Central Iowa paddlers may be interested in this event next Saturday (25 January). It is held at the Wellness Center ("W") at Wartburg College in Waverly, a very nice venue. Paddlefest in Waverly Iowa

I always try and support the store when I can. They are very nice to have in the area/state

Rtallent will be presenting on his Greenmantle River trip in the Wabakimi Providence. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

I was trying to justify not going...you know long distance and all that.
I saw the excitement light up Ray's eyes when he talked a little about that trip at the Fall get together at Lake McBride. Now I will have to justify not going.

Oh buddy...that sounds heavenly. I may see... if I bring the kids along, maybe I can sneak out for the day!

That's OK Ben, we can't make everything. I am going to miss Copeia this year, and that is always a great event... Just wanted to get word out.

Ray, say hi to Vern for me.

Will do.

My son and I will be attending an 8:00 PM wrestling meet in Iowa City on Friday night. Hawkeyes vs Ohio State. Due to the snow forecast, I booked a hotel room, so we can get an earlier start to Waverly on Saturday.
If anyone else is at Carver, say hi. I'll be the guy in the Hawkeye shirt.

I'll probably listen in to that on the radio; hope they have Mark Ironside announcing, really like his enthusiasm. With luck, we'll see you guys in Waverly on Saturday.

Ray - I was sure hoping to make this, but it now looks like it won't work out. I guess some of us will have to hear more about the Greenmantle from you over a beer some day :-)

For sure. Part of it is Vern's video, and I think he may be showing that at Canoecopeia in March...

Mark Neuzil is doing the keynote. He has a wonderful presentation.

It was good. I bought a copy of his book, A Natural History of Canoes.

Ray,
I apologize for disrupting your presentation. My boy was getting restless, so I thought we best leave. I would have loved to have seen the rest of the trip.

That's OK, it was good to chat. I think Vern Fish has a trip report on, er... another canoeing website... Ray

Ray, is there a trip report or youtube video of your trip? I'm just doing some research but I haven't come across anything yet. I wish I could have made your presentation before the current craziness, but that's life. Hopefully we will all be paddling this summer! If not, I'll may end up doing something like this.

Well, that is a whole different spin on Greenmantle! I think the river is named after Princess Greenmantle, an Ojibwe woman who saved her people by luring a war party of Sioux over Kakabekia Falls...
Vern Fish did a trip report, and he has always posted at canoeing.com. Best, Ray

Thanks! Look like it's this. I don't know why I didn't look at that site for the trip report. I actually found another trip report on the same site concerning a group looking for the portage that you found into Greenmantle. They weren't successful but it looks like the portage are grown over in that direction. You folks had a great, wild trip in any event. I'm going to look into CI and CII training -- something that I've been wanting to do for a couple of seasons now, this is the motivation to get it done.

Yes, there was a traditional portage between the Misehkow and Greenmantle Rivers (both flow north into the Albany), and both ends have been identified by blazes, etc. But the middle of this portage (maybe a kilometer or more?) is vague to disappeared, according to those who have checked in recent years. At least, that is what I find in published trip reports. The portage hops through a pond or two near the Greenmantle side.... We did not try to go further than the east pond from the Greenmantle, on our trip.
Per CI and CII, absolutely go for it! The Greenmantle will give you a taste of these without being really big water. You can probably even do the route without a sprayskirt, although we used those for the last stretch (downstream of confluence with Shabuskwia). Sprayskirts do help on rapids with standing waves, etc. Would recommend using Royalex or equivalent over standard Kevlar, as there are plenty rocks, etc. Also, of course, the river will change from year to year in terms of logjams, strainers, and such. We did a fair amount of liftovers of down logs and we portaged around one set of down logs that was maybe 20 meters long.
On the upside, I see from your profile that you like to fish trout. There are certainly brookies of nice size from Suzanne Lake on down and in the Albany. Above that, pike and walleye; not sure how far up the brookies go... we did not catch any there, but did not fish rigorously.
Lots of good wildlife and birding on that route, though we saw no caribou; I would think they would be in upland areas from there, mostly.

Now I wish I hadn't sold my tried and true Royalex that my sister gifted to me! That was a sturdy 16-footer. I'm looking into white water courses and hoping that by mid- to late-May the lockdowns will be over! So far I've located something up at UMD (the west of you I believe). So, plans are taking shape. If I could have made the paddlefest, i would have asked you these questions in person -- I'll just send you an email if that's okay.

Glad to help. I've only been to bits and pieces of the Wabakimi area, but enough to appreciate its wild beauty. Email is fine.

PS, looks like you are in MSP area. You should have no problem locating some whitewater instruction, there; plenty of river rats in that area.

HighnDry make sure to check MCA (MN Canoe Assoc) for ww training clinics.

Thanks deerfoot as well! I thought that there was some canoeing association local to where I'm at that might be able to provide the same instruction. I'll look into it. I'm not doing much else :)

The following is a copied and pasted 5/1/2019 post by Dan Cooke:

My wife and I took the Minnesota Canoe association (Rapid Riders) tandem whitewater course and had a great time learning together. I would recommend it for anyone interested in learning how to move from lakes to river/ whitewater. Whitewater Instruction Rapid Riders Canoe U

HighnDry,
I just figured out how to link to the actual thread Thistlekicker started last May.

White Water Instruction Thread