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










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