Canoe vs Kayak for the Mississippi Source to Sea: What We Used and Why

In the summer of 2023 we paddled 2,450 unforgettable miles down the Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota all the way to the gulf.

Since then one of my passions has been spreading word about just how accessible, and seriously underrated, this trip is. For anyone interested in long-distance adventure in the U.S. the Mississippi River is truly a top tier experience.

Short version: get a used Souris Quetico '17 or similar type canoe and enjoy.

Our goal was to paddle the entire way from the headwaters down to the gulf during Jen's summer break. There were two of us and we decided to risk the dreaded divorce boat factor and use a single boat instead of two smaller ones since it significantly cut down on the effort needed to set up camp each night or take breaks during the day.

Because of the number of portages involved in the first 1,150 or so miles I took the approach of thinking about portaging first, anything else second. Therefore I was willing to spend a little more money to get things light and manageable in a single go 

This paid off massively.

Jen and I would traditionally identify as kayak people. We own touring kayaks, we have fancy carbon fibre paddles, and we've done quite a bit with them both for short day excursions and multi day trips.

However we are also well versed in their downsides. Even with our own Wilderness Design Tempests I find I struggle with back pain if I have to sit in the cockpit for more than a few hours. Also while it's great to paddle once inside getting in and out of a kayak can involve some balancing and awkward movement. And while the cargo hatches are satisfyingly waterproof getting anything of reasonable size in and out of them can be a real pain usually leading to a top heavy bag loaded onto the top.

So we started to expand into the world of canoes which feature a far more natural sitting position and a lot easier entrance and exit in addition to more easily handling gear storage and access.

I've since talked to others who used kayaks for their source to sea paddles and they described at great length how much pain they were in and how they had to stop every few hours and stretch on a beach. Our breaks on the other hand were more a bit more enjoyable.

Please note that when considering kayaks I'm specifically talking about touring style kayaks with a cockpit, sea skirt, and waterproof hatches.

I would strongly recommend against something like a site on top kayak due to how much wake you'll face down south and sometimes earlier when the wind really gets going.

Also while it might be tempting to consider a pedal driven kayak to save your arms keep in mind a good amount of time especially early on is spent in shallow water and having to drag the boat over beaver dams. I'd only ever consider something like that if you're starting at Bemidji or below. And even then it's going to make it significantly more difficult to drag your boat up on shore at the end of the day and also significantly harder to portage. I really don't think it's worth the tradeoff.

Our initial attempt at a canoe coming from the world of kayaks was kind of hilarious. We went up to do the Sayward Forest Canoe Route and with no internet we made a comical show doing big curves and loops across the lakes trying to figure out how to paddle in tandem. A pre Mississippi warmup trip on the Suwannee River in Florida went a lot better after we did a little research on how to J-Stroke.

Here's the thing with the Mississippi Source to Sea: even if you've never paddled a canoe before the river provides ample training along the way. 

The initial section of the river isn't open water. I mean we briefly paddled across part of Lake Itasca from the outfitter when we launched but the first one to two days is a small winding affair where you are more worried about running around or getting caught in brush vs paddling technique.

By the time you reach Lake Bemidji it gets a little more open but it's mostly quiet calm sections where we'd rarely see another boat outside of the occasional lake. 

The first time we had to do any paddling of real consequence was Lake Winnibigoshish mile 95 and there the safe bet is to just stick near the shore anyway. Beyond some minor recreational boat traffic things didn't get serious until we passed Minneapolis around Mile 500 when we started passing through locks and seeing barge traffic. And even that was a lot safer than people seem to assume.

By the time we were making our way through Baton Rouge having to deal with ocean going vessels we were well seasoned. If slightly sunburned.

I'm planning a deep dive into all of our gear for another article but here are a few items specific to our boat we found useful.

Similar to the canoe itself we figured with how much paddling we'd be doing every day if we were going to spend money on anything besides a better boat it was paddles. 

We absolutely love these paddles and if we lost them tomorrow we'd buy the same ones in a heartbeat. You really can't appreciate how much of a difference a light paddle makes when you're paddling 10+ hours a day every day. These are so light they practically disappear in our hands yet provide a solid satisfying stroke.

We spent a bit of time going down a rabbit hole of bent vs straight paddles. The conventional wisdom is that straight allows you to steer a bit better while bent is far more efficient for traveling distances. We went bent and had no regrets.

Jen was fine sitting on the bench but I really enjoyed having the ability to lean back and slouch. Best $45 I spent.

Jen and I don't have a permanent home and all of our gear has to fit in a small storage locker in between trips. Considering this we had no interest in investing in or owning a canoe long term.

We've found that for this sort of trip it's a lot more affordable and convenient to rent from local outfitters near where the trip starts. Or for something longer distance like this to buy a used boat and sell it afterwards. That was the plan we used here and hopefully in the future for the Yukon.

Searching online I found multiple outfitters selling canoes they'd previously used for a few years as rentals. The condition varied but some outfitters even do a full on refurbish on them before selling though you can expect to pay a premium for these. Most often the boats had minor repairs or cosmetic damage like the gunwale damage on ours.

I focused on Boundary Waters because Quetico's seem to be quite popular up there and there were multiple outfitters specializing in canoe rentals.

We ended up buying a used Souris Quetico for $1,300 from LaTourell's Moose Lake Outfitters. They mentioned boats being available on their website and we contacted them via email in October of 2022. 

We decided to be cautious and picked the one in the best shape for a little more considering we couldn't inspect it ourselves ahead of time.

For comparison a new Quetico would have been around $3,000. 

Now for the painful part: getting the boat to the headwaters.

As I've covered elsewhere we drove to Bemidji in a one way rental car from Southern California. The plan we came up with was to drive out to Boundary Waters first, pick up the boat, and then drive it back to the headwaters. I'd then drop Jen off with the boat and gear, return the rental car, and get a ride back via Uber / taxi / river angel.

We ended up really lucking out and not having to do this. When I asked on the Mississippi River Paddlers Facebook group about how difficult hitching back from the rental car dropoff might be we had multiple offers for a ride and then one amazing fellow who actually offered to get our boat from Boundary Waters head of time as he was going to be that way for a boyscout trip.

Learn the lesson: reach out often and early and much pain can be avoided.

So in the end we paid for our boat over the phone and it ended up getting delivered for us to another river angel at Lake Itasca Sports who stored it until we arrived. Highly convenient outside of the fact we didn't have the opportunity to modify anything ahead of time. But in the end we just got moving and applied some stickers to the outside at camp the first night.

By the time we reached the gulf we were quite attached to our little boat and it was a lot harder to contemplate getting rid of it.

After 75 days of near endless sunshine and the occasional rock scrape our trusty Quetico was perfectly sound with maybe a few more creaks and some significant algae growth around the waterline. 

Initially my plan when we thought we would just do the Atchafalaya finish was to wait around the campground right at the end at Burns Point. I'd list it for sale on Facebook Marketplace a few days out and worse case I could just hang out and wait a few days until someone could come and get it.

I still think this would have worked fine. However we ended up doing the gulf finish as well after that so in the end we had another trail angel give us a ride back into New Orleans and sold it there.

I listed it on Facebook Marketplace when we were a few days out from Venice and listed the available date as when we planned to finish. I asked $800 not wanting to hassle too much and we had multiple offers pretty quickly. While a few were the usual low ball time wasters it did seem like this particularly boat isn't usually found down this far south meaning there was a demand.

It sold quickly for the full $800. Our posting was honest about the condition and what we'd just done with it even pointing them at our YouTube channel if they wanted to see it in action. I think we could have easily gotten a bit more if we wanted the hassle. Which we really didn't.

If we ever did this trip again I'd use the same boat in a heartbeat. While we felt like we were having to work a bit harder than some folks around us who were using kayaks the comfort, stability, cargo access, and ease of portaging more than made up for every drawback.

So what do you think?