I was looking for a good section of the Namekagon to paddle with a new friend. My favorite part is towards the top of the river, but I know that the lower Namekagon is a favorite of many, and I had not completed a blog post about this section, so chose Whispering Pines to the end (and into the St. Croix River) for our overnight trip!
We met up at Riverside landing, so our shuttle wasn’t hard to figure out – just leave a car and drive to the start! We then headed to Whispering Pines, where we had the landing to ourselves. For a little while. We had unloaded the canoe and gear, and I was trying to pack things and put things back in the car that I didn’t need when multiple outfitters showed up with tubers – three loads I believe within a short amount of time. I moved the car out of the way, and continued to pack, letting two groups of tubers get out ahead of us. One was a bachelorette party. It is hard to get to the water at this landing, well, with a heavy canoe. It’s steep though has a ramp that is non-slip. A bystander helped us get the canoe to water level which helped a lot given the angle at which the ramp was.
We were off! The tubing groups weren’t too rowdy yet (I’ve passed those by Trego before) since they just got onto the water, and were very friendly. The river is peaceful and wild. We identified trees and flowers on the shoreline as we went, and also passed a few more tubers. We passed a father and son camping on a peninsula, hanging out in the water, and a family tubing. We actually leap-frogged the family when we stopped for our lunch. Lucky for them, we ran into them at the Hwy 77 bridge – they had been looked for the takeout for Heartwood Conference Center, and I looked it up on my phone – we were well past their takeout (I am not sure where the takeout was, but it was 2 miles back on the highway). I called there, and said they were at the highway, wanting to get picked up, a bit thirsty and hungry, as their 1.5-hour trip had turned into 4 hours. I think they would have gotten out a bit after Howell Landing, but am not sure and did not see any signs. The man said that next time he would ask more questions!
We continued on, past Fritz Landing and McDowell Bridge Landing, a beautiful day to be out. We decided that we would at least make it past there to the latter campsites and then we would be over halfway done. We camped at N8.4, which was easy to get out (most of the campsites have steep exits). Campsite N8.8 also looked easy to get out at, but some people were picnicking there. (Later on, N3.5 looked like a nice takeout too). The campsite was off the main river, we could hear people coming down the main channel, but most did not go right by, it’s across from an island on a side channel. We paddled upstream 20 yards to get to it. We explored a bit – there is poison ivy there, and someone had recently weed-whacked, which seemed weird since the juice would have been spread and we were also walking on the dead poison ivy – not the best idea. The site was nice, with a toilet and a trail towards a residence that must be off of Webb Creek Road. We could hear some people chatting at times, and ATVs/cars driving a bit. There is a no trespassing sign, so we did not venture past that. In the morning, there were lots of dogs barking, which may make the site less desirable to sleep at. I also must have gotten into a nest of ticks, as I had 4 teensy weensy ticks in my toes in the morning, and 4 more on my legs. So tiny you could barely see them! Overall, we enjoyed the site, with a picnic table and lots of space to put tents, a good bear bag tree and an easy place to put the kayak and hang out on a sandy beach by the water. There was even a small amount of wild rice in the river – going from the floating leaf stage to erect. The water wasn’t flowing fast on this part of the river.
In the morning, we got a start, not super early, but apparently earlier than all the other sites nearby! Each of the next 4 sites were taken, people still occupying them. The last has a short jaunt upstream to the Totogatic River, and it was a group of fishermen – we didn’t see them in the morning, so assumed that they had paddled up the Totogatic to fish and could float back to their site. After that confluence, the Namekagon has a different nature to it – it is wider and more shallow.
This day was not as enjoyable. Not for the weather, or maybe that played a role in how active the deer flies were! The middle part of our trip had a pretty sandy bottom, making shallow areas not too difficult to go through. We didn’t enjoy the scenery quite as much as I watched tens of flies weave between us and had a group of dead ones growing at my feet. Others were heartier, and after a good smack they would get up and fly away. We did try to get away from them by getting out at a campsite, it worked for two minutes, a nice reprieve from the buzzing, but they again surrounded us.
Heading downstream, it becomes more rocky, where the ‘rapids/riffles’ are shown on the national park map. It was pretty shallow so I had to get out a few times to lighten the load in ankle deep water. Staying towards the edges generally would work, but it can be hard to follow the deeper channel. I kept thinking we were at the confluence as the shoreline wavers and you can’t quite see around the corners (anticipating another river). The confluence with the St. Croix River gives a deeper chance to float without getting stuck. At the left corner of the confluence there is a private cabin.
Once on the St. Croix, we had a few miles to go. We floated a bit and snacked, and continued paddling downriver to our destination. It got pretty shallow on the river, lots of rocks, likely where the ‘rapids’ are shown on the map. It was the hardest part to get through, between the really shallow small rocks and later large rocks to dodge. The landing is after a few campsites, and directly after one connected to the landing – the ‘campsite’ landing is much larger than the actual landing itself, though the landing itself is easier to get out at because of the actual drive-in landing.
I used the NPS maps while on the river for this section. The sections are also in the books: Paddling Northern Wisconsin by Mike Svob (1998) – the section I paddled on map N-3/4; and Canoeing the Wild Rivers of Northwestern WI by Gerald R. Lowry (map N-1.
Blue vervain, swamp milkweed, joe pye weed, silver maple, red/white/Jack pine, white birch, bulrush, arrowhead blooming, white water ilies, rocky san, rockdy iny. Shallow in parts. Wild rice by campsite. Muskrat? Kingfisher. Heron.
Paddled July 10-11, 2021
Weather: sunny, 70s/80s
northwestwisconsinpaddling 