Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle
2026-07-10
Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle
Paddlers, summer campers and Wisconsin River lovers will want to hear about Grace Dugan, a young woman who will embark on a 328-mile solo paddle on the Wisconsin River from Tomahawk to the Mississippi River Confluence near Prairie du Chien in August. She’ll even navigate the river with her own hand-drawn maps!
Read on for more about why she’s taking this trip, and why she is asking her supporters to contribute to the water protection efforts of River Alliance of Wisconsin.
The post Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle appeared first on River Alliance of WI.
Blog - River Alliance of WI
https://wisconsinrivers.org/grace/
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Confluence luncheon
The flowing of water, we call it a river. It is ceaseless. It is also nearly boundless. The last time I was at this very point on the Pine River was two months ago, in January. On the surface, liquid water had changed to solid ice. A blanket of snow covered the ice. Tracks wandered over the surface of the river, as if it were no longer river but land, a treeless path of land through the forest. Under the ice, muffled sounds of moving water could still be heard. The river was still flowing under the treeless path through the forest. In winter we do not see it flowing under the solid ice but we know it does. In summer we see the flow of water in the river, but whether we see it or not, it flows nearly everywhere. It flows through the ground, surfacing as springs, ponds, marshes, and swamps. It flows through animals that drink. The water of the river becomes animal and it moves across the land as animal. It flows up through herb, and shrub, and tree to leaf. The water of the river becomes plant and every green thing, every plant, every fungus, and every lichen, become alive because of the nearly boundless flow of water. All this is the flow of a river. In the flow of water is the magic of rivers. It is ceaseless and boundless. This the source of our fascination with rivers. It is what is special about rivers – that they are able to expand our perception of beauty, of awe, and of connection to animal and plant, to land, to everything above, below, and beyond, and to time, the present, past, and future – this is the fullest meaning of natural and of Wild!
This message is made possible by generous donors who believe people have the power to protect and restore water. 
“I went on my first raft trip with my husband, Dale, and some people from his law firm. We did the Stanislaus River, which no longer exists because it has been dammed. But we did this river and the four of us dumped out of the boat, I swam two rapids, and we camped at night. Shortly after that, we got involved with the river protection group, Friends of the River, mainly to try to stop the dam.”
As she worked to sell bandanas and t-shirts, she came into contact with people who wrote river guide books. The small publishers asked her to help get books into the shops that sold her products.
Returning to Wisconsin
“That’s the other thing that brought me back to Wisconsin. The people here are passionate about their state. They have a love for Wisconsin and I do too.”