Kayaking the Mississippi River Gorge

Photo by Brian Shekleton

That’s me in a kayak in the middle of the Mississippi River just downstream of the Upper St Anthony Falls and the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. A group of locals did a trip down the river from Boom Island Park to Hidden Falls on Sunday. Good times.

A few minutes before that, I was eating a chocolate chip cookie while riding the Upper St Anthony Lock down 50ft (largest drop on the entire river):

Photo by Aaron Landry

Here is what it looks like when they start letting out the water. Aaron Landry is holding our group to the wall.

And before that, we had to wait before entering the lock. I held onto the side of the lock with my pinky finger, which was around a 5.8 for difficulty, I think:

Jumping ahead: This is what it looks like once the water starts draining out of a lock to lower you down (notice the new 35W bridge high above us):

Lock & Dam #1 near the Ford Bridge has a lot of graffiti in it like this:

People create this by running their fingers through the thick oil and dirt build-up on the walls of the lock. Yes, that’s really gross.

Thanks to Brian for organizing this awesome in-town outing:

Aaron has written up his perspective on the tour here.