Navigable Waters North of Coon Rapids area?

Specific to the Mississippi (near the Coon Rapids Dam Launch)… How far past 169 is navigable water before I exponentially increase my chances of losing a lower unit? Is it possible to make it up to the warm water discharge in Monticello?

I am running a Ranger 19′ bass boat. The color is red if that matters

Thanks,
John

Nope, despite having a red boat, anything north of the Champlin bridge would fall under the category of “risky endeavor”.

Thanks for the info!

I should borrow someone elses boat then

Yeah, I lucked out, Bowman bought a RiverPro to keep his 619 company in the garage.

There are some navigible stretches up there, but chances of making it up to the Monte warm water with an intact lower unit is pretty much nil.

ive grown up on the mississippi in the elk river area and its not a fun stretch to run with a boat. you really have to know some of the areas like a T weaving back and forth to avoid giant boulders.
there is boat launches lining the whole stretch from 169 up to the warm water discharge. but i wouldnt recommend going to far from the launches unless you have a riverpro.

I just drove by this weekend and it looked pretty bad, like others have said, huge boulders everywhere, etc.

On year during normal water levels I even managed to high-center a canoe in one of the fast-water stretches and got turned sideways to the current. Not fun… we made it without swamping, but the bottom of my Old Towne still bears the scars.

And that canoe will float in 3″ of water with a load of about 500 lbs. And even in the “navigable” stretches, there are HUGE boulders just under the surface so unless you know how to read the water, eddies and breaks and so on, I’d keep well away in anything but a canoe or a riverpro.

Or an amored jet ski.