BAD RIVER (Ashland Co., WI, 4 mi. south of Mellen)

LENGTH 5 mi., CLASS III-IV

SEASON: A week or two in early spring.

PUT-IN: Conley Rd. Bridge across the river. Drive 4 miles south of Mellen on Hwy. 13-77 and turn west onto Conley Rd. (FR 184). 1.2 miles down this road you will reach a bridge that is the put-in.

TAKEOUT: Where the river comes near Hwy. GG, 2 miles west of Mellen.

GAGE: Visual

FUN FACT: Copper Falls worth checking out.

FIRST DESCENT:

SHUTTLE: From the put-in drive back east on Conley Rd. to Hwy. 13-77. Drive north 4 miles on this road into Mellen and take Co. Hwy. GG 2 miles west to the takeout on river left.

The big drop on this run is Rocket Railroad Rapids which rates class IV. A put-in at the town of Cayuga (upstream of Conley Rd.) adds two nice ledge drops and a bit of flatwater. The put-in is in the backyard of the Cayuga Hotel Saloon. This old logger's hotel offers rooms with a common bath upstairs for ten bucks a head. Quite a deal when it's cold and nasty outside.

Another possible run starts at the Hwy. 169 Bridge a mile northeast of Mellen and continues to Copper Falls. There is a fair amount of flatwater and some expert whitewater in this section. The gorge below Copper Falls has some possibilities but it looks pretty mean at high water (class VI). We have seen trees being trashed about pretty good so a boater would probably not last long. The entrance to the gorge below Copper Falls is prohibited and will probably result in arrest if caught. Guess someone will just need to run the falls to get a crack at the gorge. We make an annual pilgrimage to Copper Falls to pick our lines over the drop each spring, but we have not known anyone to try running it yet.

Canoe runs begin even further downstream and often start on the Marengo River which is a tributary to the Bad.

thanks to Dag Grada for his contributions to this description