Day 36 - Clarksville

We left a little late this morning and had to sit for 2 hours for a barge to go thru, but I guess it's still better than a portage. We ended up in Clarksville at 6:30pm. Camping on a beach on the other side of the river, we presented with hours of fireworks by the locals in town. I guess these people do love their fireworks.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.372059,-90.895018+(MyPosition)
longitude: -90.895018
latitude: 39.372059










- Posted from my iPhone

Day 35 - Hannibal

We got up early today for a change and made it to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain. Just as we were pulling up to the dock, we saw a big power boat that was going down the river. It was an escort boat for a guy paddling the river. At first I was arrogant and didn't think much of the guy and thought he was a cheater because he had an escort boat. But I soon found out that the guy didn't have any legs and was doing it for charity so I guess its okay for him to have an escort. Anyway, he and his family turned out to be some pretty good folks. They even fed us hotdogs and soft drinks. I guess the lesson of the day is not to assume because you don't know shit.
After a good conversation and a great meal, we goofed off around town then paddled a little more to a camp-able spot. In terms of the weather, tonight is the best. No skeeters and the breeze is keeping us nice and cool.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.682543,-91.295209+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.295209
latitude: 39.682543

- Posted from my iPhone

Day 34 - mm 341, somewhere in Illinois

Nothing special today, didn't get on the river until 2pm. Had a great fried fish breakfast at the Cow. Another really hot day. When we were about near Lock 20, we passed by a school of Asian Jumping Carps, about 100 of them, varies from 10 to 20 lbs suckers. They got freaked out and jumped everywhere. They hit the boat straight on a few times. It feels like we were hit by a baseball bat. I managed to punch one and my fist was covered in slime. The boat next to us, the back guy got hit on the side, while the front guy got hit right on the lips. That same damn fish fell onto his boat and flopped around making a white bloody mess. If we weren't trying to race to the lock to avoid being locked in, he would have kept that damn 15 lb-er. Our friend got all slimy trying to get the thing out of his canoe.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.112877,-91.482459+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.482459
latitude: 40.112877

- Posted from my iPhone

Day 33 - The Purple Cow in Alexandrea MO

Wow, today was the most fun day so far. We slept in like idiots that we didn't get on the river until 11am. We thought we could muscle thru the pool on top of dam 19, but the wind humbled us after 2.5 miles. We ended up calling our "river angel" Gerry for some help. He came with truck and trailer swooped us up and delivered us pass the dam. We then had a lovely lunch with him. As we proceeded 5 miles down, the Purple Cow popped up on the bank at Alexandrea. We decided to might as well make it a lazy day and pulled in to have a cold drink. At first, it looks like any typical bar in a small town with it's staple of 60s-80s years old patrons. As we chatted with the owner about some of our travel stories, they offered us to stay at a friend's cabin on one of the islands. But no sooner did we discussed about the logistic of getting there, another river angel, Boone, offered us his basement. It got all the amenities and air conditioning. We picked the basement because the washer and dryer will do wonders for us. Also the basement is but 100 yards away from the bar. While checking out the place, Boone was leaving to check on his trot fishing line. With a quick invitation, I was cruising on the river at 40 mph watching how it is done.
After a unique insight on the local fishing, we ended up hitting the local bar, the Purple Cow again. By this times, all the young folks were out and it became very lively and we both had a ball with the town Mayor. Food was super cheap and so was the beer on a their Wednesday's beer special. Once well fed and drunk, we met Boone's son, Colten, who had gone down river before. He hooked us up with a Quincy book and a 3am boat float down the river to enjoy the stars. Jeffrey was too tired and checked in to dream land and missed an awesome float. I think I will have a slow day tomorrow.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.355220,-91.455816+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.455816
latitude: 40.355220
Our angel Berry






The Purple Cow (the best bar in MO)






Boone (on the left) who open his home to us






- Posted from my iPhone

Day 32 - Nauvoo, mm 376

After a long day of paddle straight head on into the wind, we were exhausted and stopped at a small marina/restaurant at Fort Madison. We had a good meal and went back to the beat of paddling into the wind. We got our ass handed to us again so we pulled over to a boat landing in Nauvoo hoping we can steal a camp spot. A quick chat with a local named Berry leads us to the lawn of Chuck and Karin. Their house is  overlooking a point over the river. She was so kind and generous to give us her car to go into town to resupply and check out the local history with involvement of a Mormon settlement here.  Just an observation, as we are moving south, our challenges now have changed from mosquito and rain to wind, mainly head wind. Also, the random act of kindness from strangers are the best part of this trip.

I am currently here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.553322,-91.399865+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.399865
latitude: 40.553322















- Posted from my iPhone

Day 31 Burlington, IA

Another beautiful day in paradise, I meant another hard paddling day in paradise. Got on the river by 8am and paddled until 7:30pm. Made 45 miles and passed 2 locks. Stopped by Burlington. We had to stealth camp for the night.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.813503,-91.091281+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.091281
latitude: 40.813503










Photo taken by: Ben Royet

Day 30 Blanchard Island

It started raining at 3am and then turned into a nasty loud thunder storm till 10am. We didn't get on the river until noon, paddled to 6pm making 22 miles. We were pretty tired from the day heat that we just decided to pull into a public rec area to camp. The day were hot and we started a ritual of swimming in the river every 2 hrs. Jeffrey threw his usual attitude because the guys we were going with went topless and being vain when he couldn't. He wants to work on his tan too. He didn't like it when I reminded him one of our rules: shirt has to stay on from 10am to 5pm to avoid skin cancer.
I discovered stinging Nelly as I was collecting wood for campfire. This forced me to stand in the river for 20 minutes to relieve my pain. Looks like another beautiful night for hammocking.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.348943,-91.056458+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.056458
latitude: 41.348943

Day 29 - Davenport

Passed thru Davenport and some small city that I don't remember the name. Nothing in particularly special during the day, just passed thru two locks. However, when we made camp, we got a treat. Thousands of fireflies light up the tree line at out campsite. I wish I could have recorded it, but those lights are too dim for my camera. I was telling Jeffrey that this is what the trip is all about. Never have I seen this awesome, but I guess you have to come out here to see.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.450932,-90.790870+(MyPosition)
longitude: -90.790870
latitude: 41.450932










- Posted from my iPhone

Day 28 - Camache Island, IA

We woke up late today, took our sweet time and got on the river by 11am. Nothing special today, except that it is just another gorgeous day and the wind is not kicking our ass.
Let me digress a little here. Ever since St Paul, we no longer have to portage and get to use a lock to transverse a dam. But there is a price to pay for that. Now the river has gotten bigger, the pooling for water in front of each dam is now a giant open lake with no current. This leads me to hate every damn dam that we have to past.
For some of you animal lover, I haven't talked much about bald eagle, but we pretty much can't go more than 10 minutes without seeing one flying just over our head.
Anyway, we end up on a nice island camp site outside the city of Camanche, called Camache Island.


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.760844,-90.293164+(MyPosition)
longitude: -90.293164
latitude: 41.760844

- Posted from my iPhone

Day 27 - Bellevue and Sabula, IA

Woke up to a perfect day today. The wind is no longer pushing us backward. As we made about 20 miles to the town of Bellevue, the guys we are hanging out with needed to pick up a few things from the USPS. We ended up staying for 3.5 hours shopping and eating Subway. When we were finally done, we put in another 15 miles to the most awesome campsite so far. It has a beach landing, it faces the sunset, it got only a few (10-20) Mosquitoes. That night, Matt made the most wonderful campfire. I ended up pulling out a package of cheddar and jalapeno sausage that I picked up from town, grilled it on the open fire, and feed the crowd. Jeffrey had a blast.


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.134782,-90.200565+(MyPosition)
longitude: -90.200565
latitude: 42.134782
accuracy: 5 m
altitude: 6 m

Day 26 Dubuque, IA

Being in town does have it niceties. The Landing Inn we stayed at was great. Our spirit was refreshed. I were able to get us 2 canvas chair at the TrueValue in town and able to feed us a giant breakfast at a little quaint diner called the "rose garden".  Got on the river at 9:15 and paddled for 15 miles. We spotted the Matt's crew napping along side of the river bank. We decided to have lunch where they were resting. When lunch was done, we decided that we should proceed together for safety reasons. For the next 17 miles, we paddled against head wind just like yesterday. Also like yesterday, not only are we fighting head wind, the river pools up into a 1 mile wide, 14 miles long lake with no current. The situation was grim, but our spirit was not crushed as bad. We can see that the Matt's team also have to work as hard as we do. When we made it pass lock 12, we were pretty much exhausted and it got dark (it takes forever to get pass the lake) so we made camp near a bridge in the city of Dubuque. Tonight, the fireflies really comes out and lights up the woods around us.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.511920,-90.641620+(MyPosition)
longitude: -90.641620
latitude: 42.511920
accuracy: 5 m
altitude: 12 m

Day 25 The Landing Inn, mm 615

We got up at 6am, paddled until 9:30am then stopped over to re-supply until 10:30am. We paddled for another hour then pulled over for lunch. We met our fellow canoeist, Matt, Matt, Ben, and JD. They are also headed for the Gulf. Their schedule is to get on the river at around 10:30ish in the morning and paddled until 7 or 8pm. Unlike us, we start early and rest early. The wind was blowing very hard during lunch so we decided to take an afternoon nap to wait for the wind to die down.  By 1:30pm the wind still had not eased off any so we had to get back onto the river regardless. For the next 15 miles, we paddled against headwind of 25mph. The wind was horrendous creating white caps and 3-4 feet rollers. We paddled until 6:30pm, passed through a lock, and when we were about 1/2 mile from our camp site, the wind died. At that moment, I just looked up at the sky and go "really?". We both were exhausted, pulled over at the Landing Inn's boat dock, hopped off the canoe and went into a quaint little local "Bar and Grilled" for dinner, having all-you-can-eat chicken wings. The bar tender is a very cute girl. She told us that this town "Gutenberg" has a 2:1 ratio, two females per male. This is every man's dream land. Here is a little side note from yesterday event. As we pulled up to our camp site yesterday evening, Jeffrey spotted a bear. The bear looked back at Jeffrey, stood up on his hind legs then turned around and walked into the woods. We were too tired then to care, pulled our canoe up to shore and set camp anyway. The bear didn't come back at all last night to bother us. We slept like babies.


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.778963,-91.094727+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.094727
latitude: 42.778963

Day 24 Jackson Island, Iowa

Our day started at 6am. After about three hours of paddling, we stopped over for lunch. Met a group of other canoe-er who are also from TN. We chatted a little, had lunch together, and then parted since we each have our own schedule that don't match. At first we planned to camp at a paid campsite but when we arrived there, it looks like shit so we decided to do primitive camp instead. We paddled a total of 31 miles today, out of Minnesota finally. We camp at Jackson Island, Iowa today.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.175845,-91.135270+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.135270
latitude: 43.175845
accuracy: 5 m
altitude: 12 m

Day 23 Twin Island Mile Marker 676

Today, like any other day, we woke up, paddled, stopped by town for food, paddled some more, set camp. We did total of 36 miles and passed through two locks. Tomorrow weather forecast doesn't look very promising. The town we stopped by was LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  At LaCrosse, I went into the Three River Outfitter and they set me up for a nice mosquito net (see the net between two tents in the picture below). This mosquito net sure makes camping life more tolerable. I also picked up a can of fuel for my camping stove. As we were leaving LaCrosse, there was a crazy motor-boats party with at least 30 motor boats raving their engines to show off creating tons of waves. For 10 miles, we had to paddle through the waves created by those crazy motor boats. Note to self, never canoe by LaCrosse on a Sunday unless they have cute girls in bikini on those motor boats.

htttp://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.528150,-91.236892+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.236892
latitude: 43.528150

Day 22 Winona & Other Mississippi Canoers

We arrived to Winona around noon, met a group of canoe-ers, 6 peoples and 3 canoes, who started from Lake Itasca on 5/20/12, six days before us. We feels pretty good that we've made such a good progress comparing to that group we met today. They're fun to hang around. I was tempted to stick with them as we go down river for a couple days. However, after I found out that they don't start paddling until noon each day, I decided to part from them since we don't have that luxury to sleep in late. We're on a tight schedule to get Jeffrey back before school starts. We passed by one lock today. After paddling about 38 miles, we arrived at a beautiful camp site, Bodega Point, WI.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.976367,-91.412005+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.412005
latitude: 43.976367
accuracy: 5 m
altitude: 8 m

Day 21. Crossing Pepin Lake & Camping on Mosquito Island, WI

We got back on the river at 8:30am after a long-miserable-cold-wet night. Our canoe was filled with rain water from last night, had to spend a good amount of time bailing out water. Today, weather is better than yesterday, but hot and humid. We did 20 miles crossing Pepin Lake, and 16 more miles to our mosquito-infested camp site, making total of 36 miles. We passed by 1 lock, took us only 15 minutes this time. We stopped for about an hour for lunch at a burger king near the river. Jeffrey swallowed down 6 cheese burgers, I had only 2. We set camp at 5:30pm, crawled into our tent to hide from the mosquito.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.289402,-91.920009+(MyPosition)
longitude: -91.920009
latitude: 44.289402

Canoe full of rain water

Day 20 - More Head Wind and a Big Storm

It rained a little in the morning, but I decided that I can't sit here forever.  So, at 7:30am, we headed off, made thru one lock and did about 19 miles. At 12pm when it started raining hard, we pulled over and deployed our umbrella for some rain protection. For the first time, I made a camp fire in the wet rain. I figured it's that time of the week, so into the river I went for a cold bath. The fire helped a lot in drying me off.  I wore my wet clothes and stood next and sometimes on top of the fire to keep warm. It was cool to see the wet clothes on me giving off smokes as it was heated by the fire.  By 2pm, the rain stopped, so I decided that we should make the run thru Lake Pepin. When we got to the mouth of the lake, there was a 2 feet swell greeted us (caused by the strong head wind). We made camp at the first empty plot of land. It is another mud island, no mosquito, but only 12 inches above the water. We set up our hammocks cuz the ground is all wet. I'm now concern about the flooding of this island if the rain persists. Rain keeps falling down our tarp all night long. I'm very proud of Jeffrey for being such a good camper, sleeping in a wet hammock & wet sleeping bag without whining.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.561356,-92.443045+(MyPosition)
longitude: -92.443045
latitude: 44.561356

My first fire made In the rain





Flooding of mud island





- Posted from my iPhone

Day 19 - Greedy Barge & The Teasing Wind

We got up when the first ray of sun light shined on us. At 5:30am we started paddling until 12 noon when we arrived to Lock #2. The greedy barge carrying 9 long containers taking up all the space in the lock (the tow has to backout so they could close the lock, the tow boat then goes into the lock later by itself), making us wait for 2 hours to get through. By this time, 2pm, the wind started picking up. We got our ass kicked badly as we could not go any faster since wind keep pushing us back. I've figured out the wind's gender. It's a female. At time, she is so gentle while caressing us making us feel so good. And then, the minute we let our guard down while feeling good, she slaps us hard on the face with her cold strong blow. Just like a woman, the wind is so temperamental. We made camp at 2:30ish when we tried so hard to paddle but couldn't get any further. We figured why fight with a "female" wind, let's just give in and call it a day. The minute we pulled over, finished setting up our tents, the wind died off. She's such a teaser! We camp at mile marker 806 today.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.695815,-92.707075+(MyPosition)
longitude: -92.707075
latitude: 44.695815
Greedy barge

- Posted from my iPhone

Day 18 - Last Portage, First Locks, Minneapolis here we come!

The last portage wasn't too bad, we didn't need any help from the "angels". After we were done with the portage, we paddled 2 miles down the river and saw a MickeyD along side. So, we pulled over and had a nice hearty lunch with extra to save for dinner. I've noticed a pattern about Jeffrey. After a nice full meal, he becomes very sluggish. Anyway, we paddled on and passed by three locks. The first one is the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock, second one is the Lower St. Anthony Falls, and the third one is Lock #1.  Passing through the locks is much easier than portaging but still is time consuming. Each lock took us about 25 to 30 minutes to pass. After covering about 36 miles, we set camp on a muddy little island near South St. Paul. The good thing about this island is mosquito free. However, if there's a good, there gotta be a bad. The ground is quite muddy, we decided to sleep on our hammock instead of in our tent. I found tons and tons of dry wood for camp fire. We played with the fire a little bit and then hit the sack early. Tomorrow weather forecast is disheartening with severe storms, 50% chance of rain and strong SSE winds. I don't mind paddling in the rain, just hate setting up camp in the rain. We'll just have to play it by ear.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.891649,-93.022206+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.022206
latitude: 44.891649










- Posted from my iPhone

Day 17 - A Really Good Day & Coon Rapids Dam

Good thing we camp early yesterday as the wind was not nice. Got up at 5 am, need to get an early start. Jeffrey being a princess so I ragged him out for a bit. We got on the river at 7am because we met a nice couple at Kelly Inn who invited us to visit their Monticello, 30 miles away. When we arrived at the address they gave us at 11am, we looked hard but couldn't find their place. We decided then to paddle on. Well, we did run into a local who graciously greeted us with cold Coke. We finally reached Coon Rapids Dam at 5:30pm, making a total of 56.4 miles. We pulled over to the left bank and set camp at Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park. This place doesn't allow overnight camping. However, considering our special circumstance with no campground in the vicinity, they made an exception for us to camp one night. Now, I'm very tired, must sleep.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=45.146568,-93.314966+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.314966
latitude: 45.146568





- Posted from my iPhone

Day 16 - Not Follow the Wind Day

We got up at 8am today, decided to dry our stuffs out. We checked out of Kelly Inn at 11am, which coincide with the time Chipotle opens. Each of us had a nice taco, then headed out to the St Cloud dam. We were fortunate to have met our angel of the day, Rosie, as she gave us a lift thru the portage. The dam portage is at least a quarter mile long. We put in at 1pm. As we paddled for the next hour, I could see the lack of enthusiasm in Jeffrey's paddle styles. It is partly understandable as we were dealing with a 25 mph head wind. Today, we did not "follow the wind". The trip is definitely going against the wind. The weather also predicted 50% chance of rain. So, I decided to hit the first available campsite and setup camp. We then went thru all of our stuffs and dry everything out. By 5pm, the rain was teasing us. By 6pm, thunders went crazy all around us. I figure might as well take it easy today and try to make it up tomorrow. So in all, we did like 5 miles :( and made our stop at Putman's Pasture canoe campsite.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=45.504911,-94.140179+(MyPosition)
longitude: -94.140179
latitude: 45.504911

Setup to deal with crappy rainy weather



- Posted from my iPhone

Day 15 - Sauk Rapids and St Cloud

The day started great. I woke up feeling very blessed. I've figured out my mood rhythm out here. I start feeling like I can take on the world in the morning, then around 5pm I get tired of the routine. By night fall, especially if we are accompanied by rain or mosquito (which happen almost every night), I wish we were home and really hate this trip. But a good night sleep will cheer me up. On with the day, we made the first 15 miles with super speed. The only thing interesting that we passed by was either a hand or a glove in the water. Jeffrey doesn't want us to come closer for a detail inspection. I'm sure it was a glove, because the cut looks so clean. If it was a hand, I bet the meat on it will be shredded by fish or bloated by sitting in the water. Then the next 5 miles approaching Sartel's dam was a killer of open water with a 15 mph head wind, followed by a very long portage. I've notice a trend here. It seems that every portage is getting harder an harder. Of course, the river is getting bigger and bigger, therefore the dam is getting bigger and wider too. Afterward we were rewarded with the Sauk Rapid. We were exhausted. I didn't even record the mileage today, let say it's around 20. We decided to make camp at the Kelly Inn. They spend money to be on the water front, but don't have a dock for water access, go figures. I ended up going to the next dock down stream of it and asked the owner to let me tie there for the night. Every thing is pretty much the same.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=45.561119,-94.154327+(MyPosition)
longitude: -94.154327
latitude: 45.561119

St Cloud at 10pm




- Posted from my iPhone

Day 14 - Angels in Little Fall and seven island canoe campsite

We got up at 5:30am and got on the river at 6am. Can't wait to get out of this ticks-infested campsite! As we paddled down the river, we found the true Baxter campsite, the map was off by a mile. We paddled for an hour and landed at Crow Wing State Park, cooked our breakfast, ate, and got back on the river. On the other side of the river is Camp Ripley and it's Military Training park. As we were paddling the 20 miles down, helicopters were doing their drills and machine guns were firing behind the tree line the whole way. We ran into our first angel of the day. He was out fishing and had paddle the big muddy 6 years ago. We chatted a little and he gave us cold Cokes, it hits the spot. He also offered snacks, but we didn't want to take it because we didn't need it and only want to accept what we really need. We thanked him and went on our merry way feeling pretty good. When we made it to our initial camp, 23 miles day, it was only noon so we felt ambitious and wanted to make another 24 miles to the next camp site. I worked out the distance and time in my head and it sounds great. But like all things, don't get cocky on the river. We paddled about 5 miles to the city of Little Falls and have lunch, a large pizza for two of us. After lunch, we were attempted to portage the Little Fall dam. Well, the portage was 300 yards plus. It wore us out after two trips (5 trips back and forth for each portage, and yeah we carry way too much stuffs). On our 4th trip, a local "angel" saw us and offered his van to carry the rest of the stuffs and our canoe to the put-in location. We gracefully (more like gratefully) accepted it. As we were packing our canoe to run down to the next tougher and bigger dam. Another local "angel" came by and offered to take us to the put-in on the next bigger dam, the Blanchard Dam (As note on the map, tough terrain and pass many graded railroad tracks). By now it was almost 4pm and we still have about 15 miles more to go and 1 nasty dam to portage through, so we gratefully accepted his offer. During the ride, we learned that this local "angel" has offered his ride and his home to many paddlers. He suffered a stroke 11 years ago and couldn't work anymore. To kill time, he would go pick up aluminum can in and around the city. He picks them out from garbage can and along the sides of the roads. He's actually keeping the city clean. He's famous around here as the "Can Man" or Darryl. Once he dropped us off, I told him that I have nothing to give him in return, except for my prayer. I also asked him to take some money for gas, but he refused the money. We then paddled to our camp and arrived at 6pm. We took a nice river shower and enjoyed the rest of the evening. If not for Daryl, we would be paddling into camp around 9pm, exhausted and probably have a hard time finding this hard-to-spot campsite. Another amazing thing happened today. It is Friday night and the kids are out partying on the water. Our camp site has 2 spots. The kids on their jet ski came up and asked if it's OK if they party at the next spot on the island. I personally would not like it, but they have as much right to use it as I do. My reply was "sure", but I did follow up with "how late are you guys partying?" One of the kid immediately asked if we are sleeping early. I told him that we've been paddling since 6am. He said thanks and said he will not be partying on our island. I never expect kids to be so courteous when partying. My day ended in such a wonderful way, from kindness and common courtesy of people I met, that I'm on cloud 9. In total, we've paddled only 35 miles, but made 47 river mile.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=45.801134,-94.328587+(MyPosition)
longitude: -94.328587
latitude: 45.801134










- Posted from my iPhone

Day 13 - Brainerd and the missing campsite

We got up pretty late today. Last night I had a strong moment of doubt. I felt really down. I guess after 10 hours of hard paddling, I was hoping for a relieve and comfort of a warm bed. But instead, the condition became harsher with the rain and the bugs. I really felt crappy. But when the morning came after a long rest, everything was cool again. We didn't get on the river until 9:30am, made 15+ miles to Brainerd and it's dam. Made the usual dam portage and went to town to pick up our mail drop of food and boat parts. Had a large pizza and Dairy Queen's blizzard. We were very happy. We then paddled a mile down to another bridge and walked 2.5 miles, each way, into Baxter and shop at Walmart for more food. After returning from that walk, we both were exhausted from the heat. We followed the map down the river and could not find the Baxter canoe campsite. So we pulled over into a wilderness area nearby to camp for the night. We noticed a few signs that says it is property of Baxter city. Since it was 8pm and there were but 2 hours of light left, we figured might as well make camp here. If anyone kicked us out, we'll just play stupid (which by the way is true since we could not seem to find our way anyway). After we finished setting up tents, we each chucked down a liter of water, and it seems all better. The site doesn't have too many mosquito, but it does have it's share of ticks. We will have to make a quick clean up tomorrow and be out of here. I think we'll take it easy for the next few days and do just ~20 miles instead. Also the reason is that we will have a few more portages to do (each taking about 45 minutes and wear us out afterward). Jeffrey is progressing fine and seems to grow up quite a bit. If he can maintain his current state of mind and appreciation of all things when he comes home, he will be so much more successful in life.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=46.310100,-94.283396+(MyPosition)
longitude: -94.283396
latitude: 46.310100

Brainerd's dam



- Posted from my iPhone

Day 12 - Aitkin & Half moon campsite

Today was a tough day. It started with beautiful sunrise and we were only harassed by a few Mosquitos instead of an army of them. We got on the river by 8:30am and by mile #3, we got our first disappointment. Ahead is the town of Atkins, and since they don't like to be flooded, they built a diversion channel and dam. Of course they didn't want us to go thru the dam and use the diversion channel. This diversion pretty much splits the river into two and dramatically reduces the current to half. So for the next 26 miles, we had to paddle hard. Didn't care for the town too much. After the town, the diversion channel merges with the Mississippi again, but this time the river became twice as wide, about 300-400 feet across. We did saw a couple of bald eagles and one flew about 30 feet above our head. Saw a porcupine crossing the river. Finally after 10 hours of paddling (we were in the river for 10.5 hour), we made a record 51.2 miles. Right as we pulled up to camp, it started drizzling.  We had 10 minutes to put up our tarp and put some of our gears under it. Then the 100% of the possible 20% chance of rain poured on us hard. Cooked dinner under the tarp and now exhausted. For some strange reasons, the damn frog next to my tent is making a creaking floor sound instead of the usual croaking. It doesn't matter really, because the rain is making a bigger racket. I hope it would stop raining tomorrow, because I really hate paddling in the rain.
I'm proud of Jeffrey today for putting in his share of 10 hours of paddling without much complaint.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=46.504909,-94.075401+(MyPosition)
longitude: -94.075401
latitude: 46.504909

Elusive symbol of freedom




River oh so wide




- Posted from my iPhone

Day 11 - Palisade & Hassman campsite

OK, yesterday I vented a little about our situation. Truth be told, it is quite pretty here. I would say that if not for the cold, erratic rain, or the over population of mosquito, this place is a paradise. Well enough about that, here's our day. We got up around 6 am, after breakfast and packing, we were ready to leave by 7:15. But with our boat cover in caterpillar, we spent the next hour cleaning them out. We did 20 miles to a town of Palisade, a small town with about 5 small blocks with one gas station as the general store. I did got a ride from one of the local back to the boat where we sat in non-mosquito grass and enjoyed our lunch of microwave burger and ice cream. I've been told that this place used to be a booming town with 2 grocery stores and a bank back in the old days. But like any small town, the kids just don't want to be farmers anymore. We then proceeded to camp at 22 miles away. Over all we paddled for 9 hours to make 42 miles. Camp marker was off by about 1/4 miles, but we found it. We made camp next to some critters home. Don't know what it is, only heard ruffles in the woods. It sounds too small to be a bear. Let hope we or our food bag are not being harassed tonight.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=46.594776,-93.639687+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.639687
latitude: 46.594776
Caterpillar everywhere





Beautiful sight of camp










- Posted from my iPhone

Day 10 - Libby Township camp

Good fortune sometimes does fall upon fools. With the rising water, so does the currents. We got started at 10am, with a quick stop at one of our water-resupply stop, and by 6:30pm we made it to camp at 40.6 miles away. Our initially planned camp site was a place call "Ms. Keto Camp". You can probably guess why we decided to skip it and move on to our next camp site called Libby Township. Well, at our new site, we are being overrun by caterpillars. At any moment there are 2 to 3 caterpillars on our body somewhere. Today also mark the first day where our body is not aching somewhere at the end of the day. I discover something interesting today. Apparently, some of my reader misunderstood what I wrote in my blog to what we truly experience in real life. Ok, let me lay it out in a more harsher reality. For the first 5 days, it rained all day. We paddled in the rain, our hands were numb because it was freezing. We slept in the freezing rain at 30ish degree. We didn't shower for the first 6 days because it was freezing. We wore the same wet clothes for the first 5 days because the rain wouldn't let off for it to dry. Once the freezing cold has stopped, armies of mosquito come out in the billions. The only time that we are not being eaten alive by these guys is when we are in the middle of the river or hiding in our tent. We can't cook dinner without them attacking us, we can't sit and eat dinner without them harassing us. Hell, we can't even take a shit without 2 or 3 of them biting us in the ass. This trip is so uncomfortable to the point that when I told Jeffrey that some people may have thought of us having fun, his reply was that he would rather be at home doing homework or mow the lawn, which he used to hate. It is true that we are seeing wondrous things that most people could only read or dream about, such as seeing beautiful sunset, sunrise, and bald eagles everyday, or comes within feet of deers standing still looking into our eyes, or seeing the sky so blue that you only get see similar image on a Windows's wallpaper or how fireflies twinkle in the forest like a hundred stars. But what made all of these moments special is that out here, we don't really have a choice. We are here, we have to deal with the bad, only then are we rewarded with the gift and beauty that god has to offer. I mean, seriously, try this at home. When you wake up tomorrow, do it before the sun comes out, put on something warm (we don't get that choice here because we brought only a few pieces of clothes) take a 30 minutes walk and watch the sun rises. It is the most beautiful thing.
I believe what Jeffrey and I experience is true beauty and what true crap tastes like in raw form. I can't escape it. I do like it, but not all of the time. This trip is very enjoyable, but it is definitely not a walk in the park. I always get people saying that they would do the same if they have the time off.  Well, I'm sure they have time off somewhere in their life, they just don't want to do it.
Well, enough of me whining, who want to hear that. Here is a few thing we manage to capture with my iPhone. Also, most of the pictures on the river or pictures of crappy weather were not taken by the iPhone, but by my waterproof camera. I'll post those when I come home from the trip.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=46.822124,-93.352851+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.352851
latitude: 46.822124
Picture of the only 2 place we find relieve from the mosquito


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 9 - Swimming Bear campsite

Nothing special today, we did 5 hours and 24 miles. It started raining an hour before we hit camp, so we decided not going any further. Didn't see any eagle, but saw a couple of deers. The days are starting to blur together into a series of waking up, paddle, make camp, setup tent, eat, sleep, and repeat...
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.057481,-93.355737+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.355737
latitude: 47.057481








- Posted from my iPhone

Day 8 - Grand Rapid and Sucher's campsite

We got an early start on the river (7am). The day is the most beautiful day yet. Saw more bald eagle, heck, I've been seeing bald eagle everyday now. We paddled a good 25 miles, passed thru 2 dams (aka 2 portages). The dam we passed thru is in the town of Grand Rapid. Supposedly, the paper mill that owns the dam would give us a free portage taxi. However, idiot me didn't write down their phone number so when we got to the portage point, we couldn't contact them. After an hour of fumbling around, one of the local river trail angel, Heath Smith, gave us a portage ride and afterward he gave us a ride to "town and country" for a good lunch. The rest of the river after the dam has risen at least by 5 feet. We got lost in a circle and made a couple of cut-thru shortcut. Ended the day with a nice solar shower and was able to sleep in my hammock for the night.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.187529,-93.438441+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.438441
latitude: 47.187529





- Posted from my iPhone

Day 7: schoolcraft campground

Day 7: 6-1-12 Woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We had a long deserve sleep from yesterday lake crossing, that we didn't get up until 9am. Our campsite host was very kind and helpful, Bobby Smith. Since I lost a locking nut to my rowing kit, he gave me one and a spare, which save me a lot of time from having to look for hardware store. He also lent me his jeep to go pick up some supplies. Finally got some Coke and Ice for my cooler. We then used his jeep to haul our stuff down the put-in. Truly a river trail angel. Finally on the river by 11am. Today mark the day that Jeffrey understands his paddling. He uses proper technique and rhythm. I'm not sure if he finally understood what I've been telling him or he just figured it out on his own, but it doesn't matter. I've noticed now that the river is a bit redder up here. People told me that there is more iron in the water. We paddled past a deer, within ten feet of it, as it stood there very still hoping that we didn't see it. Saw another Bald Eagle flew by. By 7pm we were very tired and cut short our planned route by 2 miles, thus only paddled 31 miles today. We set camp at Schoolcraft campground. With the weather warming up, oh boy, all the animals come alive, especially the mosquito. They are relentless. After a quick meal, we seeked shelter in our tents.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.225239,-93.802706+(MyPosition)
longitude: -93.802706
latitude: 47.225239








- Posted from my iPhone