Day 25 - Wind and Weathering

River Mile - 706

Today’s Distance - 26 Miles 

Total Distance - 635.9 Miles 

Launched from our spot in Fountain City at 7:50. You can tell Fall is coming, it’s definitely cooler in the morning. We locked through Lock and Dam 5a after a five mile paddle. 

A few miles later we approached the river town of Winona, MN. I yelled out to Jon “What would you do if we found a coffee shop on the river front?” He yelled back “Stop for Coffee!” So we did in fact find a place, docked our boats and had a great cup of coffee and a Quiche at the Acoustic Cafe. 

Around 12:30 we were approaching an oncoming barge when out of the northeast the wind came up and white caps formed on the now black river. Trying to keep from swamping our boats while at the same time, staying out of the way of the oncoming barge. We were able to clear the barge and find a calm area in the lea of any island. We spotted a trailer campground a half mile down the river. We pulled off, just intending to check the radar and put our spray skirts on. Radar looked a little sketchy, so we hung out for half an hour eating tortillas with PB and Honey. When the storm looked like it was going to miss us we got back in our boats, putting our rain jackets on just in case. We weren’t even out of the dock area and the rain started. 400 yards later we were paddling into a driving rain and 25 mph wind. 

This continued for almost an hour, during which time we maybe made it  a mile. Then, the rain stopped, then the wind stopped, then shifted to being at our back, than stopped, the sun came up and it was dead calm at hot, with a heat index of 95. Psycho weather for sure.

After locking through Lock and Dam #6,  we were really hot and thirsty. We paddled past a small bait shop that advertised ice, bait and cold drinks.   We walked into a scene from Grumpy Old Men with the bar lined with old timers in their 70’s drinking beer and shooting the crap. We were going to get a cold soda, but they had a wall cooler with some great beer. Before we knew it we were having beer and pizza! Early dinner works for me.

Another 2 hours of paddled brought us to this really cool island site. A sandy beach with sand dunes and a little cove. We cooled off swimming in the river then settled into a relaxing evening.