I’ve been meaning to try and float the Minnehaha creek for awhile now. Kinda ever since I learned that was even possible. Since I’m presently in Minnesota again, and having just aquired some super capable inflatable SUPs it seemed like as good a time as ever there would be. We checked the forecast, spent some time on google maps, and off we went.

For those unfamiliar, the Minnehaha creek is “a 22-mile-long tributary of the Mississippi River that flows east from Gray’s Bay Dam on Lake Minnetonka through the suburban cities of Minnetonka, Hopkins, Saint Louis Park, and Edina, and the city of Minneapolis.” It’s a pretty cool little piece of neature running through the heart of the city.

There are A LOT of bridge crossings. Like, a whole lot. Which is both a fun technical challenge, and a little up close glimpse into urban development throughout the south of the city. Some you can stand, some you need to crouch, just depends on the flow of the creek that day.

We ran into a handful of canoes while on the creek. No hate, but really… it just doesn’t seem like the right tool for the job. The job being navigating an at times very shallow (like dragging fins shallow) waterway through tight turns, downed trees, and plenty of rock gardens. I kinda knew going into it that the inflatable SUP would be the right answer and it only took 5 min on the water to prove it.

We had a blast. The beautiful weather obviously helped, but I’ll be taking any future opportunity for some proper south Minneapolis slow surfing.