St. Croix River

Route Proposed by: Alex Oenes

Overall Fastest Known Paddle: TBD

155 miles

Start: Gordon Dam Park Landing, Gordon, WI

Finish: Mississippi River Confluence, Hastings, MN/ Prescott, WI

Portage at Saint Croix Falls mile 54.5

Map resources from the National Park Service

Alex Oenes first attempt, unsuccessful:

Start: 5/8/25 at 2:11pm

Finish: 5/11/25 at 8:13am

Total time: 66 Hours, 2 minutes

Miles paddled: 138.7 of 155

3 portages: Mile 149.7 (optional at rapids), Mile 129.5 (optional at rapids), Mile 53.7 (required/dam)

Boat: 2012-ish Wilderness Systems Tsunami 135

Report from Alex:

The first two days were a little hindered by low flows and me getting familiar with the upper St. Croix. The third day was a race to finish before some serious southern winds were forecasted to come in. I had nearly 20 hours of straight paddling from river mile 84.3 to 16.3 (Hudson). I was quite close to the end, but I was forced to turn around at I-94/Lake St. Croix due to the winds (2ft+ whitecaps; down river = 0.5-1mph, upriver = 6mph). I could have made it through Sunday night (after the winds died down), but the southern winds were just what I needed to bike back to my car and I don't mind saving the full send for a future (hopefully faster) attempt.

This falls short of the submitted FKP route [womp womp], but I'm looking forward to trying again later this summer/once we get a bit more rain.