Black River Narrows Trip Report

By guest blogger John Hart The temperature dipped little by little, hour by hour as I drew closer to the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With every drop in temperature my excitement ticked up a notch, knowing I was getting closer to the start of an amazing […]

Another Go at the Peshtigo

If you love rivers you need to experience the Peshtigo. My first experience was some 10 years ago in a two-person raft my wife and I rented at Kosir’s Rapid Rafts, the oldest whitewater outfitter in Wisconsin. We returned to the Peshtigo this past Saturday for another go — Mary […]

A Sticky Situation at the Monastery

Monastery Falls (also known as Novitiate) on Wisconsin’s Red River cascades ten feet in elevation over a distance of 200 feet. The second drop can sometimes be sticky. Some say sucky. Before launching last evening with the Tuesday evening regulars from NEWP, I handed my video camera to Angela to […]

Lester River Race

For the past three years I’ve wanted to be in Duluth, MN during the annual whitewater race on the Lester River. I’ve seen photos and videos of expert kayakers negotiating the class IV and V features of this challenging river, and it looked like there were good observation points for […]

Prairie Paddling: Whitewater Comes to Iowa

When it comes to having an eye on the future, three towns in Iowa have their stuff together. Charles City, Manchester and Elkader each have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to create whitewater parks. For someone who spent his first 30 years in Iowa, this is an amazing development […]

Indoor Kayak Training

Now that rivers are icing up in the Upper Midwest, it may finally be time to declare the end of the 2015 late-fall, early-winter whitewater paddling season. Some hardy sea kayakers will still be at it wherever they can find open water. While most kayakers wait for warmer weather, pool […]

Three Great Days of Boating in Mid-December

Editor’s note: Rob Smage is an accomplished Midwest whitewater paddler and author of many river reports on the American Whitewater website. He was also one of my mentors during my early ventures into whitewater kayaking. The following guest blog post came my way today via Tony Cantania, a fellow protégé […]

Video of this year’s Door County Sea Kayak Symposium

Each year the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium (DCSKS) takes place during the second weekend of July at Rowley’s Bay near the northern end of Wisconsin’s Door County. In the 2015 edition, 170 kayakers with skills ranging from novice to advanced took part in classes and trips led by 38 […]