Minnesota Water Trails – Elspeth Ronnander

Paddling Minnesota’s Snake River: In Four Parts

Located in eastern central Minnesota, the Snake River flows largely south from McGrath to Mora before turning east and winding its way to the Saint Croix River. The watershed to the north flows into Lake Superior, but the water on the Snake will eventually make its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Spanning nine years,Continue reading “Paddling Minnesota’s Snake River: In Four Parts”

Canoeing the Big Fork Plus a Little

In pursuit of the Minnesota Water Trails, initially Erik and I planned to canoe the Red Lake River to the Red River to the Canadian Border with my mom providing a shuttle. Mother Nature had other plans with the flooded Red River creating what looked like a giant lake between Grand Forks north to theContinue reading “Canoeing the Big Fork Plus a Little”

A Pandemic-Inspired Central Minnesota Canoe Adventure

As we paddle all the designated Minnesota water trails, Erik is often intrigued by the non-designated waterways and in particular, loop connections. He found such a one, the Rabbit River, that almost forms a connection with the Mississippi between highway 6 and Riverton. And so an adventure was born. In addition, we’d take almost aContinue reading “A Pandemic-Inspired Central Minnesota Canoe Adventure”

The Great Northeast Minnesota River Loop

This loop begins near the town of Floodwood. From here, we paddled up the Whiteface River to the Whiteface Reservoir and then portaged into the Saint Louis River and paddled back to Floodwood. Erik, my husband, found this route on the map. It can be difficult to combine loops when paddling rivers, but this lookedContinue reading “The Great Northeast Minnesota River Loop”

Canoeing Minnesota’s Rum River

Over the long Memorial Day weekend of 2016, (taking Friday off from work) my husband, Erik, and I paddled the 154 mile Rum River. Erik’s parents, Barb and Steve, helped us with a shuttle. The Rum has a special meaning to me because when I was a kid, we had a cabin on the riverContinue reading “Canoeing Minnesota’s Rum River”