September 5, 2015

Water.  What about water is so peaceful?  I’ll leave that to the scientists and philosophers to answer that one, I’ll just enjoy the fact that it is so.

My son and I helped move my daughter to Minneapolis this weekend.  For me, travel equals find nature, and this trip provided a few opportunities.  One of the highlights was a canoe and kayak trip down the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, just east of Minneapolis.  We paddled the stretch from Minnesota Interstate Park to Osceola Landing, a 6.6 mile trip.  Our outfitter for the day was Riverwood Canoe in Osceola, Wisconsin.  I highly recommend Riverwood!

In Michigan, our bigger rivers tend to be in the 20-50′ wide range.  Some certainly bigger, but most I have paddled have been this size or smaller through most of their length (impoundments excluded).  This generally means that there is a bit of meaningful current and that there is enough tree protection to keep the wind from impacting you too much.  Well, that is not the case on the St. Croix.  It is big and wide.  And windy!  On this day we earned our 6.6 miles, and it was a great trip.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.