Mississippi River — Brainerd to Fort Ripley: River Level Today — Can You Paddle It?

At 443 cfs the Mississippi River is 465 cfs short of the 908 cfs this reach needs to float — that is the gap between today's reading and the bottom of the runnable range, not a small margin you can paddle through.

Over the last 24 hours it has gone from 530 cfs to 443 cfs, 16% down. Daily means over the past 7 days have run between 489 cfs and 748 cfs, ending roughly where it started.

Mississippi River at Brainerd to Fort Ripley is a Flatwater float in Minnesota — no rapids under normal flows, just moving water and the odd riffle. Most paddlers put in at Brainerd (river access) and take out at Fort Ripley landing.

Whether it's worth the drive comes down to flow. This section generally paddles well at 908–10,000 cfs. Much below that and the Mississippi River gets low and bony, so you end up scraping gravel and walking the shallows; well above the top of the range it turns fast, cold and pushy, which is a more serious day than most casual boaters want. We read USGS gauge 05242300 about every 30 minutes and compare the live number to that window, so the verdict at the top of this page reflects conditions right now rather than a monthly average.

Flows here are usually most dependable May–October. Spring can run high after rain or snowmelt, and late summer often drops too low to float well — but the gauge always beats the calendar, so check today's reading before you go.