upper mississippi canoe trip

[bcon2005]

Just curious if anyone is familiar with a good area to canoe on the upper Mississippi? My daughter and I were planning on going to BW again with her new cedar strip, but it is not going to be done until next week and school will be starting...so looking at an alternate trip for a two day float over long weekend.

thanks

bcon

[Chisox]

I have taken my kids (4 & 8) down the upper miss. from the Crow River down to where the Rum dumps in. We have spent the the night on one of the islands and had a ball. You do not see many people until you get down closer to Anoka and there is a ton of wildlife to see and the fishing is pretty darn good also.

[bcon2005]

thanks chisox;

I was hoping that this area might be a good bet for a trip,was not sure how big the river was in this area (wide) etc... Also, can you just camp wherever, or do you need to stay on specific sites?

thanks

bcon

[Cyberfish]

Me and Calvinist had a great time floating down the river last weekend, started near montecello and landed in elk river.

I wouldn't recommend doing it with a new cedar canoe unless you want lots of scratches in it. the water is so low and there is lots of shallow rocky sections. Ues cheap canoes or kayaks. Bring a fishin pole, lots of bass biting! have fun!

[ghotierman]

We started in Itasca last fall...did 18.5 miles..then another 22 miles in June. The DNR has canoe route maps for the entire stretch..from the Headwaters to the Iowa border...it is a series of about 15-18 maps. Contact the DNR information center...the maps and information are free. They mark the river miles, campsites...route information...great resource.

I'd also recommend another book call "Paddling Minnesota" by a former DNR hydrologist....has numerous routes and daytrips for several rivers in Minnesota..divided by region.

Good luck and good paddling.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I'll side with Cyberfish. We canoed from Monti to Otsego on Saturday and you'd trash a cedar canoe. Luckily my Grumman "tank" can take a beating. The water is really low right now. Otherwise, it's a nice area to canoe. I'll be doing it again.

[Chisox]

The portion from the Crow to Anoka is not to bad for the new cedar canoe. There is a couple of low spots but it is not as bad as up by Ostego (floated that last week end). We just picked the first island down from the Crow, I know that around Cloquet island and the island accross the river from it are two good places to camp.

[bcon2005]

Thanks for the "heads up" on the water level / canoe issue. Puts me in a bit of a fix as I absolutely do not want my daughters canoe to get trashed. Will try to figure something out. We have an aluminum Osagion, but as you can imagine, she has been working with me on the cedar canoe since February and wants to get it out on the water in the worst way. Regardless, tomorrow we put together the in/outwales and hopefully on Wed. glass in the flotation chambers, will be glad to finally paddle this thing.

thanks

bcon

[Ralph Wiggum]

How far north do you want to go? The stretch above the Sartell Dam is pretty friendly and I wouldn't hesitate to take it there.

[so haaad]

Maybe you should hit the St. Croix instead. The area from Taylors Falls to Stillwater is a very nice paddle and lots of camping options along the way.

[bcon2005]

Could a person float from the 7 islands campsite (looking at a map now) to Sartell in 2 days? Good water levels? fishing? and is there a service that would either take us back to our truck or take our truck down to our ending point for us?

thanks

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