Paddle Fest Otter Tail River State Water Trail

What has become a MN DNR Parks and Trails Annual Event , The Otter Tail River State Water Trail Paddle Fest. Is scheduled for Saturday July 22 from 3-6 pm. From 3:00 -5:00 pm we will be offering free lessons and kayak or canoeing from the Veterans Park ADA Kayak Launch located behind the fire station in Fergus Falls. At 5 pm the Fun challenge race will begin. It is a relatively short paddle from Veterans Park up stream to the East Mt Faith Bridge and back to the starting line. The river narrows and the current gets a little stronger as you go. Along the way you will find three turn around ribbon points. Green ,Yellow, and Red each getting progressively harder to reach. The goal is to have fun and see how far up you can make it and then race downstream back to the finish line. Right around 25 minutes is the record and an 8 year old finished last year in just under an hour for the red ribbon located at East Mt Faith. Last year we also had two people make the whole route on Stand up Paddle boards Even if you do not want to race it is a fun event just to be on the river cheering people on We will have the MN DNR Parks and Trail’s I Can Paddle Crew helping us out again this year with their trailer of ten Kayaks and 8 canoes. There are also scheduled trips that you can sign up for Saturday Morning through the I Can Paddle program on the DNR Parks and Trails reservation web site.