TRIP REPORT

Little Mississippi from Co. Rd. 5 to Rice Lake, Mississippi River and Iron Bridge at Co. Rd. 7

Jim Haskell

On June 15, 2008, I started out from County Road 5 to head down the Little Mississippi River. There is no official access there but adequate room on the shoulder of the road to park. The put-in spot is on Beltrami County Road 5 about 4 miles south of Solway, south of Trengove Road (County Road 16) and north of the Mississippi River bridge, which is approximately 1 mile further south. There is no road sign for the Little Mississippi but there is for the Mississippi. On some maps the Little Mississippi is called the Pidiwin River. This is in the Headwaters State Forest. The water level was high after some substantial early June rainfalls and there was help by a northwesterly breeze of 10-15 mph.

The first section down to Rice Lake is fairly pretty with mixed forest fairly close to the river. There are no rapids or problems following the route down to Rice Lake. I was able to skirt the few windfalls or go over them without ever having to get out of the canoe.

I utilized Minnesota DNR aerial photo bbc-36-060* taken 9/27/01. The aerial photos are particularly helpful in the meandering marsh river areas as you can get your bearings to some extent from seeing where the forests and lowlands are located. I also used the DNR Mississippi River canoe route map.

The first stretch of the trip heads southeasterly. At about the time it starts to head northeasterly you enter an area with a much wider area of marsh between the river and forests on each side. As you look east you only see high ground forest in all directions. As you proceed on it becomes apparent that there is a cut between the forested areas on the left. Before you get to the Rice Lake basin you basically follow around a peninsula of high ground keeping to the right. There are several places where one can get out onto high ground for a break before entering the Rice Lake basin. As you go around the north end of that peninsula there is an island and the channel passes to the left of it. After that you are in the Rice Lake basin you can follow the channel quite easily until it reaches the north end of Rice Lake proper. The aerial photo shows an island at the north end of Rice Lake but it hardly appears that way when you get there with only some small brush being visible.

As you head south across Rice Lake you see a large bay to the southwest corner which you should avoid and, instead, head directly to the peninsula of land on the easterly side of that bay. To get to the outlet of the lake you go around the left side of the peninsula, keeping that peninsula close on your right to the far right end of the lake where you come to a narrow channel which soon veers left around the point on the westerly side of the end of the lake to enter another area of open water which is sometimes called Little Rice Lake where the Mississippi River enters into from the southwest. The area between the two bodies of water is very difficult to visualize from maps or aerial photograph. It is fairly easy to get through with the preceding directions. The points on both east and west sides at the south end of Rice Lake are in private ownership. There is a dock on the east side.

From the south end of Rice Lake DNR photo bbc-37-061 is helpful through the giant marshland the Mississippi flows through as it heads easterly from that Little Rice Lake. As you go easterly photo ID hub-06-001 of 09-23-97 can be used followed by hub-07-0001 which covers the area to and beyond the iron bridge. After entering Little Rice Lake, the exit for both the Mississippi River and the Little Mississippi is roughly halfway down the east side on the left.

The next stretch of the trip is the most confusing of the entire Mississippi headwaters. The best time to go through this area is normally late May or June. Earlier risks the possibility of hypothermia in cold water. Since there is no high ground to get to, a capsizing (though unlikely) could be deadly. Also, by July the vegetation gets so thick as to hamper navigation. In the late May/early June time period you can follow the leaning of the grass on the bottom to help determine the direction of current. That grass is the beginning of wild rice which is truly a type of grass, rather than rice. As the summer progresses it goes through a “flop over” stage where it is tall enough to extend out of the water but lacks the strength and then later stiffens up to stand upright out of the water for the duration of the summer through a September harvesting period. (License for harvesting required.) This area is a very large marsh land with very little current to direct you and sometimes alternate possible routes. There is no way to explain what to do through that area except to try to follow the current and use maps and aerial photos to help you get an approximate idea of where you are. You will probably end up squeezing through some rushes to find open water in places. There have been times when floating bog blocks the channel but it is normally passable. The most confusing area is down to about river mile 1303. In low water the current is virtually nonexistent in that area. Even with fairly high water, the current can disappear in the broad expanse of the marsh.

From where the Little Mississippi enters the Rice Lake Basin until the iron bridge there is no public land on which to get out of your canoe or kayak. Over the entire route you see no homes or cabins except two on the east side of Rice Lake until you near the area of the Iron Bridge Campsite. That campsite has a shelter and an outhouse but no other facilities. After the campsite you see homes on each side, go past the location of the barricades where the old Iron Bridge used to be and then several hundred yards later reach the present so-called iron bridge (concrete) at Beltrami County Road 7 where there is an official canoe access and small parking area on the southwest side. The access is rather muddy and not feasibly a boat trailer access.

It took me five hours of mostly easily paddling to complete this approximately 17-mile stretch of river and lake with the help of reasonable current and significant breeze behind.

It is interesting to note that the Rice Lake area can be entered from four different starting points: up from the Iron Bridge or downriver from Pine Point on the Mississippi River, down the Little Mississippi River and down Grant Creek which enters from the northeast. Some maps show the Little Mississippi and Grant Creek meeting a short distance north of Rice Lake and others show them independently entering Rice Lake. There is no place where you distinctly see one channel meeting the other as they come together in what I have referred to here as the Rice Lake basin, a large marshy area.

All in all, this makes for an interesting day trip with the combination of forest-lined river, lake paddling and finding ones way through the big swamp. The only real problem on this trip is the last segment. People have sometimes gotten lost and had to call for help. There is the possibility of a floating bog-blocked channel, though there would normally be alternate ways through given time. It is recommended to start early in the day in case of problems. A night in a canoe would not be fun! You would not want to make this trip in low water or later summer conditions. For a full-day trip you can start upriver at Moose Lake for a very pretty stretch down to County Road 5, though it is also important to avoid low water conditions in that stretch.

*Although they may be different from the photos Jim used, aerial photos can be found at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/forestview/view.html?app=inventory

The river map can be found at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/az.html