I have been canoeing for nearly my entire life. I started out by doing day trips with my family on our local river. After graduating from college I really got into paddling in a big way (whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking, and canoeing).
During my working years, I spent most of my vacation and weekends paddling some craft or another. Wisconsin is my home state. If you can name a river in northern Wisconsin, I've probably paddled it. I've also paddled rivers in other states such as MI, MN, IA, TN, WV, PA,NC, FL, AL, MO, AR, TX, AZ, UT, MT, and ID.
Canoe tripping on wilderness rivers is my passion. I've done over 50 trips in Alaska and Canada adding up to nearly 2 years of time.
During early pandemic times, I started following various paddlers on RU-vid. I thought to myself "I can do that", so I bought a GoPro and a drone and started my own RU-vid channel.
Amazing how they start out so small...l live about an hour away from the start of the mighty mississippi river where you can step across without getting your ankles wet...
I really like your videos. Noticed it has been a couple of years since you posted. I have fished and paddled many of the areas you explore including the Paint River, Wisconsin River and the Sylvania Wilderness. Hope you are doing OK and will do more videos in the future.
I plan on doing this stretch soon. Can you answer, are some sandbars off limits for camping? How are the landowners in general? I'm always courteous and leave no trace.
Here is a link to a description of the Irving to Melrose section from wisconsintrailguide.com: wisconsintrailguide.com/paddle/black-river-hansen.html. It says in part "The lower Black is well-known for its large number of inviting, sandy beaches and its shallow, sandy river bottom. Overnight camping on any of the beaches is fun and free."
We did the trip the weekend of April 13th it was a great experience, paddled 12 miles to a group of islands and stayed the night there. Took off at 9am the next morning, about 8 miles in the river was an intense maze of rocks and boulders to dodge lasting until mile 10 of day 2. Made it to the west branch around noon. Hit sandstone falls and was shocked at the size of the waves! Looked way smaller in your video than in real life, water level was pretty much the same as when you went. Got stuck on rocks trying to go around the falls. Made it to the chute and it went smoothly just got really wet, took a while to get to the boat launch from the back of the reservoir as it was windy. I’ll never forget this trip! I hope you can make more canoeing videos in the future!
😅😅you most definitely earned the like. Obviously not from here. You just did what we've olny talked about doing for 55 years. You almost got to head down to Eagle River to get the manicured shoreline and river treatment.👍
Surprised I was able to find a good video of this trip! Awesome footage! planning on doing this trip with a friend(we are 15 years old) and I actually live right in Ewen and I’ve been wanting to float this river for a long time but I was always scared about capsizing with all of my camping gear and important equipment on board, but now I know there aren’t any impassible rapids and camping areas are plentiful. Thank you!
Are you still filming your trips? I enjoy them watch them in the winter when I can’t paddle myself. How are you liking your SRT? I recently purchased a Phoenix and frequently paddle the Flambeau as one of the take outs is a mile away.
Life got in the way this year, so I haven't been able to do much paddling in 2023. I do however have a big backlog of videos I need to edit from trips I did in 2022 (e.g. Missouri/Arkansas, Texas/Mexico, several trips in northern Wisconsin, and 4 trips to Ontario). Hopefully I'll have some time to do some editing this fall/winter. I like my SRT on rivers where I don't have to worry about bashing into rocks or dragging over gravel, but I feel like I have to baby it. I have a couple of friends that have a Phoenix. I slightly prefer the way the Phoenix handles over the SRT and I really like Northstar's IXP layup. I wish I could meld the volume of the SRT with the handling and IXP layup of the Phoenix.
@@dunordable my Phoenix is in IXP as well as my B17 and Northwind Solo that I’m selling right now. Very durable layup I know a guy who paddles an Ocoee in that layup up to class 4. Wish I could go on the trips you have. Looking forward to those videos.
Thanks for doing this video, lots of good information! Would you happen to have any further video of the small rapids section at Hawk Island? They look tame but, it’s nice to know ahead of time just to get a general feel. We are going to do two nights of canoe camping in a few weeks, 1st timers, but will be with another couple who’s been going to the boundary waters for over 30 years.
I didn't save my unedited video, so I don't have any more video of the small rapids by Hawk Island. When I ran this section, the water level was pretty low (~250cfs), so this rapids was very tame. The waves likely get bigger at higher water levels. But there is not a lot of gradient here, so it's likely OK unless water levels get crazy high. I see the Wisconsin Trails Guide recommends levels between 200cfs and 3000cfs: wisconsintrailguide.com/paddle/black-river-cormican.html You can check the water levels here: waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/053813595 Have fun on your trip.
I did the same trip years ago, bumming in a Grumman 17’ canoe with an angler friend. It was a great trip. We had every campsite to ourselves. We paddled Trego lake you bypassed. We ran out of food and had to share a can of sardines at the end of our 5 day float. I would do this trip again but never solo ever. We did it with NO BEER! Thanks for sharing. Tip: take an outdoor cooking course!
Another great video. Thanks for showing and discussing the Hemlock runs and why you decided to portage. I'd do the same. I look forward to more of your videos.
I enjoy your videos! I especially love the sound of the rivers and your approach to canoeing. I appreciate the audio without the canned music that so many others use.
Beautiful! Have to add this one to my list. I would love to see more video of camp. Setting up, gear, cooking, processing wood, camp fire, breakfast, etc.
I'm intrigued by your comment. I've often wondered how much camp/non-paddling content to include in my videos. I've picked up some some useful tips and tricks by watching other's videos, so I get your point. I can see that you and I subscribe to a lot of the same canoeing/camping RU-vid channels. For example, I've probably seen Jim Baird set up his tent a hundred times and Jonathan from Lost Lakes build dozens of fires by now. After a while, I've felt that the around camp stuff tends to get somewhat repetitive. As such, I made a somewhat conscious decision to focus more on rivers and places in my videos rather than focusing on me or camp skills. I figured others had the topic of camp skills covered quite well in their videos, so why should I bother. That being said, there are a couple of pieces of gear and techniques that I use that, while not totally unique, are somewhat uncommon. So maybe I'll try to include those in future videos. I can also see how the around camp stuff helps to convey the overall "experience", so maybe others might be interested as well. Thanks for the tip/suggestion.
Nice video. At first I thought it was the Michigan LP Pine that also crosses a Hwy-55. Looks like a fun river. I'll have to run it someday. What time of year would you recommend for it?
The Pine in northeastern Wisconsin is primarily a spring time run. There are parts of it that are runnable all summer. For example, the Oxbo section near County N is very popular on summer weekends. There are also some other quiet/moving water sections that are runnable for longer periods of time. But the parts I really like, i.e. the parts with long stretches of class 1 to 2 rapids,are typically only runnable in the spring or after prolonged periods of heavy rain. It was a relatively rare treat to be able to run the section from Hwy 55 to Goodman Grade in the early fall as depicted in the video. There is a USGS gage on the Pine, but it’s downstream of a dam. I tend to look at the gage on the nearby Popple river instead. A reading of 175cfs or more (and preferably rising) on the Popple gage usually means the Pine will be good.
@@dunordable thank you. Very useful information. I ran the Brule last Spring and uploaded a video of that. Perhaps I'll run the Pine this Spring. I enjoy your videos. Keep it up.
I and a friend just did the Brule from the lake source to the US2 bridge. Four days, three nights. A fantastic trip, and very primative. First three days hot and sunny, last day pouring rain. I'd love to do it again.
I didn't make it to the Brule this year. I've been checking the USGS gage online and the water level has been low all summer. You must have done some bumping and scraping on the way.
@@dunordable Just saw the message. Been out of contact for a week. I'll double check my maps tomorrow and try to remember..... It's been a decade......or two. I've paddled it below the old 41 bridge.
@@dunordable I never paddled it before mid May. Last time I was there was probably late 90’s early June. It had enough water to run from old 141 to the access below Snake rapids. At the old 141 bridge the river is a narrow rocky class II. There is an access about 3 river miles below that at the end of a winding logging rd at a small lake. The road was always ok, but there are side roads that look to head to the river but end in bogs. One crossed the river at what appeared to be an old dam site. I could paddle upstream almost to the old 141 bridge from that upper access. The lower access is/was a decent road that could be reached from Amasa. It was a good road compared to the upper access. I recall portaging Chipmunk Falls, but running Snake rapids…………..but don’t hold me to that. I can’t find my old Iron County map which had the forest road numbers. The North branch of the Paint, which is reconstructed from being channeled in the early logging days (as well as the south branch which I’ve paddled maybe a half dozen times from Forest Rd 3470) is one of my favorite runs in the UP. If you haven’t, check out the Little Indian River from its headwaters at the Wide Waters Campground off of H13, south of Munising, to Steuben. Below Steuben it is one continuous log jamb. Beautiful winding stream.
@@jeffmatthews3798 I have pretty good topo maps of the Net River. The roads aren't all named or numbered, but I think I can tell what you're talking about. I paddled the (Little) Indian in June of this year. I put in about 5 miles downstream of the Wide Waters Campground at Tommy Page Landing and took out at the Thunder Lake Road Landing near Steuben. You're right, it is a beautiful winding stream. Unfortunately, I didn't really take enough video to make it worthwhile to post on my RU-vid channel. I walked in and looked at it at the Indian River Campground downstream of Steuben. Like you said, it appeared to have a lot of downed trees there.
Love the north branch. Historically interesting for its ‘restoration’. Tackle the south branch n you can. A great example of a rebuilt steam from its early logging days. Thanks for the effort.
I did a stretch of that River down to the DNR campground on Highway 2 love the fishing and how the water goes from Rapids to calm pools I caught three species of trout too. Also has interesting aquatic vegetation
Moose are very rare in Wisconsin, so I’ve never seen one in Wisconsin. But I just got back from a trip on the Spanish River in Ontario where I did see a cow moose with 2 calves swim across the river in front of me. I’ve also seen moose on other trips in Canada.
I carry a small 200cc motorcycle on a rack on the back of my truck. I drop my canoe and equipment at the put-in and then drive my truck to the take-out and then ride the motorcycle back to the put-in.
