St Croix

[Flatboat]

Hello,
I am looking for some information for the St Croix area and south. I have a brother that has a 27' Sundancer that he wants to trailer as far north as he can and cruise down to Dubuque. I work on the river and know it as far north as Prairie Du Chien. I have a Upper Mississippi chart for him but nothing else, can a person buy a chart book for that section of the river or should he throw in at the cities and be done with it? Anyone know of a book or website that would have points of interest with phone numbers and such? I moved up from a 16' flatboat to his 175 Bowrider when he bought the Sundancer ( I will forever have a flatboat though ). I will get him to join the site and follow this thread if anyone is so kind as to reply. I have been lurking around for a while and now have a reason to post. You have some great information on this site.
Thank You,
Jon

 

[wish2fish]

Hello and welcome,
have you done an internet search? I got my Ohio River Charts off the Army Corps sites. I'm not familiar with the area your talking about but did a search using "Mississippi River chart" and came up with this link.

http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Gis/navbook/html/corps.htm

 

[wish2fish]

still not sure exactly what you're looking for but I found these online

Minnesota River-St Croix River-Upper Miss

 

[Flatboat]

Wish,
Thanks, I have the chart book that you are linking to, it goes up as far as Stillwater. I am looking for something up to St Croix Falls. I have crossed into Minn. on Hwy 8 and know a person can't get past the falls but I saw a marina south of the Hwy 8 bridge. I am wondering if a person can throw in at the marina and make it all the way down.
Thanks Jon

 

[wish2fish]

As stated before I don't know that area. Sounds like you want to go further up the the St Croix River???? is that the case?

Anyway, the Army Corps usually put the the maps on the respective districts site. Below is a link that show army corps sites by states maybe you can get to the right district that way to find you navigation maps.

http://www.usace.army.mil/howdoi/where.html#States

 

[270SLX]

Get a Quimby's guide. much recommended.

https://shared1.fasturl.net/~heartlandb/quimbys-moreinfo.htm

 

[chuck1]

May also want to check out heartland boating mag. Has some great info and links on the inland rivers.
http://www.heartlandboating.com/

 

[randerson]

The St. Croix river system is navigable 26 miles from it's mouth in Prescott, WI. Approximately 2 miles upstream of Stillwater, MN the only watercraft allowed are canoes and small fishing crafts.

If you do go north of Stillwater be careful, the channel is narrow and many people have run aground. It is a beautiful area . . . I suggest you start in Stillwater and head downstream. There is a book called "River Events Planner" which is a boating guide for Upper Mississippi & St. Croix River system. Try www.rivereventsplanner.com. ':grin:'

Andy
1988 270 Sundancer
Twin 5.7/260's :grin:

 

[River Rat]

I would agree with randerson. Have fun. :thumbsup:

 

[Stray Cat]

Flatboat, we are practically neighbors by river! I have been north of the lift bridge when we had our 270. We anchored and watched the eagles soar for hours. You could put in at Port Sunnyside just down stream from Stillwater. That would be better than putting in at MPLS.

Quimby's gives you practically all of the marinas for fuel and the services they provide with mile markers and which bank they are on. US Army Corps of Engineers has the UM charts available which covers way below Keokuk.

I would recommend spending time in Redwing, definately Lake City and dinner at Harbor View Cafe in Pepin. Do web searches for chamber of commerce would be your best source for each area. River Events Planner has a lot of the festivals and "days" that river communities have. Planning the trip is half the fun :thumbsup:

 

[Flatboat]

Thanks to every one that replied, I got back to work and haven't had much time to reply, I will pass on the all of the good information to my brother and order some of the guides myself. Stray Cat, yes we are. I have been up to the lock the last couple of days and picked up some Walleye and Sauger for supper. We get up to Guttenberg quite a bit in the summer time, we camp on the sand and the kid's get tired of hamburgers and brats so we run up for lunch or supper. We always try and make it for the fireworks if I'm not working.
Thanks Jon

 

[Stray Cat]

Jon, your brother's first name isn't Bob is it? I know our 270 Sundancer went to Dubuque and the new owner bought a trailer for it. Its a long shot....but would be quite the coincidence!

 

[Flatboat]

Stray Cat
No it's not. He lives and found the boat in Milwaukee. I was up your way yesterday, we had to take a barge to PDC.
Jon

 

[Stray Cat]

Jon, what line of work are you in? I was at Winegar Works on Monday replacing anodes on the drives. The dam had all but two gates wide open...the water looked up a bit. Is there much trash floating when you went up to PDC?

Jeff

 

[Flatboat]

Stray Cat,
I am a tow boat captain and work from DBQ to PDC, not much drift now. I think the river crested yesterday, I was up to the lock and the rollers were still wide open. I went to Milwaukee on Sat. and picked up the boat, now if the weather would turn around.

Jon

 

[Stray Cat]

Jon, what is the name of your tow boat? I often see a tow working at Clayton and at the PDC coal pile. Are you one of those?

Yeah the weather so far has been 1 big April Fool hasn't it?

>^..^<