It's crazy to think we're already 3 weeks into the trip, 689 miles complete. We're a little over 1/3 of the way through our time, a little under 1/3 of the way through our distance, and just over 1/3 of our fundraising goal. Help us stay ahead by donating now.
Last you heard from us, we had just spent a wonderful night under an actual roof instead of outside in the pouring rain and crackling storms - the last of many that week. Reluctant to return to the world of dark and damp, we dawdled a bit in the morning and didn't leave Kent’s place until pretty late in the afternoon. Jim brought us into town that morning while it was still sprinkling, when he brought us our resupply box, so we picked up some groceries, and replaced my missing hat and bug net. I kinda wanted the obnoxious green hat with yellow sharks, but for some reason they only made that in children's sizes, so it didn't fit, and I had to settle for a generic beige paddling hat. Our only goal was to make it to the start of lake Pepin, so that the the next day we could get all the way across, so it wasn't a big deal that we left late, and it meant we got to stay dry.
Lake Pepin is a 20+ mile lake that turns into a brutal wind tunnel at times. This could easily put us in a bad mood and behind schedule. Fortunately, the forecast showed no more than a 4 mph wind all day, and actual weather bore that out - it was dead calm - no breeze, no current, just 20 miles of paddling on flat water. We practiced our sliding stroke a bit to amuse ourselves and also keep ourselves cool. I don’t know how much we improved but we definitely got soaked! And it took our minds of the monotony of the task.
We arrived at the town of Wabasha a bit later than we had hoped, but still earlier than we had feared. We docked at one of the local restaurants, and they agreed to watch our boats while we snuck into the National Eagle Center before it closed, as long as we came back to eat afterward.
The Eagle Center was very cool - it would have been nice to be able to stay longer, but really we were just lucky to get the time we did. The handlers live on-site, so they get to know each of the eagles there very well, and answered a lot of our questions about eagles and the center itself. The upstairs section shared about dozens of cases of eagles abducting children of the last 3 centuries.
The Center presents it as nothing but slander, meant to shock and scare the public, building on existing mythos to discredit the noble creature, but we think they might be a bit biased in their reporting, so you should probably keep your kids inside - you never know when an eagle might snatch them up.
After the eagle center announced it was closed and ushered us out, we wandered the streets, and popped into a local chocolate shop we had heard good things about. We picked up some Wilbur Buds, which are a type of chocolate nugget shaped sorta like a Hersheys kiss (but made with better chocolate), as well as assorted other sweets. We made our way back to the restaurant, ate a quick dinner, and set off to find the next available island.
The next day we got through 3 locks in one day, which was a record for us - the first one, Lock 4, we reached before 8 am, and we were able to lock right through. Lock 5 had a longer wait, so we got out and ate lunch while a tow moved its containers in phases through the lock, since it was too big to fit all at once. Lock 5A came sooner than we expected, and while we did have a short wait, it still meant we hit the town of Winona before 5 oclock.
We stopped just for a few minutes. I stayed with the boats while Sydney explored town, but shortly after we left, we decided we wanted to explore a little more, so we took the boat ramp just outside of town, I chained my boat to the dock, and we asked some of the people hanging out there to keep an eye on them while we went back into town and explored more.
That night we had our first campfire of the trip, and it was nice to just sit around it chatting and watching the flames until well past my bedtime.
The following day, we got to Lock 6 pretty early into the day, but since the lock was closed for planned maintenance it was lunch time by the time we had completed the portage - our last planned portage besides Chain of Rocks! Fortunately, our second lock of the day, lock 7 was open, and after a short wait, we went right through.
As we approached the town of La Crosse, we saw our first river cruise ship: the Viking. We heard music, and were speculating whether it was coming from the park or the boat. We couldn’t really see much in the park, but surely if it was coming from the boat, the poor occupants would be deafening for us to hear it this far away. Google informed us that Thursday nights in the summer held a an event called "Moon Tunes” where local bands would come play.
We decided to chain our boats to a tree on the opposite side of the river and go check it out. The event didn’t start until 5:30, so we explored town a bit first, mostly just looking at all the historic buildings that these river towns tend to have, then made our way over to the festival, where we saw the fire twirling team warming up on our way to get food.
As we ate, we listened to the music and watched the little kids running around - kicking a soccer ball or taking a ride on a little train that had been set up to drive around the large open field. Sydney practiced her handstands, and we stayed until the first firespinning act, but we left right after that so that we could be sure to find a campsite before it got too dark to see.
The campsite we chose wasn’t very far down the river. I went to bed pretty quickly but Sydney stayed up and swam a bit and sat on the log overlooking the river.
When we woke up in the morning, we started with solo paddle time, but soon got separated by a barge. I waited on the riverbank until Sydney paddled up, then we decided to take a morning break at the swing before continuing to paddle. It was right there, after all, and we were already stopped…
There were so many flocks of birds making use of the widening river, and most did not seem at all perturbed by our presence.
At the lock, we paddled in alongside another group out on a motor boat for the day. We're now solidly in the region where more people are surprised than not that we're going all the way to the Gulf. Stopping for lunch on an island, we found a log bobbing up against the shore. We pulled it up a bit further to give ourselves a place to sit while we ate, and we joked that this stick would make a fine addition to my collection of river debris Griffin was going to take home with him. I mean... we were only ~25 miles from where we were meeting him… I can do anything for 25 miles…
10 minutes later it was tied to the front of my boat and I was pushing off for a short test paddle - just a few circles close to shore to get my bearings. The Y stuck pretty far over the cockpit and the other end extended past the nose of my boat. It was noticeably tippier in choopy water and during turns. But I could get in, and it could float. Really, what more could I ask for?
The only problem was that I was super slow: A Greenland paddle works by dipping the whole blade in the water up to the loom, where your hands are, but with this stick in my way, I was only able to get about half the paddle in on either side. Sydney lent me her European paddle, and we picked up the pace. So I guess that means I need to ammend my earlier review in which I said “GPs are the best and Euro paddles have no place in my life” to this: if you’re ever hauling something bulky on top of your boat near the cockpit (like a log or a small child), the European paddle is the way to go - otherwise, stick with Greenland.
We lost track of time a bit and ended up near dark just past Lansing looking for a good place to camp. We paddled over to the islands in the middle of the river, and found to our dismay that many of them were not really accessible - there were thick grasses in deep water surrounding many of the islands, and some weren’t really islands at all -the grass just got really thick there. The water level is a little high right now, which means many sandbars are about a foot underwater, which is about a foot more water than I'm willing to sleep in.
Fortunately, amidst the grasses and false islands, Sydney spotted a run of trees that the grasses didn’t seem to go all the way up to and cut in to get a closer look. What we found was a really nice campsite that clearly sees regular use from other paddlers - there was nowhere to dock a motorboat, but on the other side of the island was a good spot to pull up a kayak or a canoe. There were a couple of campfire rings (though everything was too wet for us to get a fire started) and trampled grasses that made for a great space to hang out and to pitch our tents.
Saturday, we only had to paddle about 3 miles to the Schroeder’s home, where I would be staying while Sydney visited with her husband and friends in Galena, so we took a lazy start, not bothering to start packing up until around 8 am, just watching the water and plants sway in the current. It was peaceful and felt like we had all the time in the world (is this what vacation feels like?).
Once we got moving we found ourselves carried along by a strong tailwind (best paddling conditions… except when you are super front heavy or top heavy. Problem: I was now both). Keeping my boat straight was nearly impossible. At one point the stick twisted on my bow, so that the front end was no longer centered, but fully hanging over the left edge!
My boat rocked precariously, as I tried to balance the weight shift with my body weight. Too far - time to rock back the other way and cling to the log to prevent it from slipping further. Sydney paddled over to see what she could do to help and I slowly released my grip on the log - it stayed in its new position. It was too dangerous to try to push the log more centered in the middle of the river - the chance of flipping me instead of moving the log was too great, and I did NOT want to be flipped. But the shore line was rocky and steep, and the current fast, even by the edge, so I didn’t want to try to land to fix it either. Knowing we didn’t have much further to go before I could get to a real dock and after taking a few tentative strokes towards shore I found that I could still paddle with it, so I adjusted to the new weight balance of the boat and kept making my slow progress towards our target. We made it the whole way, and Dick helped us unload our gear. See, I told you I could do anything for 25 miles.
He and Deb made us lunch and introduced us to their two dogs, Bo and Gus. Griffin arrived around lunchtime too, and looked dubiously at the stick Sydney had voluntold him to take home, but ultimately he agree to take it when he dropped Sydney off the next day. It had already made it 25 miles by boat - what was another few hundred miles by car between friends?
He also took our portage wheels (so glad to be rid of them) and a few other things that we decided we either hadn’t used or didn’t need.
I spent a few hours cleaning the grass, mud, and sand out of the boats, and doing laundry, then Deb showed me around town. I picked up superglue and Danish oil at the local hardware store so I could better keep up with my paddle maintenance, and some more food supplies.
There was also local Everything store called Horsefalls, which we arrived at just as it was closing. Being inside was a bit surreal, especially that close to closing: the aisles were narrow and of inconsistent lengths, the goods varied from part favors to water toys to cooking supplies to gardening to you name it. Some of the lights had already been turned off, so wandering through trying to take it all in, almost felt like a dream sequence. I picked out a pack of playing cards I wanted, but the owner waved me off when I tried to pay, and told me it was his gift to me and to enjoy my trip!
Then we went out to eat at a the local pizza place with some of their friends, Rita and Trent, and went back to their place afterward to sit on their beautiful screened in porch that overlooked the river and continue chatting (seriously, I feel like I need a screened in porch now, though I don't really have good place to put one).
When we went back to the Schroeder’s place, it was starting to get late. Normally, the tradition would be to watch a movie called “Captain Ron” but we all decided 2 hours was far to long to still be awake so we watched an episode of “Itchy Boots” (one of their favorite YouTube shows about a young woman solo traveling all over the world on her motorcycle) instead.
I slept so soundly that night. Soft cozy bed and no need to get up early the next morning? Excellent way to start the day. I set to work on some paddle maintenance, repacking bags, and writing this post. It was peaceful, but I was itching to get back on the water.
Around midday, Bruce and Michelle arrived and informed me that I was incorrect - I did NOT want to be on the water - the tailwind from yesterday had continued and even picked up a bit, with gusts up to 25mph. They were glad to be getting off the water.
Sydney and Griffin showed up a few hours later, and we loaded up boats, tied up the largest member of my stick collection inside Griffin’s car so it'd be less likely to go through the windshield if he slammed on the brakes (I’m happy to report that it caused no major incidents, though apparently it did a still have a few… resident bugs… that delighted in terrorizing Griffin during his drive), and supped together with the Schroeder’s and the Labes's, before setting off to try to get out of everyone's hair.
We found a great campsite on an island just past Lock 9 and built a fire to pass the evening. We cooked some sweet potatoes Deb gave us in the sand under our fire, and a family came out and set off some fireworks nearby.
This trip has been full of challenges—heat, bugs, damp clothes, and the relentless pace of moving downstream. On top of that, we’re far from our support networks, relying on each other as we spend more time together than ever before in our 15 years of friendship. Naturally, that means some bickering. But honestly, we expected it. Spats are part of any close relationship, especially when you mix in the stressors of the outdoors and the intensity of this adventure. The good news is, we’re finding ways to work through it. Each argument teaches us more about how to communicate and strengthens the “emotional dictionary” we’re building together. The disagreements haven’t disappeared, but the conversations afterward have become more intentional. As the Finns would say, “Ei kastunut vettä pelekee:” the wet don't fear the water.
What a fabulous experience! Thank you again for including us in this adventure. Keep on paddling!🙏🙏🙏💓💓💓💓