I recently celebrated my bachelor party in Minnesota’s Arrowhead region. As a part of the trip, we paddled 5.5 miles down the Little Fork River. The Little Fork River is a north woods river through-and-through. It’s remote and beautiful. We did not see or hear another soul during our time on or near the river. Even traffic on the bridges over the river was very sparse. There were only a few homes and farms along this route.

The river’s flow rate was only scrapable during our trip, but we forced the issue since it was my bachelor party. It was a bit of a risk: “Scrapable” for the Little Fork is 100 cfs or less, and we’d be trying it at 50 cfs. Would there be many portages? Would everyone be miserable? I wanted my friends to experience my favorite outdoor activity, but the risk of a day full carrying canoes and kayaks over water only a couple inches deep would ruin it. We decided to give it a whirl.

Normally I head up and plan my kayaking trips. On this trip I abdicated that responsibility to my soon-to-be father-in-law. He did a great job finding us a scenic part of the river. The water flow sure was slow. So slow in fact that when we put in, I couldn’t tell which way the river flowed. Uh oh.

We put in at mile marker 127 at the Highway 73 bridge west of Cook, Minnesota. This is a good launch with a parking area that could facilitate something like 15 cars if necessary. The actual launch is a bit rocky, so any beginners will have to be careful launching. Once all 14, yes 14, paddlers were in the water, we made our way down river.

The first potion of the river was nice, and the guys settled in. Except for a few fields, the trees bordered the river here almost to the edge.  In many spots, pine trees grew too tall on the banks and tilted over the river. Truly an up-north experience.

Hannine Falls waterfall

The Hannine Falls are class VI rapids according to the map. As you approach the waterfall, there is one nondescript sign that says something like “danger rapids.” Then maybe 50 yards out from the waterfall (if my memory is correct) there’s a small portage sign on the right. That’s pretty much the only warning that imminent death lies just moments ahead. We even had to paddle right up to the waterfall to confirm we were there. We were. The waterfall was not traversable despite the low water. The waterfall was pretty and had two gnarly dropoffs. I’d heard waterfall normally had a 15-foot fall, but with the low water it didn’t look quite so treacherous. The left side of the river at the waterfall looks to be a difficult portage, and I think it may have been on private property. We portaged about 100 yards on the right side of the river. Portaging to the right is the way to go at the Hannine Falls.

Just beyond the waterfall, there was a short, 30 yard break before the river cuts left (see picture below). Up ahead is a nice 50 yard rapids section we traversed. This was fun paddling, although the guys unable to shoot everything properly had to shimmy along to get off the rocks because of the low flow.

After the waterfall and rapids, there was a wonderful 150-yard portion where the river widened and seemed like a pond. To the right as you enter to “pond” is a home with a wonderful setup. Subsequently I learned this is an organic farm called the Aspen Falls Farm in Cook, MN. Whoever lives there has a beautiful morning coffee view of the rapids just past the Hannine Falls.

Beer and paddling don’t mix

In the pond after the Hannine Falls and the rapids that follow, we paused for a minute to savor the peaceful pond and the noise from the falls and rapids.

Now, I don’t drink alcohol while paddling. But since this was a bachelor party and there were a lot of first-timers, so most of the guys had a beer or two once we passed the falls. Everyone was respectful and cleaned up after themselves. The guys stored the beer in the one canoe we had with us. Watching new kayakers try to balance as they grabbed beer from a heavy canoe without falling was fun.

My buddy Steve distributed beers to the guys wanting one. At the end, my brother asked for one, and Steve tossed it to go from about 25 yards away. The throw was high. My brother leaned back and caught it . . . and flipped his kayak. About as soon as he hit the water he yelled “my phone!”

We laughed but then felt bad for him after he searched the kayak and didn’t find his phone. My buddy Nate and I jumped in to help him scour the river bottom for his phone. We knew the phone was in this plastic waterproof bag. But the water on the Little Fork is murky and we could not find it. We searched for a few minutes before losing hope. Then my soon-to-be father-in-law realized that the phone pouch ought to float. He even threw his phone pouch into the water to confirm. It floated.

Wet and laughing, we told my brother to look again in his kayak. He did. And there, lodged underneath his seat, sat the pouch. It was submerged underwater, but his phone was completely dry.

That’s why I am taking this post to make my first product recommendation on this site. If you are going kayaking of canoeing, buy a waterproof phone case. It saved my brother hundreds of bucks. I used to not bring my camera kayaking, but now I like bringing it. I can have music when I’ve had enough quiet. I can take pictures to remember my trips. The pouch is not expensive, and in my brother’s case, paid for itself the first time he used it. Click on the picture to buy one:

The rest of the trip

A gorgeous stretch of the river emerged around river mile 123. We took out just past river mile 121. On the map below the road at the bridge is called 356. Google maps calls in St. Louis County Rd 139 or Range Line Road. One good thing about this lstretch of the river is that it’s easy two tell where you are; put in off Highway 73, go under one bridge and land at the second bridge. But once you go past the first bridge, you’re committed. There’s enough small rapids and the waterfall that you can’t really turn around without some big headaches.

Verdict

Totally worth it. Slow flow was tough, but we saw a lot of this which was actually pretty fun:

The slow flow only really affected us at the rapids. The river was still plenty deep. Some rivers (like my recent trip on the Crow Wing) have both slow flow and are shallow. This stretch of the Little Fork had slow flow but maintained plenty of depth. As a last thought, I think some of the first time paddlers grew tired towards the end. I think going this far on the river with such a low flow rate made it more work than some of the guys wanted. I highly recommend this trip, and if the flow rate were better, it would have only been better.

The rest of the bachelor party

We stayed on Elbow Lake just north of Lake Vermillion. This is one the 16 “Elbow Lakes” in Minnesota. This particular Elbow Lake is one cleanest lakes I’ve ever been in. It has craggy dropoffs, and I hear it’s a wonderful walleye and small mouth lake. We rented a cabin overlooking the lake. Here’s the deck at the cabin we rented:

This was (part) of our view:

We had a wonderful weekend that included bourbon tasting, steaks, cigars, and–of course–lots of Bent Paddle Cold Press Black Ale.

Wolves

A very neat thing happened on Saturday night. Some of Minnesota’s 2400 wolves howled back-and-forth for a few minutes just after the sun set. Imagine hearing wolves howling and seeing this view:

And when the wolves quit, the loons took over and whined their beautiful call late into the night. All in all, I couldn’t have wished for a better bachelor party in the North Country.