Troubled Waters

Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer

June 30, 2008 11:50 pm

— There are no photographs with this story.
No pictures of the local rivers, their rapids and surrounding bluffs. No shots of the green trees, the tan sand hillsides, or even of the great blue heron that led our Old Town canoe down the stream on a perfect southern Minnesota Sunday afternoon recently.
Oh, there were photos.
They’re on a memory card. In a camera. At the bottom of the Le Sueur River.
It was a rookie mistake that put them there. The river was high and gushing mightily where it narrowed between the Red Jacket trestle and the Highway 66 bridge.
After successfully navigating nine miles of the Le Sueur’s quick waters from a landing off County Road 8 (Monks Avenue, about three miles south of Highway 90) we tried to bring the boat in to shore just past the two bridges.
My friend paddled up front, I ruddered in back, and the river turned us upside down and put us smack dab into the muddy water.
Fortunately, we popped right up and hurried to shallow water.
Keys — check. Cell phones — check. Wallets — check (a plastic dry bag is a must even when the rivers are low).
A copy of “Paddling Southern Minnesota: 85 Trips by Canoe and Kayak” by Lynne and Robert Diebel — soggy, but intact.
Camera — sunk.
It was the first time we’ve been dumped in three summers of canoeing in the Mankato area. But it happened so quickly that I was surprised it never happened before.
The last time we tried canoeing the Le Sueur — a 100-degree August evening two years ago — we pushed, pulled and dragged the canoe in water too shallow to paddle on. A shorter ride from the County Road 16 (Stoltzman Road) landing to the trestle took three hours and left me sore and dehydrated.
But let’s stop with the horror stories, shall we?
There is some fine canoeing and kayaking in the area. Some have even gone so far to call the activity the best-kept secret in Blue Earth County.
The Diebels’ book, which actually considers anything south of Brainerd to be southern Minnesota, mentions several Mankato-area trips, including two rides each on the Le Sueur, Big Cobb, Maple and Watonwan rivers and one on the Blue Earth.
The Blue Earth River, from just below the Rapidan Dam to where it meets the Minnesota River at Sibley Park, is a nearly 12-mile ride that features some of the best hidden scenery in the area, including waterfalls, bluffs and huge, midstream boulders.
The Big Cobb is a fast, winding river with Class I and II rapids that local enthusiasts and members of the Mankato Paddling & Outing Club say is fun but can be dangerous. It is not for beginners, they warn.
The Maple might be a better small-river ride for novices.
Despite my most recent experience, the Le Sueur, the Diebels write, is a “mostly quiet float.”
And, indeed, it was an enjoyable ride.
After taking in the Cobb and Maple rivers, the Le Sueur eventually passes under the wrought-iron Kerns-Yaeger Bridge, a 135-year-old bowstring arch-through truss bridge that once took traffic into west Mankato. It was closed to traffic in 1990.
After passing the Red Jacket, the Le Sueur eventually hooks up with the Blue Earth River as all of the rivers flow toward the Minnesota River.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to go with the flow, rather than trying to cut the rapids and land the canoe.
I probably would have held on to my camera then.

Photos