Traders Bar & Grill

Just spend the weekend here on a canoe trip and the Traders folks were awesome. The camp site, canoes and food was top notch. I would highly recommend this and I plan on going again.

This is a great place to plan a weekend camping trip for any size group. I came up with a group of 13 friends for a weekend of camping and tubing and we all had a great time.
The bar isn’t fancy but they have great food, an awesome Bloody Mary bar in the mornings and a pretty decent selection of beer. We had breakfast here twice and dinner once over the course of the weekend and every meal was good. We didn’t have food delivered to the campsite at all but were told that they do offer that as an option.
They do a great job of helping plan your trip and coordinating tube or canoe rentals and pick up/​drop off as well. We’ll be looking to make this an annual trip!

A group of 9 of us recently camped on their campground and canoed the river for the 4^th of July weekend. The owner of the bar and the staff that took us up river with the canoes were extremely friendly and welcomed us.
At the time there was a bunch of firewood, probably a half face cord already there and they didn’t charge us for it. There wasn’t a grill but the owner lent us a grate from the bar that we propped up on some logs to put over the fire.
The costs involved was extremely cheap for the campground and canoe rental. We stopped into the bar a couple mornings for breakfast and Bloody Mary’s all of which was excellent and very cheap compared to Chicago prices. Two breakfasts and a Bloody Mary totaled out to about $ 14! I’m used to paying more than twice as much for this.
After our canoe trip the staff stopped by check on us to see if we needed anything and hung out for a while. Which in my experience with private campgrounds is pretty rare. It was definitely appreciated.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone and look forward to coming back here in the future.

We headed up from Chicago to do a little camping and canoeing and had a great time. Traders came recommended by a friend and I can see why. When we arrived on Friday there were thunderstorms so we were advised not to head out to the river and start our trip. Instead, we were escorted down to a campground a few miles from the restaurant, down by the river.
(Bonus points awarded for Traders taking our best interests to heart and not allowing us to head out into the storms, as they would have made more $$ if we had paid for a night of canoe rental vs. just campground rental).
The campground was fine ($ 15/​night), had very clean porta-​potties and firewood available at the bar ($ 5/​bundle). The next day we headed out on our canoe trip. The staff was helpful in deciding how far of a trip we should take (20 miles), picked us up from the campground (where we left our car) and dropped us off upstream. Canoe rental was $ 45/​per canoe /​per night (we made our reservation ahead of time).
Once you start your canoeing you can stay overnight essentially anywhere. There are lots of sandbars and islands along the way, you just need to pick your spot! This clearly is a popular adventure for lots of people, don’t come out here if you’re expecting solitude and isolation. I’m not saying it was over-​run, but there were definitely always people within eyesight. If you pick a big sandbar you’ll probably end up with neighbors, just fyi. Everyone we encountered was friendly and fun, so we didn’t mind… it just wasn’t the back-​country I was expecting! A lot of people also bring their dogs along, so feel free to do that if you have a dog-​friendly canine companion.
Staying on an island or sandbar means finding wood /​kindling is difficult. I would recommend bringing your own or buying it from the bar. Dry bags (waterproof bags) are definitely a good idea. We didn’t tip, but it wouldn’t have been hard to. The river really varies in depth — one minute it’s über shallow, the next there’s a sudden drop-​off. Rumor has it the current is deceptive and pretty strong, so have those life jackets on or really close by.
How far you should choose to go is dependant on the weather. We did 15 miles against the wind and it took us about 6 hours… but most people said it was windier than they’d ever seen before; usually I think you can do a lot more floating and the current carries you. Day #2 we did 5 miles in a little over an hour… I think that’s a better indication of how fast it can go by (that was with paddling most of the way, not floating).
BOTTOM LINE: I would definitely go back and definitely use Traders again! Fingers crossed for better weather next time.

A big group of my friends and I have come up this way every summer for about the last 12 years for canoeing and drinking ’til we pass out. The bar owner also owns a big spot of land for camping on the nearby Wisconsin River, and they also rent canoes for short trips or overnighters.
This weekend, it rained on our canoeing parade all day Saturday, so we decided not to go canoeing after all. Camping on their land was $ 10 a person for the whole weekend, and the canoes would have been $ 35 a couple for the entire day Saturday, including pick up and drop off at our leisure. However, they did not charge us anything, no deposit or cancellation fee for those canoes!
We set up a large tarp shelter, and the camp ground has relatively clean port-​a-​potties. There’s quite a few people who seem to live in their trailers for the season, but everybody is pretty friendly. One star off for the big group of frat boys who played loud, bad MTV rap pretty late, but maybe that’s more of a comment on how old my group is getting…
Also, the bar itself is your basic country-​boys’ tavern, but the food is decent, and they have awesome fried cheese curds and super cheap prices.
They really work with you to plan a nice weekend getaway, from a two hour canoe trip to an all-​weekend affair. I also hear that they’ll cater dinner to their campground when you get back from canoeing, though we like to cook, so we haven’t done that one yet.