By Jen Goepfert
Whew! I can’t believe the year is ending! What a whirlwind semester! I have a ton of memories of Mini-School, but my favorite is most definitely of our canoe trip to the St. Croix River.
I decided to end the year on a quiet reflective note with a brief introduction to American Nature writers. When I found out that Mini-School owned canoes, I couldn’t believe our luck! I decided to take my class out of the school for the day so they could “get their feet wet.”
I invited Paul Gerten back to help out with the trip. Paul is a former Mini-School teacher who now works with Wilderness Inquiry, an outfit that provides outdoor adventure experiences. Even though I am a huge outdoor enthusiast and have been canoeing hundreds of times, I knew that I would need help with this trip, I was so grateful to have Paul with us on this trip. His expertise and his experience came in handy.
Together, we planned a trip that would start at Interstate State Park, just south of Taylor’s Falls, and would end about 16 miles downriver at William O’Brien State park. I had canoed a section of this run before and Paul was familiar with the whole route. We decided to take the kids out on Tuesday, May 23rd. My plan was to enjoy a nice, leisurely paddle downstream, stop for lunch, journal for a bit, and finish up around five o’clock. Of course, I should have known that Mother Nature doesn’t usually care about your plans.
The morning of the 23rd, Rosalind Turner helped Paul and me load the canoes and get the trailer ready for the trip. The rest of the class was ready and waiting for us: Alex Lopez, Chase Crowley, Renee Aymar, Amanda Frederick, Steve Iversrud, Chris Guilfoil, Molly Piotter, and Monica Sheats all joined us. Paul even brought his dog, Murphy! We left the high school around 8:30. Ramona was a huge help. She followed the Mini-School van and canoes and shuttled the van to our take-out site after she dropped us off. Thanks Ramona!
When we unloaded at Interstate, everyone was abuzz with excitement. Paul and I, being the old fogies of the group, slathered ourselves with a ton of sunscreen. We reminded everyone to lotion up but were met with a chorus of, “I never burn.” Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. We loaded up the canoes and headed out.
The weather was beautiful for the most part but we were paddling into some pretty nice headwinds for the majority of the trip. This meant that at some times, when the wind came up hard, if we stopped paddling, we would start going backwards. But we made it through the first leg of the trip in the time I had figured and we had a great time paddling around and laughing.
We stopped midway for lunch where, after gorging ourselves on sandwiches, chips and cookies, students grabbed their notebooks and found a quiet spot to journal alone. There, they began making observations and writing impressions about the river and our trip so far. Some of the students even wrote poetry. It was nice to see everyone engaged in their notebooks for a while.
After lunch, we loaded back up and headed into the second leg of the trip. I started noticing some pretty pink skin everywhere I looked, and my sunscreen suddenly became very popular. The wind kicked up pretty heavy during some moments and I could see fatigue setting in. Monica Sheats and I started lagging behind the crew. I have to say, I am more out of shape than I thought. This kind of stuff used to be so easy!
Suddenly, up ahead, I noticed something was off. There was a canoe upside down in the water! I yelled, “Paddle, Monica! Paddle!” We paddled as quickly as we could and pulled up alongside the overturned canoe, Amanda and Alex were swimming next to the canoe! I, of course, had to document it all. While I was snapping pictures, Paul, ever the calm expert, organized a rescue mission. (Honestly, the water was shallow enough for Alex to stand up in). Paul was great at getting everyone together to help get Amanda and Alex and the overturned canoe close to shore where we could right their canoe and get back in. They climbed in shaken, but fine, and we headed back down.
The trip was tough at times. Chase and Molly covered twice as much area as everyone else since they zigzagged across the river all the way down. Once, when I looked over at them, Molly was facing backward and Chase was singing loudly into the wind. Delirium had clearly set in. They started lagging way behind on the last leg and I felt bad that I had made everyone go so far! The hour started to get late and I realized we were never going to make it back by 5.
We stopped for one final rest, a few of us waded or swam, we tossed Chris’s football around and that slap-happiness that comes with exhaustion set in. Renee got the giggles and Steve was starting to get that faraway look that told me he was checking out mentally. But I looked around at my sunburned, tired crew and thought to myself, “Wow, I love my job!”
We made it back finally-hours late! Everyone hit the wall right toward the end but when we pulled in to our take-out spot, I saw smiles and pats on the back. We had made it. Despite the fatigue, there was a lot of chatter and laughter on the long ride home.
The trip was fantastic. I had a great time out there and it was compounded by the happiness I found when I read through everyone’s journals back at school. I want to thank each and every student on that trip, Paul, Ramona and even Murphy the Dog. What a great tip. You guys rock!