korygrandy
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2010
- Messages
- 698
My dad and I had an awesome time boating on Sunday. We launched west of St. Paul on the Mighty Muddy Mississippi. We headed east under the 35E bridge, past downtown Saint Paul, under the 7th st bridge and than the Hwy 52 bridge. Seeing downtown St. Paul from the river is an awesome experience and I recommend new boaters check it out.
It took a couple hours to reach the Mississippi Lock #2. This was a new experience for me but nothing to worry about. There are sings stating "Pull rope for lockage" but I didn't see any ropes. There was another boat behind me that had radiod the lock operator and all was well. When the red flashing lights turned green and the lock doors opened I entered and was tossed a rope to hold onto as we went down the lock. It took roughly 20minutes to pass through the locks with only 2 other boats in there with us.
Once we reached Hastings we headed north on the St. Croix to find a restroom. This is a very popular spot for boats to anchor and hang out for the day. I believe the busiest part of the river. You will immidiately know you are on the St. Croix as the water is much cleaner than the muddy Mississippi. There is a Hastings beach where we were able to quickly use the beach restrooms. We then fueled up at Loui's, my dad grabbed a cold one and we headed out back up river.
We had to wait roughly an hour for 9 barges and the tug to clear the lock. They first lower the barges, close the gates and lower the tug behind it.
On our way back up river we briefly took a detour on the Minnesota River so we could say we were on Minnesota's 3 largest rivers in 1 day.
There was a decent current at the launch which made retrieving a bit trick but my dad was able to hit the bunks sideways and I maneuvered the boat straight and onto the bunks with little effort.
These million dollar views were absolutely amazing.
Suggestions for other boaters: wear sunscreen, keep it between the navigational bouy's and keep an eye out for floating logs (I saw about 4) of them and hit a deadwood at low speed which thankfully didnt do any damage at all.
All in all it took us 6 hours and roughly 20gallons of fuel to complete the route we took. The mississippi really wasn't busy at all at 10am and didn't get as busy as I recall the St. Croix being.
Here are the pics:
Launching
It took a couple hours to reach the Mississippi Lock #2. This was a new experience for me but nothing to worry about. There are sings stating "Pull rope for lockage" but I didn't see any ropes. There was another boat behind me that had radiod the lock operator and all was well. When the red flashing lights turned green and the lock doors opened I entered and was tossed a rope to hold onto as we went down the lock. It took roughly 20minutes to pass through the locks with only 2 other boats in there with us.
Once we reached Hastings we headed north on the St. Croix to find a restroom. This is a very popular spot for boats to anchor and hang out for the day. I believe the busiest part of the river. You will immidiately know you are on the St. Croix as the water is much cleaner than the muddy Mississippi. There is a Hastings beach where we were able to quickly use the beach restrooms. We then fueled up at Loui's, my dad grabbed a cold one and we headed out back up river.
We had to wait roughly an hour for 9 barges and the tug to clear the lock. They first lower the barges, close the gates and lower the tug behind it.
On our way back up river we briefly took a detour on the Minnesota River so we could say we were on Minnesota's 3 largest rivers in 1 day.
There was a decent current at the launch which made retrieving a bit trick but my dad was able to hit the bunks sideways and I maneuvered the boat straight and onto the bunks with little effort.
These million dollar views were absolutely amazing.
Suggestions for other boaters: wear sunscreen, keep it between the navigational bouy's and keep an eye out for floating logs (I saw about 4) of them and hit a deadwood at low speed which thankfully didnt do any damage at all.
All in all it took us 6 hours and roughly 20gallons of fuel to complete the route we took. The mississippi really wasn't busy at all at 10am and didn't get as busy as I recall the St. Croix being.
Here are the pics:
Launching
