- When we think of the great outdoors in Minnesota we often think of the wilderness, roughing it, or being one with nature.

On today's adventure we're gonna do some great activities closer to civilization that are incredibly family-friendly.

Let's go, Minnesota!

(upbeat music) (water gurgling) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat music) - All right, we've got this.

We've got this.

(cheerful whistling music) (laughing) - Do I need to, remember they want these all tight.

(buckle snapping) - Yeah, we'll all be back.

- Yeah.

(cheerful whistling music) - Uh, where's yours?

Where is it?

- Where?

(water splashing) (laughing) (canoeists murmuring) (laughing) - What a nice day for this, huh?

- Yeah, it's beautiful.

- We were worried all week.

- (laughing) Well it's been, you can't trust any weather forecast, even in the morning.

(country guitar music) - [Brenda] Oh, wow, there's the bridge right there!

- [Tim] We don't have much time before we hit the rapids.

- We're gonna test it out for everyone.

Wish us luck!

Woo hoo!

Oh, yeah.

(country guitar music) (water splashing) - [Brenda] So which bridge is that?

- [Tim] That's the Roosevelt Bridge, it's a stone arch bridge built in 1934, so it's one of the President Roosevelt's WPA program.

- [Brenda] It's beautiful.

- It replaced an old swing bridge and really a landmark here in Austin.

About 10 years ago there was a big federal grant that refurbished it and restored it.

Just downstream from that's an old railroad crossing they turned into a pedestrian bridge about the same time so it's really, you know, restoring the history of that stretch of the river.

- All right, here we are on the Cedar River.

It is an absolutely beautiful summer day.

We have a family with us which is fun because, you know what, the outdoors are not just for grown ups and, uh, yeah.

We just passed the beautiful Roosevelt Bridge and we're gonna see what's down river.

(country guitar music) So which park is this?

- [Tim] This is Marcusen Park.

I think it was early 1940's they built the stadium back before the age of screen time, you know, this was a big form of entertainment, they packed the stadium.

Kent Hrbek, I think Dave Winfield, supposedly Joe Mauer had played all here.

Kent Hrbek hit some legendary home run that the legend said hit some building that's no longer there, it's been taken out cause this is also part of a big lake when it floods in Austin, it becomes one big basin down here, so.

- [Brenda] Oh, I'm sure.

- They've kept it alive through a lot of volunteers because, again, with it so flood-prone it's taken a lot of work to maintain it and clean it up after every flood but it's another great landmark in the community and thankfully they did all that work and so- - [Brenda] Yeah, when was it built?

- I think in 1940's.

- [Brenda] 1940's.

- Probably a lot of foul balls in the river still but... - (laughing) You know it's a beautiful day, we could jump in and look for some.

- [Tim] There you go.

(laughing) - (laughing) Although, I don't know, if we could really see too deep in this water.

- [Tim] Right and so- - We'd probably all be by touch.

- [Tim] We're, you know, put in a access with the DNR, a couple of years ago we teamed up with the City of Austin, they designed the walk-in access for canoes and kayaks to launch there because we, I've done a bunch of river cleanups starting at this point and so there wasn't a dedicated spot, so make a clean gravel entry, exit, you know.

We're hoping to add some more of those kinds of accesses along the river, we're still a fairly new State Water Trail, you know, only since 2011, so... - Hey, James.

- [James] Yeah?

- How clean or dirty is this river?

- [James] So right now we're just, the river is on its way down from right after we had a pretty significant storm.

- [Keren] Uh huh.

- So right now things look a little murky but it's just because of maybe some sediment that ran off of the land and just in a few more days, if we don't get any more rain, things should really clear up nicely.

- Is it, like, would you swim in it?

Is it swimmable?

- Absolutely.

- Yup yup.

- Okay.

The waters just getting warm enough to swim in finally, too.

- Yeah.

- [Brenda] Does it flood very often?

- [Tim] Long history of flooding.

If you could see past the trees a lot of the green space on both sides of the river here would be homes.

So, like 300 homes and businesses have been taken out since 1978.

- [Brenda] Wow.

(country guitar music) Yeah, so what, what caused this to become a State Water Trail?

- Well, we saw some other ones in our region, like the Straight River, some of our neighboring rivers, the Root, Zumbro and knowing the rich history that we have here with the Cedar River, you know, we're one of four counties in Minnesota without a natural lake so this is our- - [Brenda] Yeah.

- this is our water body and our lakes are two mill ponds on the Cedar River in Austin and then East Side Lake which is another damned up creek so, it's a big, big deal to us and also knowing the DNR, they thought highly of the Cedar River, the wooded corridor and so with their support we got the legislative approval for that and it's been awesome because like last week or about a week ago a DNR crew floated it, they usually do a couple of times a year to remove hazards for paddlers and, um- - [Brenda] Okay.

Like what are some of those hazards?

- [Tim] Like the strainers and sweepers, the trees, fallen trees, to try and remove, they don't completely remove a fallen tree cause like the fish habitat and other kind of habitat along the corridor but just to remove those kinds of dangers, especially when the waters higher, that's been huge (paddle splashing) and when we got the State Water Trail started we also launched a local adopt-a-river initiative so teaming up with dozens of volunteers, the Conservation Corps.

Well, one of the big highlights of that was over 1100 tires taken out of the state watercourse on the Minnesota side.

- Wow!

So- - Yikes.

- Why so many tires?

(country guitar music) How- - [Tim] It had built up over the years.

I mean, there was some from the 1920's that we found and you know, in paddling it you could see there was a need for a cleanup effort and there really wasn't any organized cleanup effort, so- - So how do you do that?

Do you dredge the bottom of the river?

- Uh, the Conservation Corps really helped with the big removal of tires, they had all the tools and were willing, even in October, a cold day in October, they're in the water removing those things so huge thanks to them cause that's not an easy task or one that a lot of people would wanna dive into- - Yeah.

but it's definitely been noticed.

People see the difference, especially those who clean it up a stretch, the same stretch year to year, they come back with less garbage.

You know, obviously when it floods though and that was a big problem for it, the need for it, too, which is all the flooding, all the stuff swept in, it's caught in the trees, so- - [Brenda] Right.

It's been great.

We get people to buy in on the river and help us take care of it.

- [Brenda] Well the shoreline looks pretty pristine right now.

- [Tim] Yeah, looking pretty good.

- [Brenda] Yeah.

- Even for a flood.

(country guitar music) Keren, you should come up with a good game that we can play.

- Oh yeah, I've got some.

- [Brenda] You got some?

- Oh, yeah.

All right, awesome!

- Oh yeah.

What do you got?

- Well, have you ever played "Clams are Great"?

- [Brenda] No.

- No.

- Okay, well the version here, what's like a fish that you would find in this river?

- Um a smallmouth bass.

- A smallmouth bass.

(laughing) Okay, so the game is like this, basically we can take turns and you just say any reason why clams are great but we're gonna say small mouth bass which is sort of a tongue twister.

So you say, "Small mouth bass are great because they live in the water, smallmouth bass are great because they love the sky, small" and you just start saying reasons and you just make it up.

It doesn't have to be true.

- [Brenda] Does anybody go?

- Yeah.

(water splashing) - So, smallmouth bass are great because they're cute.

- Smallmouth bass are great because they have gold teeth.

- Smallmouth bass are great because they eat food.

- [Keren] Smallmouth bass are great 'cause they canoe.

(laughing) - Smallmouth bass are great because they're an indicator of good water quality.

- Nice one.

(water splashing) (canoes thumping) - [James] So has your family ever canoed the Cedar before?

- We have, yeah!

- It's a great river, isn't it?

- So great, we're really getting to experience all different sorts of the Cedar River because I was telling them the last time we did it we kind of had to kick ourselves out of some rocks so this time we're really enjoying the higher water and the movement.

- Yeah, this is a really nice time of year, some of the native flowers start blooming and- - So beautiful.

- usually see a lot of wildlife around the edges of the stream.

- Yeah, we just saw a family of duckies.

- Cool.

- And a black squirrel?

I think he was.

- Neat.

He was running.

- There's a few around.

- Yup, I saw a deer back there a little ways but he was- - Nice.

Yeah, they like to hang out near that bike trail.

- Ran into the trees so we couldn't get him on video.

- Oh, shoot.

(country guitar music) - I have bird questions.

Do you have bird answers?

- [Paul] I do not have bird answers.

We saw a mallard duck earlier, that was about- - Oh, yeah.

- the extent of my bird, bird knowledge.

(laughing) I can identify the Canadian goose for ya, too, but- - Oh, thank you.

- [Paul] I think you've probably already got that one.

- Yeah, I got the eagle down.

- Yep.

- We actually have a guy in our office, though, that is really, really good at identifying birds.

A lot of times what we all do is we, if we see a bird that we don't know we'll take a picture of it- - [Keren] Oh, nice!

and then bring it in and then he identifies it right away.

- [Keren] Isn't part of knowing water knowing like the water fowl?

- That's a great point, yep.

(paddles splashing) - [Brenda] So what do you do exactly?

- Well, I perform and teach improvisational theater.

- Are you part of a troop or?

- Yeah, so we perform around the Twin Cities, we're called Improv Parenting and our thing is we do improv shows for all ages.

- [Brenda] Okay.

(paddles splashing) - And we also teach.

So, we teach kids and we teach families improv and, like, especially how it applies to life.

So, like how it helps you be more playful and present and kind of in better relationship with each other.

(kayaks thumping) - Yeah.

You know, I love, um, here, let's, we're kinda knocking against- - Speaking of relationship.

- Yeah, I know!

- We're very close right now!

(laughing) I love what you said earlier about, you know, Like the key is really just being present.

- Yes.

- It doesn't have to be forced or anything- - Totally.

(kayaks thumping) - that you just basically have to be present in the moment and, uh, tell me, talk to me a little bit more about that, what does that mean to you?

- Yeah, so one of the things you learn when you first start improvising is something called "Yes, and" which means that you basically agree with whatever your scene partner says and in order to do that you have to listen.

Like, you have to just totally give yourself up to the moment and be listening to what they're saying, watching their body language and that is all about being present and to me, like, once I started taking improv I was like, "Oh, this totally applies to my life and especially my family life", right?

- [Brenda] Yeah.

- Like, as a parent, I was like, "This is helping me be more present".

- [Brenda] Right.

- You know, for my kids.

- So, do you like, what if you're not a funny person?

Can you do improv?

- Absolutely!

(laughing) Yeah, I know, people think it's like standup comedy but actually the humor comes from the collaboration- - [Brenda] Okay.

- and trusting your scene partners- - [Brenda] Okay.

- and basically weird stuff just comes out.

Like, if you let yourself be spontaneous- - [Brenda] Yeah.

and support your partners, - Yeah.

things will happen.

- Okay.

And you learn that, like you, the more you practice it the more you discover that, in fact, things just happen.

- Okay.

= (laughing) You don't have to plan it.

- So, is there a little drill we can do right now?

- Is there a little drill?

(birds chirping) Um, yeah, for sure.

- Okay, okay.

All right, so we're gonna play- - [Brenda] Let's get James in on this, too.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Yeah, so this is called "Yes and, Story".

- Okay.

- We're gonna tell a story together and all you have to do is listen to what the person before has said.

- Okay.

- And then you add to the story and we're just going to add one line at a time.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- And we just trust ourselves to make it up as we go.

- [Brenda] Okay.

How long does this have to be?

- Let's do like two or three lines each.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- So the key, though, (birds chirping) is you always want to start with, "Yes, and".

- [Brenda] Okay.

- So if I said, "Once upon a time, there were three canoes on the river" and then I'll pass it to you Brenda and you say, "Yes, and".

- Yes, and three sharks followed.

James.

- Yes, and I was very scared.

- Oo!

- Yes, and I was scared, too!

So scared, in fact, that I got out my biggest paddle.

- Yes and I paddled very fast.

(laughing) - Yeah?

- Yes, and luckily I happened to have my novel telling me how to defend against sharks with me.

- Yes, and that novel, in fact, had a very specific page for river sharks and it said- - Yes, and it said to use your paddle that has secret sharp edges to cut down all the trees along the way and throw them in the river.

- [Keren] Oh.

- (laughing) Yes, and I say that you better get a permit before you do that.

(group laughing) - Yes, and after we applied for the permit it came immediately by drone!

(laughing) We filled the entire river with logs and it made it so the sharks couldn't- - Yes, and they could not eat us!

They were blocked, they had to turn around and swim up river.

- Hooray!

- Yay!

(hands clapping) (laughing) - [Brenda] That's hilarious.

- Ah!

- (laughing) That was good.

That was a good "Yes, and" exercise.

- Good call, James.

- (laughing) I know, yeah!

Good call on the permit!

- Yup!

- Yes.

(laughing) (country guitar music) - Yeah, that's nice.

- Here we go.

- All right, here we go, Part Two of our trip.

We just stopped at a little access point along the river, had a little lunch, took a little break, got a little breather and now we are gonna depart on the final four miles of our nine mile adventure.

See you along the way.

- Well, this is fun, this is a really cool paddle, I really enjoyed it.

- Oh yeah, this is great that this is here and can be done.

- [Denice] It's interesting to try to stay together but not hit each.

(laughing) - When I take my kids out and now when I take my grandkids out the, what I do is I want them, too, to become comfortable in either the kayak or the canoe so in a canoe, I will give 'em a paddle and they can sit and they can paddle any way they want and I'll be in the back and I can control the canoe with the current and then, eventually, when they get a little older they'll pick up on the strokes and the stroke techniques and they can paddle on their own.

(country guitar music) - (Grace) I don't know, I just like being on the water and being in a boat.

I like being in small boats, they're fun.

(laughing) - [Denice] Like getting to hang out with your mom all day?

- (laughing) Yeah.

(laughing) - [Female voice] What's been your favorite part so far?

- I liked going through the rapids back there.

Yeah, that was really fun.

- [Voice] You don't get scared?

- No, not very easily.

(country guitar music) - What's the Blanding's turtle?

- [James] Yeah, yeah, so the Blanding's turtle is a native species in Minnesota and it's in a little bit of trouble because it doesn't respond very well to habitat destruction and things like that, so, you know, as the years have gone by and our land uses have changed since Minnesota was settled the Blanding's turtle has just had a tougher time accommodating to that and reasons being is that they're, I believe they take up to 11 or 12 years to become sexually mature so they can't, they have to live that long before they can even create offspring.

- Wow.

What do they look like?

- Um, well, like a turtle.

- Like a turtle.

(laughing) - [Brenda] Okay, fair enough.

- Yeah, yeah, I wish, I wish I had a picture- - They don't look like a smallmouth bass?

- I'm not very good at describing, yeah, I'm not very good at describing how turtles look different from one another.

- So I'm curious, like, of, like, snapping turtles, the Blanding's turtles and the painted turtle's a pretty common turtle, right?

- Mm hm.

So what would be the ratio of those three turtles to each other in this river?

- I would think that painted, painted turtles would be the most common, although they probably more prefer kind of lakes and wetlands and same with snapping turtles, as well, they need, they need wetlands and the Blanding's turtle, too.

They really, they all kind of really thrive in the flood plain areas where we have both kinda sand and also wetlands.

So, I think they're probably, you know, Blanding's would be the least common of the three.

- [Brenda] Tell me about the clams and the pearls, what what's that all about?

- Many years ago people would harvest clams or native mussels and they would find pearls and use them for buttons and things and clothing, so there was just this time where lots of people were harvesting way too many native mussels- - [Brenda] Okay.

(birds chirping) - and, you know, I think that probably took a big - [Brenda] So pearl- - or the major population took a big hit at that time.

- Pearl buttons on your shirt were a big thing.

- [James] Yeah, yeah.

- Like ivory tusks.

Like on your Sunday clothes, yup.

- DNR, they're planning in spring to transplant some black sand mussels they've been growing in East Side Lake which is a tributary to Cedar River.

- [James] Yup, black sandshell.

- Yup, and then transplanting 'em below the dam so somewhere like in this stretch maybe, but to hopefully get those, you know, going again and improving the water quality and the ecosystem in the river.

- Yeah, what do the clams do for the river?

- Ah, filter out some of the pollutants, right, James?

They absorb some of the excess nutrients that are in the water.

- Mm hm, exactly.

Wind is keeping me from turning.

(paddle splashing) It's amazing that it makes that much of a difference but it sure does.

- [Brenda] Do you think silliness is a skill you can learn?

- I think it's a skill you can like practice and, you know, sort of encourage in yourself.

- [Brenda] Yeah.

- And I would say, I mean, our improv- - [Brenda] It's kind of like a muscle, the more you use it, you know?

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and it's kind of a refinement, too.

- And if you don't use it, you'll lose it kind of thing.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(water splashing) - I think we can all take ourselves so seriously sometimes and obviously that's important but I also think the levity can really balance, help keep you grounded and balance you out, you know.

- [Brenda] Oh, absolutely, in all sorts of situations.

Well, all I got to say is, it's pretty enjoyable hanging out on the river for a day with an improv comedian.

I suggest you bring one with on all your outdoor adventures.

- Woo hoo.

- [James] What kind of paddle?

This is a- (country guitar music) - [Brenda] So which creek is this coming in up here?

- This would be Turtle Creek.

So, it's, a lot of it's actually officially a judicial ditch.

This is, a big period out for a long time, almost a hundred years, over in neighboring Freeborn County, it was a huge vegetable farming area.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- And they drained a large marshland back in the 1920's which is the Turtle Creek Watershed.

And, so we, our staff monitors or administers that Turtle Creek Watershed District as well but that's a different mission of just drainage to keep, to manage the water over there and so once it hits Austin, though, it becomes officially a public waterway rather than a ditch.

It's a nice flow through Austin so some people- - That's nice.

on the west side of Austin hop on there and float down to this point.

There was a town in the 1850's called Two Rivers, it's one of our ghost towns, though.

A lot of 'em fell too close to the river and a flood knocked them out.

- Was it right down here, were they?

- Yeah over in this area.

- Oh, wow.

- So, is there foundations of the old town kind of up in this region?

- I'm not sure.

- Okay.

Back then it was supposed to give Austin a run for its money but bad location.

- Okay.

- So, did you guys have any smallmouth bass comments?

- [Denice] Why are they cute, Grace?

- [Keren] Oh, do I have to say why they're cute?

- [Brenda] Are you the one who said they're cute 'cause I said they were cute, too.

- [Grace] No, I wasn't- - [Denice] That was me.

- [Brenda] Oh, that was you.

(green canoeists murmuring) - [Denice] Why are they great?

That's what I meant to say.

- [Grace] Because, I don't know, I don't know what it is.

- [Denice] Smallmouth bass are great because they have whiskers?

- [Grace] What are smallmouth bass?

- [Denice] It's a fish.

- A fish.

- [Grace] Oh.

- What's your favorite kind of fish?

- [Grace] A clown fish.

- [Brenda] Clown fish?

- Clown fish?

Obviously, they're the best.

- [Denice] Clown fish.

See, that's one thing our family doesn't do very often, fish.

We need to do that more.

(country guitar music) - Turtles make a great pet for kids.

Let's find out more about some of the turtles you may find in Minnesota from Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo's naturalist, Clarissa Schrooten.

(peaceful music) - We have nine different species of turtles here in the state of Minnesota.

There are three types of map turtles one being the False Map Turtle which we have here on exhibit, one being the Northern Map Turtle or also known as the Common Map turtle and then the last one is the Ouachita Map Turtle.

Now, for more river species a Blanding's Turtle would be one that's a lot more common in your rivers but it is uncommon to be seen out in the wild.

It is on the threatened species list for the state of Minnesota.

The Painted Turtle's another turtle that we have here at Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo and along with that it is one of the most common here in the state of Minnesota.

They like to spend most of the time in the water because they find a lot of their food in the water.

They eat aquatic vegetation, they eat aquatic beetles or insects that are in the water, worms and then sometimes fish, too.

One really interesting thing about turtles is that when they pull their heads into their shell their neck actually has to do kind of an S-curve to fit into there.

I think that'd be a chiropractor's nightmare but for turtles it's just a common day experience.

I'm Clarissa Schrooten from Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo and I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

(country guitar music) (water splashing) - Well, thanks for joining us today on the Cedar River, hope you had a good time.

It was certainly a lovely day to be out here.

We got to hear some lovely stories from the past, we learned a little bit about turtles, about the river itself, about clams, and even got to tell some jokes along the way.

So I hope you get a chance to bring your family out on the river soon.

Until next time, let's go Minnesota!

Clams are great because they're hard.

- Because they're hard and then we're gonna say, Yes!"

- Clams are great because they filter our river water.

- [Brenda And Keren] Yes!

(laughing) - Clams are great because they have curly hair like Brenda and Keren.

- [Brenda] Yeah, absolutely.

- (chuckling) Yes.

- Clams are great because they speak Japanese.

- Yes!

- Yes!

- Yes.

(laughing) Clams are great because they love paddling down the Cedar River.

- [Keren] Oh, yes.

- Yes.

- Clams are great because they also water-ski.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Clams are great because they taste good.

Oh, wait.

- [Keren and James] Yes!

(laughing) - Clams are great because they don't need life jackets.

- [Keren] Yes!

- Oo, yes.

- [Dave] Clams are great because they clam up.

- [Keren] Yes!

- Yes.

(laughing) - Clams are great because they never get bitten by mosquitoes.

- Oh, yes!

- Yes.

Clams are great because they never get hit by lightning.

- [Keren] Yes!

- Yes.

- [Brenda] I think we got that.

- [Keren] I think we got that.

- [Brenda] We got that.

- Good game, good game.

Yep, good game.

(water gurgling) (birds whistling) - [Announcer] Funding for "Off 90" is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling) (water gurgling) (up beat music)