Black River — Lower (North Bend to Galesville): River Level Today — Can You Paddle It?

At 471 cfs the Black River is 171 cfs above the 300 cfs minimum for this reach. There is no published upper bound for this section, so the reading tells you it is floatable, not how pushy it is.

Over the last 24 hours it has barely moved, 467 cfs to 471 cfs. Daily means over the past 8 days have run between 463 cfs and 536 cfs, 14% lower at the end of the week than the start.

Black River at Lower (North Bend to Galesville) is a Flatwater float in Wisconsin — no rapids under normal flows, just moving water and the odd riffle. Most paddlers put in at North Bend landing and take out at Galesville / Lake Marinuka area.

Whether it's worth the drive comes down to flow. This section generally paddles well at above 300 cfs (a conservative estimate — see our methodology). Much below that and the Black 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 05382000 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.