W.Whitaker Ave. to Wilson Park Creek (0.57 mi.)

Quick Facts Location: Just off Interstate 894/94/43 near 27th Street between Layton and Howard Avenues Put-in: '2200 W.Bottsford Ave, Milwaukee' Take-out: '4050 S.13th Street, Milwaukee' Shuttle Length/Drive-Time: 1.8 miles/6 minutes. Character: Cement ditch, with three 'hydraulic jumps', one or two 'slides', and divided box culverts! Average width: 5-10' Gradient: 30' of drop in ~0.555 mile, for an equivalent of 55 FPM Drainage at listed put-in: ~1.14 sq.mi. (Yes, extremely small!) Gauging: Better be able to get here while it's still raining (or IMMEDIATELY thereafter) or you've missed it! General Description This section is on the MMSD (Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District) website of area streams to be 'restored' to a somewhat more natural condition. The cement will be removed, the stream will be meandered (where possible), and floodplain areas will be created (again, where possible). Until that happens, this little creek has a few 'hydraulic jumps' which could provide minor entertainment when the area gets significant rainfall. Unfortunately, all of the box culverts have a vertical cement beam in dead-center-stream, often immediately downstream of a 'jump', so you can't come off the jump dead-center! Being a narrow cement ditch with virtually no eddies makes this what I like to call ***'point-and-shoot-boating'*! Once you slide into the water, you are pretty much committed to going where the flow takes you! For any sort of peace of mind (and for your safety!) this means you really need to thoroughly *scout most (all!) of the run before putting on!* Look at each of the road crossings to see that there's enough width of flow to allow you to angle away from the vertical beams, and to check for wood which may be wrapped/hung-up on them! While most of the shoreline is *not* heavily wooded, there are trees lining the early going (put-in area) and later portions (including trees/saplings growing up through joints/cracks in the cement, and the wooded area downstream of S.20th Street to the confluence with Wilson Creek). So, again, strong reason to scout as much as possible to have a good idea of the conditions you'll encounter if you do decide to try this *'stupid boater tricks'*** run. This could be done as a 'daily double' with Southridge Ditch (about 5 miles away), or as prelude to catching other bigger runs (Honey, Underwood, MenTosa, Mke/Mke) which will be runnable any time this is. (And frankly, Southridge Ditch is more fun, so you could skip this (Villa Mann) altogether and just get on to H/U/MT/MM).