jcass
06-25-2007, 12:51 PM
Back in March I asked about this river and mentioned some friends and I were taking a canoe trip on the river and was wondering about the sauger on it.
Several people answered and warned about the low water levels and asked for a "trip report" when we finished.
As per suggestions, we kept a close eye on the gaging station at Medora via the Internet and when we left Michigan we didn't know if the levels would be high enough or if we would have to do our back-up trip on the big Missouri River in MT.
Arrived in Medora and the levels were just at the "canoeable" (about 3 feet)level but rain had been falling in the water shed recently. (We didn't know it but 5 inches of rain had fallen upstream somewhere.)
We decided to take the trip and by nightfall it was obvious that the river was rising. It kept coming up over the next several days and rose about 9 feet altogether to read 11.8 at Medora. This made for great canoeing, fast water and floating over numerous fences put up by ranchers.
Water visibility was "zero" so we didn't try to fish - just enjoyed great campsites, scenery of the Badlands, wild game - elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, big horn sheep, buffalo, lots of beavers, pelicans??? (I've got to research that in the Internet.)
Great trip - 108 miles of fun. CAN NOT recommend this river at low water - too many problems. We just lucked out and rode a "wave" down the river as by the time we got off, the levels were falling quickly.
Thanks to everyone who offered info.
Several people answered and warned about the low water levels and asked for a "trip report" when we finished.
As per suggestions, we kept a close eye on the gaging station at Medora via the Internet and when we left Michigan we didn't know if the levels would be high enough or if we would have to do our back-up trip on the big Missouri River in MT.
Arrived in Medora and the levels were just at the "canoeable" (about 3 feet)level but rain had been falling in the water shed recently. (We didn't know it but 5 inches of rain had fallen upstream somewhere.)
We decided to take the trip and by nightfall it was obvious that the river was rising. It kept coming up over the next several days and rose about 9 feet altogether to read 11.8 at Medora. This made for great canoeing, fast water and floating over numerous fences put up by ranchers.
Water visibility was "zero" so we didn't try to fish - just enjoyed great campsites, scenery of the Badlands, wild game - elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, big horn sheep, buffalo, lots of beavers, pelicans??? (I've got to research that in the Internet.)
Great trip - 108 miles of fun. CAN NOT recommend this river at low water - too many problems. We just lucked out and rode a "wave" down the river as by the time we got off, the levels were falling quickly.
Thanks to everyone who offered info.