Little Mississippi River - May 3

As part of the Headwaters Canoe Club cruise schedule, I'm leading a cruise down the Little Mississippi River and up Grant Creek next Saturday, May 3. The plan is to start at Moose Lake at noon. Access to Moose Lake is from Clearwater County Road 2. I'll check out the lake before Saturday. If it's still iced in, we'll start on Beltrami County Road 5. Moose Lake to the take out (the first road upstream on Grant Creek from Rice Lake) is 13 miles.

The Little Mississippi is one of the most beautiful little streams in the area. From Moose Lake to County Road 5, it flows through pine forest, all public land, so it is undeveloped. It has one or two obstacles - beaver dams or windthrows - that involve lifting over or drag the boat around. The bottom is sandy and it should have some flow to it after all this snow. You can't do this river very well in midsummer (due to water levels), so get it while the getting's good.

From County Road 5 to Rice Lake is swampy. This time of the year, when the lakes are still frozen over, should be prime waterfowl watching. We expect to see all species of ducks, plus geese, swans, great blue herons, eagles, maybe egrets and other things. Going from Rice Lake, up Grant Creek to the take out should be more of the same. Going against the current should not be a problem through that swamp.

This trip will reveal the most remote and unvisited area of the Mississippi Headwaters State Forest. If you want to go, let me know at Headwaterscanoeclub@yahoo.com

Harvey

Iron Bridge to Fern Lake Road

The Headwaters Canoe Club 2008 paddling season got off to a good start on Sunday, April 20, 2008 with 6 canoes heading down the Mississippi from the Iron Bridge canoe landing starting at 1 pm for Fern Lake Rd SW. The weather was 50 ish, overcast and breezy against us some of the way. The ice just went out on this stretch about a week before.

The first mile or so winds through a marshy area and then through a mixture of high ground pine and birch land with limited residential development, marshes and some farm land.

This is a fairly easy route, reasonably safe for a cold water Spring trip. There is modestly moving current but very few windfalls, no rapids or bottom dragging. There are a few places where one could (and we did) go into a dead end or two. One of those is early on where a switchback to the left takes you back to almost where you were but it looks promising to stay to the right on the way back instead of following the correct channel which goes left. There is one later on where you can circle around to the left close to land and end at the same spot (maybe the circle river of the Paul Bunyan tale!). But one cannot go far off the route unless you head off to the right into a big slough about a mile into the trip instead of veering left where the river heads to the northeast after the generally southerly start. There are some sharp turns where the current wants to push you to the shore, but with few deadfall trees, there is little danger. The trip takes about 2 hours for the approximately 6 mile paddle .

Everyone enjoyed this nice season starter trip.