Day 7 Mississippi River

Another great day on the water, and my longest day of the trip yet.

I woke up to a dew covered tent and gear around 6:50AM. The plan was to paddle with John and Jeff, two fellow through paddlers I met the day before, 30 miles to the start of Lake Winni- the largest lake of the voyage and a notoriously difficult paddle.

As we put in on the Mississippi, smoke was rising off the water, letting us know our goal of an early morning start had been made.

Our first big obstacle was Cass Lake, a 5 mile open water crossing. Luckily the weather was perfect, with virtually no wind and sunny skies. This made for a relatively easy crossing.

After working across Cass we stopped for a quick lunch on a picturesque sand beach. I took a dip in the cool water and enjoyed a moment of rest.

At the start of the afternoon, a dam was marked on the map as a portage. After pulling up and inspecting it, we figured we could walk our boat through the dam, which we did, rather than take all of our gear out and portage our boats and equipment. Walking through the dam was easy, as low water meant a fairly low flow pouring over a couple small rock ledges.

Our afternoon consisted of 13 miles of river travel. By the time we reached our camp, a crashed site, we had put 11 hours in on the water and were beat.

Our site offers a great view of the infamous lake Wini. A 15 mile open water crossing will be waiting for us first thing tomorrow morning. Hoping for calm wind so we can cross the middle of the lake without white caps, rather than add an extra 6 miles by traversing the shore. We shall see what tomorrow holds!