Day 3 - wetlands

Launch Pine Point Landing

River Mile 1302

Days Milage - 21.1 miles

Total miles -  55.1 miles

Today was the first morning of breaking camp and loading the boat for real. I was the last one down to the water and had to really think through my boat loading strategy and I was able to get all my gear to fit, just barely!

The first 8 miles winds through a large wetland. It was a tricky stretch with many areas where the route was not clear. About 2 miles after launch I lost the river and spent 45 minutes struggling through thick weeds. Thankfully I was able to get cell coverage, opened Google Maps and was able to find my way back to the main channel. 

I arrived at our first check point, Iron Bridge camp and about 90 minutes after Jon. I was very grateful he had waited for me. 

The next 7 miles was a series of oxbow bends flowing through a meadow. No problem following the route.All day there was a 15 - 25 mph wind blowing. Along with a high temperature of 68 it was very comfortable for paddling. 

The next few miles flowed through an area marked as“Numerous log jams in this section” Awesome.  It was fairly technical but we never had to portage so all was good. 

We decided to extend our day 5 more miles to get to Bemidji. We had a challenging crossing of Lake Irving. It was a lot like Lake Minnetonka on a very windy day with 3 foot waves driven by 25 mph steady wind. We were able to stop in town and get a burger.