Today we finally canoed on Minnehaha Creek. This place has been a year in the making. Several weekends of wind or threatening rain put a damper on previous plans to make it out, but today, despite lower than recommended creek levels for canoeing, we did it.

We started at Utley Park in Edina, off 50th St. near Hwy. 100. This was the 10.5 mile mark from Minnehaha Falls. It looked low, but we thought it was swift enough and that if we were having a tough time we could pull out and call my sister to come and get us. She was going to get us at the end anyway.

The beginning of the day was elegant, passing through wealthy Edina’s manicured backyards. The turns were sharp but we were navigating them ok. We thought the creek would be a good place to take someone (like my sister) who is kind of scared of water but likes adventures – you can see the bottom, so you know all you’d have to do is stand up should something happen.

The backyards turned into more wild spaces. We passed under several bridges and reflected that you wouldn’t want to tackle the creek if it was above the Watershed District’s recommended level for canoeing because you wouldn’t be able to get through some of them if you did.

Tootling along, we passed some backwaters – including one place where it got confusing which way the creek was going. We selected one way, only to discover that the other way would have worked, too. Shortly past there, I felt the canoe tipping, squawked, and the next thing I knew, was in the water! Our stuff was floating everywhere. My paddle was off down the creek – soon I was after it. Then we were trudging through muck to pull the canoe to the edge and right it. My BF was cut. Our chocolate chip cookie bars were ruined! That was the biggest tragedy of the day. Turns out his paddle had gotten stuck in one of the many retaining walls along the creek, and the current pulled him into it – against his chest – and he couldn’t pull loose. So over we went! Luckily the sun was out and we were semi-dry in no time. Plus, I learned to always wear my quick-dry stuff, no matter how sweet and adorable I think our passage will be, and to make sure everything is always in ziplocks or waterproof containers. I had felt like a dork doing this but was sure glad we did when nothing was ruined (except the bars. Weep, weep . . .)

We carried on, learning that on the creek, the shallowest part is often the middle and that the edges of the waterway are passable even when you think they aren’t. We got stuck in a mini-strainer, which on a bigger river would have been downright scary, but just meant getting wet again in our case. We had to pull out and around that downed tree, which blocked the entire creek.

Into Minneapolis trails and park lined the creek. Past the Nokomis golf course things got slower, muckier, and less scenic. It was still too fast to pick up the three or four golf balls we spotted in the creek, though.

We spotted cardinals, wood ducks with babies (cute, cute, cute, cute!), Canadian geese, blue herons, egrets, and an oriole. Also, what I thought to be an uber-cute turtle but it turned out to be a bobbing stick.

This is not a creek for a beginning canoeist. Both BF and I have a lot of experience and this was a challenging channel for us. But we loved every lovely, sunny, 70-degree minute of it – even the minutes under the water.

In the end, my sister picked me up at Longfellow Lagoon and drove me back to Utley Park. I turned around to get BF and canoe. Damp and ravenous, we headed home.