Maquoketa River Rental LLC. — Local services in Maquoketa

The beginning of the ride was ok but there were no signs to direct us where to go. The employee who dropped off the canoes said to stop on the left before the bridge at a sand bar but when started to approach near the bridge all I and my rider saw was large chucks of broken, jagged pieces of concrete so we thought it couldn’t be the end point. We continued forward and got caught in a current and our canoe propelled us forward. No one was waiting for us but then we heard someone screaming to turn around but we couldn’t. My sister came out in a kayak and also got caught up in the current. We got to the right bank and while trying to make it to the left side my rider and I fell in the water. We couldn’t swim because the current was so strong. After being in the water over a half an hour an employee came out and instead of trying to assist us he paddled to the canoe stuck in a bramble of trees and left us in cold, dirty water with a heavy current. Too make a long story short - we were in the water for over an hour. We had to trudge through thigh high mud, army crawl in mud covered with bugs, and swim in algae covered water to get to the shore. The kicker is the employee yelled at us, never apologized for not having signs or being there when we arrived, and only got a motor boat there after we were out to retrieve his canoe. It’s extremely dangerous, the customer service is horrible, and we are lucky we...

Once you are on the river it's a fantastic time but the headache of dealing with the staff before hand almost makes you change your mind. If you plan on coming with a group of 35+ people plan for the staff to be stressed out. They are short tempered when it comes to getting tubes together. We had each family pay for what tubes they got and at the end they told us we were $10 short which made absolute no sense being nothing there cost $10 so at the end of the day I'm pretty sure they got us for $10 after paying them close to $900. My they will only let you go in groups of 8 when it comes to tying tubes together which defeats the purpose of going with a larger group. My 7yo was freaking out because his tube was connected to our cooler tube (like everyone was) but he also watched his tube connected to his dad's. His dad asked for an extra strap to connect to our son and the guy told him no. Once we got off the river they accused my husband of stealing a strap! I wouldn't come back to this rental place solely on the staff and their attitudes. And this is our 3rd year doing this trip with the same rental place and it's...

We have went with this rental company for 3 years now. Each year the attitudes of the workers are the worst. We always come with a big group 35 or more people and we call and text in advance so they are aware we are coming and the staff are just not ready for that type of group. They are short with you and just not patient. Once you get on the river it's a great time. I don't like how they want to collect payment as a group when each family in our group pays for themselves. Everyone went up to pay and the lady was trying to say we were $150 short. We questioned it and then she counted again and said oh we are short $10. I'm not sure how anyone shorted the lady $10 when everything is $20 for rental. We paid the extra $10 but I'm pretty sure they got over on us. They were also accusing my brother of stealing a strap when the straps were falling off the tubes as they were bringing us in from the river. We will figure out a different tubal rental next time that are hopefully more...