Paddling the Mississippi River in St. Paul is about to get as easy as renting a bike.

Paddle Share, a National Park Service-led kayak-rental operation that opened last summer in Minneapolis, will expand into St. Paul in late July or early August. A fee of $25 (one-person kayak) or $40 (tandem) will get you three hours to explore the river, starting at Hidden Falls Regional Park and ending at Harriet Island across the river from downtown St. Paul.

A separate segment of the kayak rental service already operates in Minneapolis between North Mississippi Regional Park and Boom Island Park above St. Anthony Falls.

Potential sites for future expansions in St. Paul include Lilydale Regional Park and Pig’s Eye Lake.

The program operates much like Nice Ride Minnesota, purveyor of the increasingly ubiquitous lime-green rental bicycles: reservations are made online and the actual grabbing and returning of the kayaks, paddles and life vests is done at self-serve stations. In fact, Paddle Share has partnered with Nice Ride to make exploring the river without a car — or at least getting back to your car — convenient. A related website— RiverTripPlanner.org — includes an interactive map that shows real-time info on available bikes, as well as mass transit info for light rail and buses.

“We’re trying to connect people to the river, even without a car,” said Susan Overson, project manager for Paddle Share for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, which is operated by the National Park Service.

Officials said they were happy with last year’s late-summer launch of the program in Minneapolis and have already seen the number of people served — 300 — surpassed this year. It operates Friday through Monday, as well as Tuesday, July 4. Because the river flows and has motorboat traffic, people who have never paddled before are discouraged from Paddle Share. Related Articles Cowles Center for Dance among first to present live indoor performance with audience

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Overson said much of the funding for this year’s expansion of the program (a rental station is also planned at Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park in Brooklyn Park) is being paid for with federal Park Service funds intended for alternative transportation. The total budget for 2017 is about $225,000, not including donations.

Rental fees are fully returned to the program itself, and the ultimate goal is to make revenues pay for operating expenses, said Katie Nyberg, executive director of Mississippi Park Connection, a Park Service-designated nonprofit that operates the program in Minneapolis. “We know in order to be sustainable, this has to pay for itself,” she said.

The two new St. Paul stations will be operated by the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department, but Overson and Nyberg said no one should notice who’s behind the technology. “It should be seamless … same system, same rules, same prices,” Nyberg said. The actual storage lockers and software behind the reservation system was developed by Albert Lea-based iPaddlePort.