About Paddle Today

Paddle Today is for river paddlers who want to find the best paddling options today without bouncing between gauges, maps, weather forecasts, and river notes.

River and route coverage starts in the Midwest and focuses first on the routes with the strongest gauge stories, clearest access info, and most trustworthy source material. Currently this consists of popular routes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, with more rivers added as the data quality supports it.

This project is new and still changing quickly, with direction shaped by community feedback.

Provide feedback Request a route

Scores

How Scoring Works

Bottom line: Water level/flow decides if a river is paddleable. Weather and other factors increase or decrease the score from there.

Score	What it usually means	Loose qualifications
Strong	Near ideal conditions	Water in range + low weather risk + strong data confidence
Good	Solid option	Workable water with one or two detractors such as light rain or low temperature
Fair: tradeoffs	Paddleable, but check the tradeoffs before you drive	Water in range but weather, thin data, or route cautions pulling it down
No-go	Not a good call today	Gauge clearly out of range or the overall risk stack is too high (storms, ice, closures, obstructions, etc.)

Everything starts with enough water to paddle. From there, the score drops for storms, wind, cold air or water, incoming rain, or weak data confidence.

Coverage

Adding new routes

Not every river makes sense for the site yet. To keep the recommendations trustworthy, I only add routes that meet three basic requirements:

A reliable live gauge from USGS, MN DNR, or an equivalent official source
Known usable/preferred water levels
Clear put-in and take-out coordinates

Data Sources

Most of the site runs on public data and route-specific knowledge.

USGS Water Data and MN DNR River Levels (live gauges, with trends where the source provides samples)
National Weather Service (forecasts, wind, temps, storm risk)
State DNR pages (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa)
Local trip reports and paddling references
OpenStreetMap and similar for access context

Safety & Limits

Use this as a planning tool, not a guarantee.

A good score doesn't mean a river is automatically safe. And a low score doesn't replace your judgment either. Conditions can change fast. Rain, debris, strainers, ice, or access issues can turn a decent-looking day into a bad one.

Always do your own due diligence, check the river when you get there, and paddle within your skill level.