The Milwaukee River

The Milwaukee River is a great place to start this blog. It’s a Milwaukee hero in its own right. The city itself probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t such a great point of entry from the Great Lakes. Ten years ago if someone would have asked me to go kayak on it I probably would have thought they were joking and said no. Its gross, dirty, smells, and its unsafe for humans to even exist around it. Comments I have heard from people I have told I kayaked the river. To be honest it was never really on the radar as a place for recreation. It was primarily a point of reference and nothing more.

               This summer I felt like making a change in the places I paddled. I always wanted a place to paddle that was a little bit closer to home. So far I have been out on it twice this summer. Both were great rides. I got on the river from the Bruce Street Boat Ramp. It’s a Milwaukee County Park boat launch. The cost is $6.75 for residents and $7.00 for non-residents to launch. There is a lot of free street parking which is hard to come by downtown. It was easy to drive up to the launch drop off the boat, pay the fee, and park the car. From the launch site at a steady pace I was able to make it to the North Avenue Damn in an hour and if I would have gone straight back to the launch it would have taken me another hour. On the first trip I opted to head under the train trestle to the Menomonee River and ended up spending about 4.5 hours on both rivers. The second time out was great too. My cousin came to paddle with me and honestly the Milwaukee River is the best place to show off the town. The Milwaukee River has so much to offer in the way of entertainment and the ability to make a great day out of it. There are multiple bars that you can paddle right up to. You can either tie up your boat or pull it up on the dock and stack them up so there is still room to walk around. We made two stops. One stop was at Lakefront Brewery which is one of the last stops on the river. Stubby’s is the very last stop but Lakefront Brewery has a more familiar name especially to out of town guests. We also stopped at Ale Asylum because my cousin wanted to stop there but I would have rather made the stop at The Harp because it’s a landmark. Rock Bottom and the Milwaukee Ale House are great stops too but if we hit them all I am not sure if we could have driven home much less paddled back to where the car was.

I think the Milwaukee River is great for anyone who wants a change of pace. It’s a lot of fun going under all the bridges. If you are lucky you will hit one or a few with a bigger boat that will get the bridges to go up. It’s also really cool to watch the train trestle bridge that leads to the Menomonee River make its swivel for the larger boats. I lucked out the first time when I got to go under it when the Hiawatha was making its way over the bridge as I passed under. It’s a unique experience that most people have never had the opportunity to experience. It is fun paddling the river solo. However I think it’s a lot more fun with 2 or more people so that you can make a few of the stops. It’s a blast to paddle up to one of the bars. Grab a beer, maybe an appetizer, and a stool along the river and watch the other boats go by.

 There are few places to rent kayaks from along the river. I saw a lot of rentals out and the boats seemed like comfortable boats to ride for a partial day trip. Milwaukee Kayak Company is a good start. If you would want to kayak a lot becoming a member of the Urban Ecology would be great start too because with a membership you are able to use there kayaks and if you have a friend joining you they can also borrow a boat and that is included in the membership. They do offer a bunch of kayaking events. I am debating on hitting one of the night kayaks at the end of July and there is one more in August. You can check out either website for more info.

Paddle Safe & Paddle Smart!


Bonus Links:
http://milwaukeeriverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/muwt_map_0.pdf
(map of the Milwaukee River, Menomenee River, & Kinnickinnic River)