Pepin, WI, is about 70 miles SE of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. It’s a beautiful drive, and depending on how you drive it’s about 90 minutes. I come down the Wisconsin side most often, through Prescott on WI-35. The mistake some make is thinking that Lake Pepin means Lake City, but that’s incorrect. Lake City is 6 miles upriver from Pepin and is on the Minnesota side. You can see it from here!

Lake Pepin is a wide spot on the Mississippi river and sometimes that’s confusing. Yes, it’s a lake, but it’s also the river.

We’re 45 minutes from Eau Claire, an hour from Rochester, 90 minutes from LaCrosse. Google has it figured out, so if you need directions scroll down and I’ve included the map.

Once you get to Pepin take a turn (right if from upriver, left if from downriver) and get down to the lake. The marina is pretty hard to miss – look for the boats! When you turn into the upriver entrance to the marina you will take a left and then immediately look for B Dock. Rudder Chaos is the fifth boat on the left.

Any of the commercially available maps will get you to the marina. Once there you will enter on the upriver side (see map below, the upriver entrance is where you see the “Public Restrooms” arrow. Feel free to stop in the bathroom before getting on the boat, the public ones are on the far side of the building that’s not on the map but it’s there, I promise. You can park inside the marina, usually right near B dock which is where you will find the boat.