116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
A Clear Creek adventure
The Nature Call: Many obstacles made for a long day during recent kayak trip
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At what was a little more than halfway, Jason and I floated past the Tom Harkin Trailhead and a concrete path that came to the water’s edge as a type of landing.
It was the first sign that we had seen suggesting Clear Creek was intended for paddling. At this point we’d exited our kayaks to get around obstacles in the creek at least eight times.
If the water level had been any lower, we would’ve had to add a lot of dragging to that tally. But you know, if it had been easy it would not have been so memorable.
I had been itching to float Clear Creek for years. Feeling the self-induced pressure of another season passing by, I pestered my friend to join me. My badgering was successful and we fixed a time.
Jason was well experienced with many trips to the Boundary Waters under his belt though streams and small rivers of Iowa were unknown. He was a man with pure-clean water experience with known portages from crystal lake to lake. A little stream in Johnson County was going to be a new experience.
He rightly wondered about the conditions and I assured him it would be good enough. He had high expectations, mine were low. You’re not going to get northern Minnesota experiences in Iowa farm country.
The first time I recall thinking about Clear Creek was a story in The Gazette many years ago about someone who discovered a source of sewage pollution in Iowa County. Years later I saw an EPA broadsheet from 2012 that boasted of its success in helping clean up Clear Creek. With EPA leadership, sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus and E. coli counts were down — enough to remove the water from the impaired list.
Yet by any common sense measure, the pollution persisted. Iowa law states “such waters shall be free from materials attributable to wastewater discharges or agricultural practices producing objectionable color, odor or other aesthetically objectionable conditions.” Still not “clear.”
Jason and I put in at Tiffin, where the bike trail invited recreation but no such welcome for paddling. We found a make-do entry spot and then we were off. The deep channel and banks lined with trees could’ve easily fooled a person that they were in a great forest. It’s good to dream.
Hour number one was pleasant enough. We had to dismount our crafts a couple of times to drag-duck-divert around large blowdowns. While they didn’t take long, they were a hassle that got old real fast. In no time we were wet to our chests from the efforts, a combination of sweat and creek water — I was uncertain where one ended and the other began.
The sun still was high over the trees as the sound of I-380 called. We answered and slipped under the concrete conduit and appreciated a stretch of river that had been re-naturalized as part of the gargantuan project to re-do the I-80-/380 interchange. That project cost $387 million, a sum that hardly attracted attention as we will pay any price and bear any burden for roads.
Try to spend a fraction of that on nature and fights break out in the state capitol.
The creek was swallowed by a gallery of willows and the sound of traffic persisted, a downright discouraging 30 minutes or so until we crossed Deer Creek Road and then flowed south. In short course, the environment took on a more natural appearance in sights and sound. Here, the Clear Creek Trail and users made stochastic appearances.
The Harkin Trailhead established a mark of permission to enjoy the environs, wet and dry. It was after the trailhead I stopped to sample the water. My simple store-bought test would signal the presence of E. coli, though not a precise number. Regardless, a positive result would put a “yuck” factor into the experience.
The number one yellow color confirmed what history predicted: Clear Creek was contaminated with number two. My tongue involuntarily searched the inside corners of my mouth and I swallowed against my will.
To address the persistent pollution of the aspirationally named Clear Creek, several groups under the leadership of the East Central Iowa Council of Governments in 2020 produced an impressive report about 200 pages in length and rich with scientific data. Their plan to truly fix Clear Creek — from Conroy to Coralville — would cost $333 million: $109 million to address rural land effects in Iowa and Johnson counties, $221 million of treatments to municipal jurisdictions, and $2.5 million for management.
The sun was in the trees. Our outing was taking longer than I promised. I had long since run out of water, irony accepted. Jason had long been ready to be done with Iowa-style portaging but we still had the hardest workaround to do and another 90 minutes on the water.
Clear Creek’s last gasp was its straightened section under the Highway 6 bridge. Its water finally melded with that of the Iowa, a transition only the fish could discern. Ten minutes more and we hauled out at CRANDIC Park and took what satisfaction was available to memorialize a hard won journey.
The Boundary Water Canoe Wilderness Area is the most visited wilderness in the United States and the pride of Minnesota. Because of its pristine status, people from all over the country make noise whenever a hint of threat appears, case in point is the current fight over a proposed copper and nickel mine in the watershed.
The defenders of that water make noise that shapes politics. If Clear Creek was pristine, or even pristine adjacent, I bet any threat to it would stimulate a hue and cry to save the day. As is, getting from the present state to something pristine is a bridge — or interchange — too far.
Looking up, looking ahead, and keeping my pencil sharp.
John Lawrence Hanson, Ed.D. teaches at Linn-Mar High School. He sits on the Marion Tree Board, and is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America
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