The Cloquet River is also one of my favorites.  I have spent more time on this river than any other body of water.  Paddling on the Cloquet has been a family tradition started by my great-grandpa.  In two weeks I am going to take a trip from the Cedar Bay campground area to Island Lake (if the ice is out on the lake by then).  One of my favorite parts of this section is the huge white pine on the island above Cedar Rapids.  I have spent more time on the lower Cloquet (from the Munger Shaw Road to the St. Louis River) than the upper, but I really appreciate the remoteness and beautiful rapids of the upper Cloquet.  One story from my dad is about fifteen to twenty years ago on Labor Day, he and friend took a late afternoon paddle down the Cloquet from the Carrol Forest Road to Island Lake.  As it was getting dark, they rounded a bend in a narrow section and were stopped in their tracks by a bull moose up its chest in the water.  The moose nearly blocked the entire channel with its size and would not move.  They admired it for a time, but because it was getting dark, they had to proceed.  They tried to get it to move by smacking their paddles on the water, but got no response from the moose.  Reluctantly, they quietly attempted to paddle the narrow space between the moose and the shore.  Just as they passed the moose, the water that had been up to the animals chest was now at his knees.  The moose had been laying down in the river.  My dad and friend were now being looked down at by a huge moose in knee deep water only a few feet away.  The moose, however, just ambled off in teh opposite direstion.  They finished their trip without another incident.  They did, however, pass a canoe wrapped around a boulder in Whitesides Rapids.  Does anyone know the story behind this?

Hello again.  You are right, the waterfall where the Cloquet flows into Island Lake is spectacular.  It is too bad it is covered up most of the time by the reservoir.  I had never seen it before a couple years ago, and I was impressed.  Or, were you talking about the final rapids, Whitesides?  Either way, both are beautiful.  Most of the lower Cloquet is still within the Cloquet Valley State Forest and is pretty much permanently protected like the upper Cloquet.  I guess the reason I spend more time on the lower Cloquet is that it is closer to Duluth, where I live.  The river is generally deeper and wider than the upper sections, especially the calm sections.  The rapids above Highway 53, and the last stretch before the St. Louis do, however, get really shallow in low water (below 200 cfs out of Island Lake).  The rapids actually get easier in high water, at least the section between the Munger Shaw Road and Highway 53.  This is the section I run the most.   I have paddled here at all water conditions from flood (about 1400 cfs out of Island Lake, little manuevering, just floating) to 75 cfs  out of Island Lake (lots of scraping and wading). It has great fishing, fun easy rapids, some wide placid lake-like stretches, abundant wildlife and established, easy access.  There are a few houses at the beginning, but most of the stretch is wild.  Below a place we call the Big Pool, there is kind of neat old log cabin. Although I think other stretches of the Cloquet are probably more scenic, this section has always held an appeal to me because it is where my Dad first took me canoeing on a river.  On the final section below County Road 8, there are some beautiful spots where the river fans out into boulder fields, gravel bars and sinewy islands.  If I remember, there are some eagle's nests in some big white pines and osprey nests on the powerlines that cross the river towards the end.  The Cloquet's gradient during the final mile or so to the St. Louis River gets steeper, but at low water levels I don't think these final rapids are much more difficult than the others on the lower Cloquet.  At high levels, this might not be true, but I have only paddled this stretch at low and medium levels.  If I had to choose the best time to paddle the lower Cloquet, I would say mid June.  There should still be enough water to easily negotiate the rapids, but not so much as to wash you down too fast to enjoy the surroundings.  I guess the I would say, compared to the lower Cloquet, the upper Cloquet is more intimate, has more distinct rapids and is more remote.  The lower Cloquet is larger, is more easily accessed (from Duluth at least) and has less complicated shuttles and has long continuous stretches of easy boulder bed rapids that are can be a lot of fun at the right water level.  How often have you paddled the Cloquet?

Ahhh!  I just wrote a bunch and then erased it somehow.

Okay, to recap:
-- That section sounds great.  I'm going to have to go sometime.
-- I have paddled the Cloquet 3 times, once as a day trip with some friends (we ended at Island Lake but I can't remember where we started -- somewhere about halfway between Indian and Island), and twice guiding high school students down the river as part of my job as a canoe/backpack guide in the n. wisc/minn area during college.   Both times were great, and the Cloquet very quickly became my favorite trip; great scenery, no other people, great sandbars for camping, fun rapids.  Both times I took kids out there it was pretty shallow, especially the second time.  Plus, it was very cold that time (we got frost one night, in early August!), so wading was a little less than fun.  But I think that the river being so wild and shallow and full of obstacles (the beavers were quite active) made the trip more powerful for the kids.  They couldn't stop talking about it, and as we paddled out onto Island Lake at the end, the sun was rising in a cloudless sky, the water was like glass, and we paddled quietly past a loon.  That was all we needed to know that the trip had been worth it.

As for the last rapids, I was talking about Whitesides.  I've never had the opportunity to see the waterfall.  I always warn my campers that it might be coming up, and then as we glide onto Island Lake they look at me like I'm crazy.

I can't wait to get out in a canoe!  Might be a while, though.  I've moved to the big city.

Yeah, not MPLS.  I DID live there, which is nice, but now I'm around Chi-town and on a very limited budget.  I might start checking around with friends of friends to see if people have canoes I can borrow/use with them.

Thanks for trying to help though!  Is Mpls where you are?

Thanks!  Yes, Chi-town is Chicago.  I have heard that the North Branch is quite nice.  I think I will definitely check around for free/cheap canoes.

My thanks to all of you for trying to help!