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.