High Cliff and night cruise to Park Johns

High Cliff State Park Lime Kiln from Lake Winnebago

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Another fantastic day on the water. Friday afternoon our friends came over to go boating on the pontoon bar. We launched in Menasha at the Paris St boat launch and headed for Lake Winnebago.  The lake was calm with a soft wind coming out of the Southeast with 6 inch waves. We decided since it was so nice we would cruise over to High Cliff and let my daughter and her friend get some swimming time in.  The ride over was very nice and I have to admit it was fun coming back to this area. Its been well over 15 years since I have stopped at the High Cliff beach.  As you come across the lake you can easily spot the Lime Kiln ruins projecting out of the tree line at the High Cliff State Park. As we came into the bay there were 6 boats scattered around the edge of the bay.  Looked like everyone had brought the family and friends out to enjoy the day and get some water time in.  We anchored just outside of the High Cliff State Park Beach. As usual, we had snacks and drinks ready to go.  We let the girls do some swimming and playing on the inflatable donut and popsicle they brought.  I pulled out the camera and grabbed some photos of the boats and people coming into the park to hit the beach.  It really is a beautiful spot to stop. With a very nice sandy bottom beach and fantastic views. We got lucky as the algae bloom was not in the bay. It can get worse over here depending on the wind. After a few hours, we decided it was time to head back and get some dinner.  The majority vote was to go back up the river and stop at Parker Johns.  We slowly headed back along the lakeshore and checked out all the cool houses on the North Shore.  The lake had picked up to about 2 - 3ft waves. We got to see how sea worth the old pontoon bar really was.  We have discovered that it is a little nose heavy in these conditions and we needed to use the human trim tab methods to get it smoothed out.  We only dropped the nose under the waves twice.  Which got a few of our younger passengers a little nervous.  We laughed and reminded them they are sitting on 2 big bobbers and unless we put a hole in a pontoon we are not going to sink. As we pulled into the Menasha Channel the waves settled down. We ran up to the Menasha Marina and parked on the West side of Marina.  As we tied up I noticed they have about 12" cleats out here that you could tie off a tug boat with. A quick little walk up to Parker Johns and sat out on the deck overlooking the marina and filled our belly's.  Back to the boat turned on the lights and headed back to the boat launch.  Another fun little journey on the Lake Winnebago System.  Defiantly a day we will all remember for years to come. 
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  • We think this is a huge Bird House?
  • High Cliff State Park Beach
  • Pontoon Bar
  • Jet Ski on Lake Winnebago
  • Entrance into High Cliff Marina Lake Winnebago
  • Homes on North Shore Of Lake Winnebago
  • Boating in Menasha Channel
  • Menasha Damn
  • Huge boat cleats Menasha Sea Wall
  • Menasha Marina
  • Parker John's in Menasha
22

Boating into Menasha and up the river to Appleton

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It was a windy weekend with some storms. But we made the most of it and got the pontoon out and did some river runs and had a fun Sunday at Waverly Beach.  Friday night we decided to get the pontoon boat out and take a few friends.  We were going to put in at Jefferson Park in Menasha. But when we got to the launch we realized the wind was a little stronger than we thought and the launch was full of some sort of weird foam. So we went back down to Paris St Launch in Menasha.  This is a great little launch that is nice and deep right on the river.  We got the old Mercury fired up and headed towards Lake Winnebago to see how rough it was.  We made it out to the concrete channel marker on the lake and ran into about 2 - 3 ft.  So we turned around and went back up the river.  With a floating bar, we cracked open the cooler got out some snacks and enjoyed going back up the river towards downtown Menasha.  It is a nice little run. About 1.8 miles for the Lake to the Downtown Menasha Marina.  The Menasha Channel is marked very well.  You just need to stay between the buoys and you won't have any issues.  Break out of the buoys and you will hit rocks and be making a run to get your prop repaired.  There are a number of beautiful homes to check out on your way up the channel.  We ran up to the Menasha Marina and parked along the sea wall.  We sat and enjoyed the sun for about 20 minutes and started talking about what to do for diner.  We talked about running up to Parker Johns.  But the flock of 500 seagulls came off the roof of the condos and became poop bombers.  We did a quick untie and got out before we had a white poop colored boat.  It was crazy!  We started heading back towards the launch and were talking about where to get some food.  As we drove down we talked about what was close to the water.  I mentioned the Old Grog but figured we couldn't go through someone's yard to get there. As we came up the river we noticed there was a small seawall and the end of Appleton St. I have to admit we have been up the river a number of times and I have never noticed this.  Anyway, we decided to pull up and see if we could tie-up. There was a nice gentleman that lives right next door.  He told us it is about 4 -5 ft deep.  So we pulled in and tied up and walked about 1/2 block to the Old Grog. They do not have any outdoor seating, unfortunately.  So we masked up and went in to check it out.  It is a fun bar & grill. It has huge exposed old beans and a cool bar back that looks to be very old.  The staff was fun and took good care of us. The people that were in the bar were super friendly as well.  We ordered some food. Pretzel sticks, chicken strips, chicken wrap, all were ok. I had the steak sandwich which I have had in the past.  My bun was hard and the steak was overcooked and dry.  I wouldn't get it again.  I did see some fish fry plates come out that looked good. We headed back upriver and loaded the boat up and headed home.  Saturday, we offered to take some other friends out on the boat.  The weather didn't cooperate until late afternoon. We almost didn't go out.  Last-minute we decided let's go jump on Little Lake Butte Des Morts and run up the river into Appleton. We loaded up the pontoon and headed to the 9th street launch.  We turned on the tunes, popped the cooler open and got out some snacks and started our run down the Fox River, and enjoyed the views. Some fantastic homes along the river and we noticed one crazy green paddle boat. I was hoping to get to the locks but we got to the Memorial St bridge and there were no more marks on the water.  So I backed off.  With the crazy amount of current that runs into the damns in this area. I figured it was best to try this again another day.  We turned around and headed back up past the Appleton Yacht Club. This is an awesome area but again you have to stay between the buoys.  The river on the outside of the buoys is super shallow. We came back up to the little lake and hung out for a few hours enjoying the day.  We pulled the boat and called it a day.  Sunday morning our friends came back over and we headed back to the Paris St launch. We went over to Waverly Beach. It was a little rough with the wind coming out of the south. The kids had a blast with the waves and we enjoyed the band Iggy Rae Vicious playing up at the Waverly Beach bar. Overall we had a great weekend out on the Pontoon. 
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