Day 13 - Up Hill Both Ways

The Bridge Tavern

RIver Mile - 1030

Days Milage - 25.7 miles

Total miles - 311.9 miles

I noticed today that for the first time the entire trip, I didn’t have any of the aches and pains. Shoulders, good, arms, good, neck, good, hands, good.  The absence of these aches helped me to realize just how many mosquito bits I have. My legs look like i have measles. As I was hosing myself down with bug spray, I set a goal for today of no new bits. As of this moment, I think I’m there.

The first 15 miles today the river wound its way back north and west. Lots of oxbow bends meant that in some places we paddled 2 miles to gain half a mile of forward progress. We also had a strong wind from the west northwest so for probably 75% of the time we were paddling into a 10 mph wind that gusted to 17 mph.

Today was a good day for animal sightings. Two Trumpeter Swans flew over my, with their signature honking. A few miles later, I paddled directly under a perched Bald Eagle. He just turned his head watching me as I glided past. Whenever I see a cow I try to strike up a conversation. Today I had several chances. First was a group of 5 cows. I gave them my best Mooo. One looked up so I gave her another at which point, she shook her her head as if to say, “Stupid Human” and went back to eating grass. Finally, I heard but did not see a cow. We had a 3 or 4 Mooo exchange which really made my day.

As tired as I was yesterday, today I felt great all day. Only listed to my audiobook for 2 hours, the other 5 hours I was just into the river. It was magical. Even during all the into the wind or uphill paddling, I able to modify my paddle stroke to compensate for the resistance. 

You may be curious about our campsite being The Bridge Tavern. The story is the next river camp after Aitkin was only 18 miles. The next one after that was 35 miles. So, it looking at options we noticed that The Bridges Tavern was just across the bridge from a boat landing and it was a 25 mile paddle. We called them to see if they would let us camp behind the bar and the owner said, we have a big grassy area for camping with picnic tables and electrical outlets. River magic strikes again!

So, we set up camp and went inside for a pub burger dinner. We are now watching the Twins play the Indians, enjoying the air conditioning and charging our stuff. I could get used to this.

Today’s Learnings

• Packing my boat at a campsite while it’s on the portage wheels is awesome! So much better than loading it while the boat is in the river and I’m standing in mud up to my shins
• Finding camp sites that are walkable to restaurants and or pubs is a big bonus
  
  
  Bonus Photos
  
  Li’l Pug has been with me every step of the way
  
  
  
  Yep, that’s a pilot house, on the river bank
  
  

  

  The river is now officially the Big Muddy

  
  
  
  

  

  Portaging out boats from the landing to the Tavern