The Water Column On the last Friday of May, my wife and I began canoeing the Long Prairie River State Water Trail. We put in on Lake Carlos and paddled to the outlet, portaged the riffle dams and ducked under the first culvert. We were on our way, riding a river that gently flows through a diverse landscape of shaded woods, farm fields, floodplain meadows and forests. We logged roughly 24 river miles. Our goal is to trek all the way to the confluence of the Crow Wing River by summer’s end. It’s a 94 mile adventure. We were never more than 10 or 20 minutes from home, but felt miles and years away in the wild. Spending an entire day on the river had me thinking about how all this water connects us. It is more than a river - it is a watershed. The Long Prairie River is one of four major watersheds in Douglas County. It covers approximately 565,078 acres (883 square miles) and encompasses parts of Douglas, Otter Tail, Todd, Morrison and Wadena counti...