I'm going to be taking a group of novices down the Maquoketa from Canton later in the month. Where we take out depends upon the water! Any advice for how far I can have a novice group travel for about 5 hours with the water currently as low as it is? The long-range forecast isn't looking very good for additional rain, and I've never been on it this low.
Anybody know if the river is canoeable when the gauge at the city of Maquoketa reads 10.5 foot and the flow is 400 cubic feet per second? I was planning on taking a bunch of scouts downriver from Canton in a couple of weeks. Any help appreciated!
I've paddled the Maquoketa a couple times a few years back, and I'm not sure what the cfs was at those times. But my minimum for paddling the Boone (for a good trip without pullovers) is somewhere around 2.5' and running at 400 cfs - so based on that you should be fine.
This weekend the Maquoketa River gauge at Maquoketa was at 10.5 ft with a flow of 460. We took a trip from Canton to Royertown, 8 miles, 5 hours (which included lots of stops). The river was mostly floatable, but it required some walking. In fact, it required a LOT of walking, especially for the novices I had with me. We still had fun, but walking is much slower than canoeing! I wouldn't recommend the river this low, but it is doable.