Touring Busse Woods Reservoir in Busse Woods Forest Preserve: Rated as one of the best lakes for paddlers in the Chicagoland area, Busse Woods offers a lot to explore for beginner paddlers looking for a quiet lake to paddle.…
Browsing Tag
Paddle Report
CCC Bridge to Burnt Bridge: While much tamer than the raucous stuff for which the Peshtigo River is known for, this trip has several fun stretches of continuous Class I-II rapids nonetheless – all in a secluded national forest…
Rustic Drive to County Road H: Branching out on some eastern Wisconsin water, this trip aimed to travel not just one, but two branches of the Milwaukee by way of the main stem. With a convenient bike shuttle along…
Bobcat Lane to Paoli: A return trip to reflect the many updates, improvements, and changes that have occurred in the last decade, this segment of the upper Sugar River is vastly better than what it used to be –…
U Avenue to Eldorado: A trifecta paddle that comprises three separate but interrelated rivers in one long day trip, this mini odyssey begins with unabashed grandeur, but soon fizzles and never matches its initial enchantment. Alternate accesses allow paddlers…
Fayette to Heron Road: A truly exquisite experience, this section of the beguiling Volga River will be hard to catch with enough water to paddle, but oh so worth it when serendipity presents itself! Almost entirely enclosed within public…
Touring the Lower Cache River Swamp Trail: A veritable bayou trip down near the southernmost tip of Illinois, this section of the big Cache River is renowned for its breathtaking cypress and tupelo trees, some of which are 40′…
Galena to Mississippi River: A fairly primitive yet tidy trip, this last leg of the Galena River starts in its historic namesake city and then ends in a side channel of the Mississippi River. While the current is next…
West Council Hill Road to Galena: A hinge trip that comprises two opposites – first, a rugged and ragged landscape teeming with bluffs, rock outcrops, and galloping riffles, then a kind of makeover landscape approaching the quaint town of…
Elba to Highway 74: A very pretty and intimate little stream, this creek-like river courses through large swaths of public land corridors and is surrounded by tall, attractive hills. Water levels are usually reliable, but this stream is more…
Iverson Bridge Road to Kumpf Access: A wonderful finale to the mighty Upper Iowa, this section of the river begins and ends with excellent accesses and sublime bluffs unlike any other. In the nine miles between, paddlers will be…
Lower Dam to Iverson Bridge Road: A veritable journey into the very heart and soul of the Upper Iowa River, this long day trip can be shortened by using one of several alternative accesses. I can’t promise that you’ll…
Malanaphy Springs to Trout Run Park: Arguably the most ignored section on the Upper Iowa River relative Decorah, this trip does have its dull moments and lots of development, but it has a lot to offer, too, by way…
Highway 61 to Bay Point Park: A smorgasbord paddle that courses through the Cannon River bottomlands after an encore performance of bluffs before quietly slipping into the Mississippi River backwaters, this scenic trip packs enough for a long weekend…but…
Welch to Highway 61: A languorous segment of the Cannon River featuring stately bluffs, occasional rock outcrops, and a sizeable stretch of public land and little development, there’s a lot to like about this short trip. There’s also a…
Theilman to Kruger: A wider and slightly slower segment than those upstream, the salient premium on this trip is scenery and isolation through a huge swath of public land, not to mention the visible change in landscape as the…
Millville to Theilman: Swift riffles past sweeps of bluffs one after another, this trip down the Zumbro through the heart of a somewhat undeveloped valley is positively engaging. Nasty snags left behind from former floods lie here and there…
County Road 7 to Zumbro Falls: Practically a primer for the more fabulous features found downstream, this trip is a very pleasant paddle nonetheless, featuring good wildlife opportunities, the beginning of bluff lands, some fun riffles, gravel bars and…
Otter Rapids Dam to County Road O: This trip on the upper Wisconsin River is one of the DNR’s six recommended routes located within the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, and it comes with two very distinct personalities. The…
Millville to Cassville Ferry Landing: The final five miles of the Turkey River to its mouth at the mighty Mississippi, this short trip offers paddlers a small but bite-sized smorgasbord of cool riverine features like soaring bluffs, exposed outcrops,…
Tessmer Canoe Access to Gilbertson Park: With long, lean hillsides, occasional flashes of limestone outcrops, and a peppy current coursing over a sand-gravel bottom, this under-paddled segment of the Turkey River is well worth a peek and a poke.…
Touring Grand Island to Miners Beach at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: A two-for-one buffet of some of the prettiest paddling anywhere in the Upper Midwest, this double-feature starring Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan offers kayakers an…
Skokie River Dam to Bunker Hill Bridge: The location of the legendary Chicago River along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan was key to establishing native American, fur trader and later European settlements in its namesake city that would…
Cameron Crossing Bridge to Au Train Heritage Landing A truly splendiferous (and serendipitous) paddle through the outskirts of the Hiawatha National Forest between Marquette and Munising in the north-central nub of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this trip features extraordinary clear…
Highway 55 to Highway 139: A truly enchanting landscape surrounding a creek-like river, this trip down the borderline Brule is simply terrific and, in our opinion, worth whatever logistical hassles it may incur. Paddlers will be rewarded with clear,…
Parsley Bridge to Lanesboro Access: A simply stunning escape deep in the heart of the Minnesota Driftless Area that is abound in towering bluffs lush with exquisite limestone outcrops, rolling hills and miles of undeveloped public land. These two…
185th Street to Highway Y31: For the sake of brevity and bang-for-your-buck alone, this clip on the Maquoketa River’s North Fork is second to none. Astounding natural beauty and an atypical sense of wildness (for Iowa) make this trip…
Steuben to Plum Creek Road Another wonderful daytrip down the lower Kickapoo, away from the hoo-ha and hoi polloi of the more popular segments upstream, this trip makes for a full outing of uninterrupted beauty along rolling hills, wooded…
Columbus to Astico Park: A far more interesting paddle than I ever expected due to a surprising amount of variety – provided, you enjoy some wide-river paddling. The first half is narrow and intimate with easily-navigable deadfall followed by…
Elkader to Garber: With wooded ridges and robust bluffs lined down the river one after another, together with limestone rock outcrops, enormous boulders, frisky riffles, a dedicated Class I-II rapid at the put-in, a gorgeous historic mill building midway,…