Anyone looking for a Nebraska canoeing
challenge need look no further that the Dismal River, a short,
Sandhills river that flows 80 miles to feed the Middle Loup River
at Dunning. It is the most untamed and undeveloped of Nebraska
rivers and is part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
True to its name the Dismal is a difficult river to navigate,
and novices should not attempt it. The Dismal runs deep and fast,
is tremendously winding, has many areas of heavy deadfall and
the occasional tangle of loose barbed wire.
Springs are prevalent along the Dismal River, and emit water so
fast that they seem to "boil" out of the ground. Waders
should never go it alone on this river; some springs are more
than 100 feet deep, and the water is exceedingly cold. And there
are also scattered patches of quicksand.
Where the Dismal flows through the deep, narrow walls of Sandhills
canyons the hills rise more than 150 feet above the water. Farther
downriver the valley is broad and the Dismal spreads wide into
the marshes of the floodplain, where the deer, beavers and coyotes
make their home.
