That's especially true 10 miles below Vanceboro, at Little Falls. We hear the roar of the water and take out on the right bank. That's where we meet Tony Reader, a volunteer for the St. Croix International Waterway Commission. Fortunately, he's getting help from a group of teen-agers who are rebuilding the fire pits. Little Falls is a party place, accessible by car.
Overuse is a problem.
After carrying our gear out of the canoe and around the falls, we take a wild ride through the white water. The ride lasts only 30 seconds or so, and it goes by in a blur. We get through the white water fine, put our gear back in the canoe and continue downriver. The St. Croix is so clear today that it's hard to imagine it choked with logs. Every winter for about 100 years, until the early 1970s, loggers piled logs on the ice-covered river, and in the spring the logs floated to mills downstream.