For the next several days. Pfds and safety issues have been much discussed lately, the National park service used to update the namekagon and st croix river river levels on their website. Looks like they aren’t doing that anymore. The rivers are high and dangerous, expect very strong currents, sweepers and floating debris. Even idiots like me should avoid any rivers in this area for the next couple days.





I’d expect the same conditions on the kettle and other popular rivers.

I've found conditions as needed on the USGS sites, and the NPS sites...


USGS - St. Croix River

IMO, above 10,000 cfs at St. Croix Falls is getting a bit tough to paddle upstream, down stream is good to 15,000 or better.

You can find other rivers of interest On the USGS system here:
Map of real-time streamflow

For the National Park Service:
NPS - St. Croix River

Current Conditions- River Levels, St. Croix, Namekagon

I've found that the NPS only updates every couple of days for the past couple of years. Th USGS updates almost hourly.

Thanks. I always check the usgs. I did not realize that the nps only updated every several days. The park service is doing a disservice in this regard. Old information is as of today useless and dangerous. The park service site is showing the rivers at there preflood conditions. Always check the usgs site for current conditions. For Minnesota rivers the mn dnr links to the usgs. At this stage the kettle river is dangerous for everybody including kayaks with expert paddlers. They’ll be there anyways. Stay safe!

I guess I should walk down and check the Namekagon We have had lot of rain the
last couple of days.

Nothing like two years ago.

The Nemadji River is at unprecedented flows. It was over 40,000 cfs when the gauge malfunctioned. That is similar to the discharge from the mighty St. Louis during the 2012 floods, and this in a much smaller river. It washed out Hwy 23 south of Duluth and threatened to take out Hwy2/53 in Superior for a while yesterday.

I just got back from walking down to the Namekagon we are about 6 miles north of Hayward.

It is high but i have canoe it in a lot worse considering that a lot of stretches can be on the low side up here. It could be real good canoeing not having to worry about hitting all the rocks.

But then I have been canoeing it for over 50 years.

C

Another issue with the park service website is that they've left out some valuable info since they "upgraded" it a few years back. They used to have a section that correlated their low, good, high etc. ratings to the USGS flow rates, such as a flow rate of 2000 cfs a St. Croix Falls was "low", while 5000 cfs was good, along with warnings about flows above say 15,000 cfs.