Canoe Trip Continued

I almost forgot to mention our canoe trip was with a state park ranger.  While wearing her Smokey the Bear hat in her tiny blue kayak she told us all about the river. She focused on geology for quite a while. Her voice carried well over the still water.  She says Minnesota has the oldest rocks of any other state in our nation.  Canada has some a little bit older but Minnesota ranks #1 as far as old rocks and we should tell that to the park rangers at the Grand Canyon.  The oldest rock is Morton Gneiss (pronounced Morton Nice).  The river is brown like root beer and even has some foam on it because it starts in a bog in Wisconsin. The bog has acidic water.  The water in a bog is so acid that if you were dying of thirst it would be safe to drink from a bog.  The water in the Saint Croix, although pristine, is not safe to drink because of the ducks and other waterfowl (waterfoul).  She says giardia (an intestinal infection you can get from drinking foul water) is a month-long regret.  She was a funny ranger. Water from the same bog at the Saint Croix headwaters also flows north into the Brule River (famous for white water rafting) into Lake Superior. She said when the voyageurs came to Minnesota the people here were astounded by the fact they wanted the beaver.  Beaver pelts were high fashion in Europe and worth a pretty penny.  Once that was over the settlers wanted the tall, straight 200 foot high white pines. For a paper mill to be a success they had to have a constant steady supply of logs. To keep the log supply steady for the paper mill they built a dam.  She also said, and I have always wondered about this, Taylors Falls never had any falls.  A more accurate name would be Taylors Rapids. If you have been to Taylors Falls you might have seen the sharp right turn the river takes there. Most rivers do not make ninety degree turns but the hard rock forced the water to go that way.  In the winter the ice was a barrier to moving logs. The loggers made ice breaker islands that are still there.  They made six huge wooden crates and filled them with boulders. Over the years the wood is gone and the boulders have shifted but the islands remain. Our ranger told us to look for painted, spiny softshell and map turtles on the ice breaker islands. As my partner and I went by the first island we saw a painted, a spiny softshell AND a map turtle on one island big enough to park one car. This was one talented park ranger! She said if we see a log popping up out of the water (and we do all the time) and the log has a marking on it, it is probably a white pine cut by the loggers.  If we find one we should notify the MN Historical Society as they will want to know about this. We had lunch on a sandy island.  My partner wanted to see a belted kingfisher. As she relaxed on the beach eating her sandwich and I stood in the warm water eating donated gorp I saw one coming up the river pausing at one tree before proceeding to the next.  "Look!" I shouted at my partner,"A belted kingfisher came just for you!"  We proceeded down stream.  My partner and I took the path less traveled around one island. We took the shallow side. Away from the group my partner and I took to singing songs like Yankee Doodle Dandy, My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean, and a great rendition of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore. She knew more words than I did.  I wasn't sure I was up to a canoe trip this year because of my hips but now I know I can do it.  I just need someone to steady the boat.  I will start planning another canoe trip for August or September and suggest this part of the river instead of the Taylors Falls to Osceola trip.  Both trips cost the same so why not explore a different part of the most amazing, most pristine, historic Saint Croix river?