St Croix River Canoe Trip Log, May 10-11, 2020
The St. Croix River is a National Wild and Scenic River on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It’s 169 miles in length and has historic significance in the fur trade as it was the highway that connected Lake Superior to the Mississippi. Its undeveloped, tree-lined shores are surrounded by state forests and parks. It’s a laid-back river with a few rapids thrown in. As a result, St. Croix a world-class river for canoeing and kayaking. It has numerous campsites, good fishing, and abundant wildlife along its shores.
I have canoed this river several times every year since 2005. In 2020, I was able to sneak 3 trips in. It’s a convenient, one-hour drive from my home to Grantsburg, where my outfitter is based. On these trips the outfitter takes me to canoe landings 10 to 20 miles upriver where I begin my travel downstream.
Day 1, May 10, 2020
I drove to Grantsburg to meet Jerry, who runs Wild River Outfitters with his wife Marilyn. Instead of the longer 30-river-mile Thayer to Highway 70 bridge trip, I decided to do just the run from Norway Point to Hwy 70, about 15 miles. This trip includes some easy Class 1 Rapids.
I would have preferred taking 3 days and 2 nights for the full trip but even just the overnight was worth it given the short drive from St Michael.
I put in at the Norway Point landing late at 5pm. The river was higher than normal, high enough that Jerry said I could take the Kettle River Slough, a shallow side channel that is impassable during low water. I chose not to take this route because I wanted to get to the campsite at the end of the Slough faster, and the alternate river left stretch is scenic, with endless white pines and gentle, undulating rapids. The campsite at the end of the confluence of the Kettle and St Croix Rivers was my goal for the first night. In the first hour of the trip I saw a beautiful immature bald eagle and a nesting osprey nesting near Nelson’s Landing, about 3 miles downriver from Norway Point. Turkey Vultures were lazily circling in the sky. The wind rose and fell, up to almost 15 knots, then dropping to calm again. But it was generally steady from the northwest at about 10 to 12 knots. The sky was cloudy, the temperature around 50 F.
My canoe paddle strokes were less rusty than on the previous weekend’s trip on the Kettle River. I kept the GoPro Camera clamped to front of boat, and took footage with both phone and voice control. I plan to turn on the linear (non fish eye) camera mode on more often. Also based on the high glare due to reflections of the water on this trip, I decided to purchase ND filters for cinematic views, and a polarizing filter to handle glare on the water. Another lesson: check the settings before every shot as the settings I used during the trip were not ideal. I know all this sounds obvious but I am hoping readers can learn from my mistakes.
On the first night night I targeted the South Point Camp, where the Kettle River Slough meets the St. Croix River. I have camped here many times in the past, with family and friends including with my son Andrew.
After a routine 8 mile paddle I came into camp at about 7:30pm and quickly got set up. Started a fire with an Esbit solid fuel cube. Did not cook, ate cheese and peanuts plus Federalist Lodi Zinfandel. Temperatures in camp dropped quickly after dark, to around 40 degrees, and I put on all my wool clothing and a goose down parka. I used the parka and a heavy sweater to cover my thin sleeping bag to stay warm that night. I do not like the narrow inflatable bed and plan to upgrade. Once it got dark I headed to bed. A bird made an odd call, a short buzz, on a regular 10 second or so cadence. It seemed to move around a lot. Otherwise an uneventful, rather cold night, with temps down to the mid 20s. I got up in the middle of the night to pee and saw that the sky had cleared and there was almost a full moon. Unlike previous solo trips, I had no fear of being alone. Bronze Age Mindset.
Day 2, May 11, 2020
The next morning, I slept in, until after 8am. The bright sun warmed my tent. A beautiful but chilly morning in camp.
I spent the morning and early afternoon reading, writing, and just soaking in the beauty of this magical spot, its wide, generous view of the rushing river, multiple islands and shorelines and big southern exposure, almost like a lake.
Many white wildflowers, Trillium, were coming up. I photographed them, and various parts of the rapids and the river with both the GoPro and my Sony A7III. A gorgeous bright day. I was approached by two shy deer who, after letting me take pictures for a few minutes, fled into the woods. Since this was a Monday, there was much less ATV noise from the nearby state park than the weekend before. Fabulous. That morning I did not cook, other than boiled water for coffee. Who knew fasting and hard spring travel go together. Tree swallows swarmed above my camp and the river all day, feasting on some bugs I never identified, but they must have been there because something was fueling their swarming energy. Saw eagles, ducks, mergansers, turkey vultures and more. Animals, like people, love spring.
Broke camp around 3pm and headed downriver. This time I tucked my behind in the rail behind my seat, and kept my back slightly curled, and my abs and gluts tight and this helped immensely with preventing back pain. It’s interesting how we have to relearn the basics every season for a lot of things, including canoeing.
I had two GoPro’s for filming and took quite a few shots. My plan was to fly the drone but to my surprise there were a lot of people on the river and the wind was a little high so the drone stayed grounded. GoPro settings: I found if I use the GoPro color settings, the results are pretty good. Dramatic but good. One camera was misconfigured and used 16:9 for the camera aspect ratio; the other camera had the ISO and color settings wrong. And both cameras needed polarizing and ND filters.
Otherwise the 7 mile paddle from camp to the takeout at the Highway 70 bridge was an idyll; cool, nice breeze on my back, the river just right in terms of flow. In a few places the wind veered and came upriver, briefly slowing me down, but the bright sun and quiet river made for a lovely spring trip. Pulled out at Hwy 70 and got back to St Michael on a routine return trip.