the chain down town?

[chuckwagon]

Can anyone give me a few tips on paddling the chain of lakes downtown this spring? I am wondering about good places to park and if there are any nice places to put the canoe in at? My wife and I are just slow casual paddlers wanting to enjoy some time on the chain. Thanks for the help in advance!

[goblueM]

you can put it most anywhere. I usually park on the west side of Calhoun and put in where they dock the weedeater, there's a inlet pipe and a little gravel area. You can put in at Isles as well on the south side near where it goes into Calhoun

[gatorslayer]

East side of Calhoun usually has a place for you to park,maybe you can canoe to cedar and lake of the ilses from there,don't think you can make harriett.

[Quetico]

I've never paddled the chain but will be spending a great amount of time doing so this spring. I'll likely park on the south east side of Calhoun by 36th street.

I'm doing the City of Lakes Triloppet which starts on Calhoun and goes up the chain. I want a good feel for the chain before paddling it in a race.

[SkunkedAgain]

You can paddle from Calhoun to Isles to Cedar, and even into tiny Brownie Lake. You have to canoe through a concrete tunnel but it's a neat little lake.

[bobbymalone]

I'm kind of surprised there is navigable water between these lakes.

[Duffman]

The water levels should be fine this spring for paddling to and from all the lakes. The lakes see quite a bit of paddling traffic, a lot of folks rent the parks canoes and kayaks. Especially once school is out. A lot of rookies ramming shoreline.

I usually look for an open parking spot closest to the water.

Keep your head on a swivel when loading and unloading, not only for car traffic, but the non-vehicle traffic can be quite thick on a nice day. Crossing the bike trail is more of a challenge than the road.

[Powerstroke]

I park on Cedar Lake cause its less popular. You can slide into Brownie lake and paddle down the chain from there through Isles and Calhoun. A great little trip.

Let me know if you want to make a trip out of it Chuck. I bet I could drag Becky and the girls along. They would love it. Lots of places to take lunch and fish from the boats or shore.

[titelines]

We usually park along the parkway around Isles. Seems to be less traffic there.

There is also an access on Cedar lake, with a little parking lot. It's on the west side of the lake, off of the parkway, and is a lot safer than dodging traffic. Just park and walk down to where the fishing pier is.

We've paddled around all these lakes a few times. It is very cool to be almost in the heart of downtown, but you feel like you're a million miles away sometimes.