for the past eight years.

The heat has had an impact on camping at Turkey Run State Park, but camping is still "running about normal," said park gate attendant Debbie Deplanty. "We had a few weekends in June where maybe 16 of the 213 (camp) spots were empty. But we have been running full every weekend and running about half during the week, which is about normal," Deplanty said.

"People are still coming, even though it is hot and dry," she said, "and about half the campers are in tents, which amazes me."
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   Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com