Day 30 Mississippi River
After a later than normal night watching the sky put on a shown in form of heat lightning and shooting stars the morning took a slower start. I took the dew covered rainfly off my tent and set it aside to dry in the sun. Even this early in the AM it was clear today was gonna be a hot one.
I had two calls lined up to my Illinois classrooms at 9:30 and 10:15. Both went well. Once again with the kids were full of energy and asking all kinds of questions. I even got the "don't you have a wife and kids at home?" question. Lol!
While on the phone with the kiddos Max pushed off and hit the river. After wrapping up my calls I loaded the boat and got on the water around 11:30 or so. The plan was to make a food resupply stop 3 miles down river in Wabasha, Mn as all the food I had left was a can of chili and chicken noodle soup.
I pulled up to a public park and dragged the boat onto the sand. Grabbing my skateboard and backpack I ran into the nearest grocery store, a quick 10 minute skate from the river.
Wabasha, Mn seemed like a real nice river town. The surrounding geography was gorgeous and the river at this point was large enough to have some real pull behind her.
After stuffing 4 bags of groceries into my backpack and scarfing down a chicken breast lunch meal from the deli I hopped back on my board and worked back toward the boat.
By the time I had repacked food (taking out all the packaging from the groceries and filling ziplock bags with the grub. This helps save space, keep the food good longer and cuts down on trash I have to carry) it was 3:30pm. I pushed off into the current and right away noticed a big difference in the weight of my boat. With all the new food it took significantly more energy in my paddle strokes to move my newly weighted boat. Add on top of that a headwind and for the first few miles I was hurting. I stopped at an island not far from Wabasha and readjusted my buckets to help get a better weight distribution in my boat. It helped a bit.
I got into a groove in the afternoon and felt good. Around 5pm I made it lock and dam #4. I was the only boater there, so it was quick process of filling the lock, opening the gate, draining the lock and putting me on my way. (See video below)
With the late start I had a goal in mind of 15 miles. That would mean about 20 miles tomorrow to put me in Winona, Mn. I have heard great things about Winona, and I leaned that a bluegrass festive called "boats and bluegrass" was happening this weekend in town. Score!! Supposedly the festival is right on the river directly after lock 5a.
Excited about the prospects of an off weekend filled with music and the possibility of a few friends coming to meet me in town I found camp on a sand dune and called it a night just after reaching my 15 mile mark.
Solid slow day. Looking forward to what Winona has in store. The river rolls on.