St. Croix River State Park

Ever since I bought my canoe last fall, I've been wanting to so some river paddling. Nik and I got a small taste of this in our Minnehaha Creek paddle. We started talking about this with Alex's girlfriend Claire's family as they have done quite a bit of padding in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in the northern part of the state. The more we talked, we kinda thought that for Chris, this might be a bit too aggressive for a first attempt. So, we decided instead to spend four days in St. Croix River State Park. Our plan was to base camp in the group camping area and then do day trips through two separate stretches of the river.

Sadly the physical stress of the week leading up to the trip and getting organized and packed, by the time we arrived at the camp site, Chris' back was really in bad shape. Our hope was that if she took it easy she would be able to make it though the trip. By 9 pm on our first evening, it was clear to me that to subject her to nights of sleeping on an air mattrise and days on a camp chair, would be too painful. So against her initial wishes, I urged Chris to let me take her home. So as not to ruin the weekend for the Johnson's, Nik volunteered to some home with her to nurse her back to health while I would return back to the Camp early Sunday morning to join up with Alex and Catie who would stay in camp.

The rest of the trip was fun, but just not the same without Chris and Nik with us. We did a 15 mile paddle on Sunday and an 8 mile paddle on Monday. We packed up after breakfast on Tuesday and headed home, arriving back around 3 pm. Chris' back was doing better, having had a few days of rest. I have posted a few photos of our 15 mile paddle trip on the Family Web Site. Please feel free to visit.