Namekagon Overnight Paddle
Minong, WI
This trip held a lot of firsts for us - first camping outing of 2019, first overnight paddle (ever), first time using the majority of our equipment, and first time being truly alone overnight in the wild without anyone else around. We’ve done plenty of day trips down the Namekagon in canoes, kayaks, and tubes, and each time we’ve admired the riverside campsites only to head home after the float was over. The privacy, the scenery, the sound of the river, needless to say we can’t believe it has taken us this long to get out here and do this!
Now for some logistics - the Namekagon is a tributary of the Saint Croix River, and is part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway managed by the National Park Service. Since it was designated as a protected area in 1968, a large number of man-made structures have been removed from the river’s course in attempt to return the river to a “near-original state”. It is almost 100 miles long in its entirety, starting from Lake Namakagon in Bayfield County (yes the spelling is different), and flowing southwest until it joins with the St. Croix River. All the campsites along the river are primitive and are provided on a first come, first served basis. Each site has a tent pad, fire ring, and rustic toilet, and the majority of the sites are accessible by river only.
We left Minneapolis around 7:30 Saturday morning, hopped on the highway, and headed north. The weather forecast was looking great and we were itching to get on the river. We have gradually been accumulating backpacking gear over the last year or so, and while we still have a little ways to go, we have enough to get out there and start testing things out! Our newest editions include our 65L and 60L packs, as well as a variety of dry sacs and compression bags to keep things small, organized, and water-free (because a wet sleeping bag sounds absolutely miserable). Our first stop was Joe’s family cabin to pick up a few things we needed to borrow for our trip. We loaded our packs, paddles, drinking water (we haven’t sprung for a water filter quite yet), and firewood (don’t worry! It was collected within 25 miles) into the car and strapped the canoe onto the roof of the Kia (which went surprisingly well). And then we were off! We drove the Kia to County K landing, unloaded our gear, and got out on the water.
It was a beautiful, perfect day to be out on the water - sunny, in the 70’s, and a slight breeze. Our start could have gone a little smoother…we ended up having to pull over and rearrange the canoe, and with the water being so high we encountered quite a few sections of rapids as well as downed trees and obstacles! Luckily we didn’t capsize and we made it through with some grace, and then the river calmed down. We took our time making our way down the river, snapping pictures, lying back in the canoe, and keeping a close eye on the shoreline looking for wildlife. We saw a beaver, a few deer, a muskrat, lots of ducks, a bald eagle, and even a river otter! We were lucky enough to get pretty close to the otter, we watched him dive a few times, then he turned around and we spooked him. We got out at Whispering Pines landing to stretch our legs and take a break from paddling. We hadn’t seen another person since we got on the river, and it was nice to have the place to ourselves. We hopped back in the canoe and continued on towards our campsite.
At around 3:30 we arrived at our destination for the night, campsite N16.5. This campsite is situated right on a bend so we were surrounded by the river on three sides, and had a pretty view of the high sandy banks on the opposite side. We unloaded our gear, set up camp, and explored the area around our site. There were some short trails that led from the campsite into the woods around the riverbend with some pretty views of the landscape surrounding us. We set up our hammocks and lounged around for a while, taking in the sights and sounds of the river, reading our books, and enjoying some Summer Shandys.
Around 6:30 we started a fire and started working on dinner. We brought along a dehydrated meal from REI, which sadly did not turn out as we hoped - better luck next time I guess! The fire also seemed like it just wasn’t meant to be…it seems it’s hard to keep a fire going with damp wood. After dinner we settled into a game of cribbage, which Joe wants to point out he won, and skunked Ashley in the process. Our next challenge was getting our food bag hung up in the tree - this took several tries and a little creativity, since neither of us could remember exactly how to do it - haha! Either way we got it up there, although a little more practice could do us some good. We settled into our sleeping bags and finished our cribbage game, and as we were falling asleep we kept hearing a strange noise, which sounded something like “ker-plunk”, sort of like someone was throwing a big rock in the river, and it sounded like it was very close to us. On the way home we ended up looking this up, and we’re 99% sure that the sound was a beaver slapping its tail!
It was a chilly night - I think the fact that it was such a beautiful day on Saturday deceived us into thinking it would be pretty mild overnight. We definitely under packed for clothes and we brought our thinner sleeping pads, which definitely didn’t provide enough insulation from the cold ground! Either way, lesson learned. That’s what trial runs are for, right? We got up, started picking up camp and repacking our packs, and got our stove going for some instant coffee (which was actually really good). While sipping on our coffee, we thumbed through our adventure journal and read a few entries to reminisce. We started journaling all of our outdoor adventures since our trip to Colorado in the fall, and boy was it fun to look back on what we have explored so far. We worked a little bit on our journal entry for this trip, loaded everything in the canoe, and took off heading for McDowell landing.
It was a quiet paddle back to our exit point and a really pretty stretch of the river with tall, sandy banks spotted with pines. We saw more ducks including a wood duck, two muskrats playing, and no beavers although we did see evidence of their hard work gnawing on trees! We landed at McDowell a little after 9am, and after a borderline graceful landing, unloaded the canoe. Holly picked us up at the landing, and drove Joe back to the Kia at County K, while I waited patiently for him to return (and may I add, it had started raining at this point!) Luckily we perfected how to strap the canoe onto the Kia the day before, because things went pretty quick loading everything up. Next we rewarded ourselves by stopping in a local pub and trying their Bloody Mary.
We decided to end each blog post by talking about our favorite parts of the trip, and what we would do differently next time. We both agreed that our favorite part of the trip was the feeling of getting out into nature overnight for the first time since last fall, and feeling like we had the whole river to ourselves. As far as what we would do differently? Well, there were a few things that could have gone better, including making sure to bring dry wood and pack clothes for all temperatures even when you’re only going out for one night!
We just want to say thanks so much for stopping by to check out our first blog post! We hope you enjoyed reading about our trip down the beautiful Namekagon.
Head over to the gallery here to see more pictures from our adventure.
Give credit where credit is due! Sources:
https://www.nps.gov/sacn/planyourvisit/namekagon-river.htm http://wisconsintrailguide.com/paddle/namekagon-river.html