The St. Croix River Association sent a couple e-mail updates recently as its party of paddlers works its way down the river. The group arrived in Marine on St. Croix yesterday and will be in Stillwater on Monday, then finishing up with a big party in Prescott on Friday.
Tuesday, July 12 update:
Being on the river with all it’s beauty inspired one of our paddlers. Here’s a river poem by Randy Berg:
Paddle the River
Paddle the river
making new friends
paddle the river
to where it ends
Paddle the river
sea wonderful sight
on otter, a deer
or an eagle in flight
Paddle the river
watch fish swim by
every new bend
brings a tear to my eye
Paddle the river
with firm determination
keep this river
one of the gems of our nation
And here’s a picture of Randy doing a little fishing:
Friday, July 15 – First thunderstorm delay for the paddlers
Considering this is the 10th day of the Be Moved paddle it’s pretty good that this is there first thunderstorm delay. We were expecting some pretty serious rain so a contingency plan was made where everyone knew which vehicle they were going to jump in to if the weather became severe. Remember the game where you tried to see how many people you could fit in a VW Bug? Well, it would have been something like that, but luckily it was just rain with the occasional thunder and lightening and we didn’t need to make a mad dash for the cars.
About 10:00 Dale and Russell from the NPS showed up with a 10 x 15 pop-up tent which was great to stand under to keep out of the rain, but as you can see from the photo above, one of our paddlers just hunkered down. As I was leaving to head back to town, Dale Cox was going to start an educational program to entertain the paddlers as they waited for a better weather window.
In the photo below of the NPS tent, there are just a hand full of paddlers, but about 5 minutes later we were squeezed in like sardines. Contented sardines. They’re a great group – very laid back and easy going. By the way, if you show up in the morning with a tray full of homemade sticky-buns warm from the oven – they will give you a very enthusiastic welcome (they loved me this morning).
Our paddlers weren’t about to miss a part of the river, and scuttle the day, because of the delay and more rain, so they set off 3 hours late and should be arriving all soaking wet in St. Croix Falls shortly.
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Sally and I took part in the paddle yesterday. (After hearing of the adventures of those doing the whole river, I refer to our experience as “Moved by the River Lite.”)
Got to see a part of the river I haven’t seen for a long time (including the beautiful, weeping, mossy sandstone shoreline along Wm. O’Brien Park.)
Great event, nice group of paddlers, merciful clouds to absorb some of the heat, warm welcome in Marine…wonderful day!