| Last summer (July,'90) my family of four went from La Crosse to Minneapolis and
then back to La Crosse. Round trip was 280 miles and 14 locks. We camped on
the banks every night. The water is very clean that far north and doesn't look
like the Big Muddy in St. Louis and points further south. The current was very
strong and had wished I had another long line and anchor. There isn't very
much between La Crosse and the twin cities. The marinas were very scarce. At
one point I was down to a quarter tank and getting very nervous. Getting
stranded on a river with a fast flowing current would't be much fun.
We told friends of how much fun we had, two families are going to rent a house
boat and we are going to bring ours to make the trip again this year. I made
the round-trip in fours days (260 Merc swallowing 80 gallons of gas) on a 19'
Celebrity cudy with my wife and two children, 8 months and 2 1/2 years old.
Barefoot'n on the Big Muddy
|