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Northern Wisconsin river paddle trip ?

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This is probably a long shot but 3 of us, in solo canoes, are leaving tuesday morning (5/17/2022)
to head up to do a 6 day paddle on the Upper St. Croix River. Gordon Dam to hwy 70.
It has been raining hard in that area and the river level has been high but dropping slowly.
If it continues to drop we'll be OK but if they get more heavy rain we probably won't.
So the question is are there any comparable river paddles to do in Northern Wisconsin or
Michigan that we could switch to ? Meaning a multi-day river trip of Class I-II difficulty.
We're coming from NE Indiana so it's a LONG drive if the river is blown.
I've been working to get this trip together for about 5 months now and I should have
known better than to put all my eggs in one basket, to use a really old phrase.
I am continuing the trip over to LP of Michigan to meet up with a Group in the Pine River
area over Memorial Day. I'll be in the Boudary Waters for a two week Trip in Mid-Late Sept.
Larry S
on edit: I do have a good River Guide to Michigan but NOT Wisconsin. So I have been considering
a multi-day paddle/camp on the Upper Manistee River as an Alternate.
Larry
 
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Stop by Rutabaga on your way north, they should have a copy of Mike Svob's "Paddling Northern Wisconsin". If they don't I can loan ya a couple pages out of mine. Flambeau, Manitowish, Wisconsin, Tomahawk all have good camping on them for a 3 day trip. I live in Price County and we aren't supposed to get any rain here until 50% Tuesday night into Wednesday, so I bet the Flambeau will be fine if the St. Croix isn't. If all of the rivers are blown out you could spend 3 days on the Chippewa, Turtle Flambeau or Willow Flowages. They all allow motor boats but are usually pretty quiet mid-week. There's always the Sylvania Wilderness, just across the border in the UP if you end up on flat water and don't like listening to motors.

If I remember I'll take a look at the WI and the Tomahawk tomorrow. I'm not driving over the Flambeau for work until Thursday, though.
 
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Zac,
Thanks for the reply. We won't actually be getting on the water until Thursday and
the weather is not looking too bad. So I think we'll be OK. I'm thinking that I would rather that
the water be a little high rather than too low.
I am keeping an eye on the flow rates in the meantime though.
Larry S
 
This is probably a long shot but 3 of us, in solo canoes, are leaving tuesday morning (5/17/2022)
to head up to do a 6 day paddle on the Upper St. Croix River. Gordon Dam to hwy 70.
It has been raining hard in that area and the river level has been high but dropping slowly.
If it continues to drop we'll be OK but if they get more heavy rain we probably won't.
So the question is are there any comparable river paddles to do in Northern Wisconsin or
Michigan that we could switch to ? Meaning a multi-day river trip of Class I-II difficulty.
We're coming from NE Indiana so it's a LONG drive if the river is blown.
I've been working to get this trip together for about 5 months now and I should have
known better than to put all my eggs in one basket, to use a really old phrase.
I am continuing the trip over to LP of Michigan to meet up with a Group in the Pine River
area over Memorial Day. I'll be in the Boudary Waters for a two week Trip in Mid-Late Sept.
Larry S
on edit: I do have a good River Guide to Michigan but NOT Wisconsin. So I have been considering
a multi-day paddle/camp on the Upper Manistee River as an Alternate.
Larry
I’ll be at my cabin the last week of May, through June. It’s on Totogatic, a tributary of the Namekagan, which flows into the St. Croix. It’s a wild little river, not for greenhorns (CII). You’re welcome to stop by for a paddle/shuttle on either stream if still in the neighborhood. PM me if interested.
 
Tom Z , Sorry for the late reply but we went anyway and had a great time.
Water levels were about 2500-3000 cfs and I really would want to paddle
at much below that. We saw two old timer locals at the hwy 70 bridge takeout
who said that the water was "really high". Sorry, I didn't see that as most of the
rapids in the upper half below Gordon Dam were pretty well plagued with
hard to see rocks just underwater. At much lower water all those rocks that
we could get around or over would be exposed.
We saw lots of wildlife over the 6 days. Trumpeter Swans, Beavers, Otters,
Deer (no Moose). Muskrat. I'm sure I'm forgetting something here. Lots of small
birds we don't see in Indiana (American Redstart was just one).
We did have 3 days of pretty strong wind , head wind of course, but nothing
we couldn't handle. Just tiring as the wind would sometimes push us back
upstream agains the current.
Maybe a trip down the Namekagon will be in the future.
Larry S

on edit. Probably saw half a dozen Bald Eagles each day. Of course that may have been
the same few Eagles multiple times. :<)
on edit again: I forgot aabout the Osprey that hovered just above me a few times but never
swooped on a fish.
 
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Well, I hope the fish woke up for you. Still groggy here. I'm going down again today to try again, water is down about a foot, but water temps are still a tad cool. Last trip there were bald eagles everywhere. One big ol' boy swooped down and gave out a "peel" right above the boat. Bone chilling. His wingspan seemed as big as the canoe. I don't think there's moose in Wisconsin anymore, at least not free range moose. I could be wrong about that.
 
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