Me and my son started Kayaking, and we wanted to share some of the places we have been and pick up a few tips.

I have an inflatable two man kayak (because I'm overweight--it is just for me).

I just bought him a menards kayak to replace his inflatable which kept getting holes from the truck or fences we dragged them over.

One place we liked that we found no info on was Sunrise pool #1 in Stacy, which we best accessed East of Stacy at dam #1 early this spring.  
We also tried to Access it from the South via where it runs under the bridge, but the water got to about 3" at the second turn to the left so we went back.  We saw two Heron, a turtle head, and a huge colony of swallows under the bridge, plus some pregnant leeches stuck to our kayak bottoms.  Lots of bugs.  My brother used to bow hunt carp here and it was my dads favorite fishing hole his whole life.

Dam Access put in at cursor:
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Road access and kayak popping fence put in at cursor:
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Been trying to find time to go hit Minnehaha creek again. I’m to lazy for lakes, I kayak rivers.

Whats it like on a river--we want to try but just started and dont know where would be a good starter river.

Do you paddle back upstream to your start point or do you get dropped off and picked up?

Rivers are mostly tame. Minnehaha is something like 22 miles if you go from lake Minnetonka to just before Minnehaha falls.

We use two vehicles and go back and pick up the drop off vehicle once done.

The Rum River from the Rum River Central Regional Park to the Anoka County Fairgrounds is nice and tame. That’s my wife’s favorite paddle.

We drop off my wife’s car at the downstream end-point. She hops in my truck and we go to the upstream start-point and put in the river. Once done, she stays with the ‘yaks while I take her car and go grab my truck.

Kayaking is awesome. Was kayaking and hiking in the bwca last week.  I fish from my kayaks most of the time. Practice getting in them from the water where it’s calm. You never know when you’ll capsize so it’s good to practice beforehand.

Down in the metro my wife and I kayaked Rice Creek from Lexington Ave to Mounds View Blvd, which was pretty nice.  You can kayak it longer than just that stretch.  You do have to consider the water level in the spring though as it runs under county road I and it might be wise to get out and portage.  The portage spot is before you can see the bridge/culvert so if you don't make your decision before hand things could get tricky.

Robinson Park in Sandstone which is on the Kettle River is pretty popular for Kayaking.

We are contemplating a river run but i want to upgrade from my 2 person inflatable before then

We have yakked howard lake (w of forest lake) twice, and little lake near center city.

Thinking about kayaking this weekend, but the rivers are low.

Minnehaha is too low.

Considering:

Cannon River from Faribault to Northfield or maybe a different stretch
St Croix from Taylors falls to Osceola landing
Rum from Isanti to St Francis

Anybody have any recommendations?

If you are willing to travel a little further check out the Crow Wing river. I canoed and floated it many times as a kid. You can do day trips or 2-4 day trips. There are campgrounds along the way.

I've camped up there, that would be fun. Not enough time this trip.