Long Day on the River

Downstream is so much faster.  We made good time, until a few hours into it when we realized we had done less than 5 miles of our 12.5 mile day. After a few hours, you feel ready to stop, but we kept right on, enjoying each other's company and the scenery as we hit the 5 mile mark at Gardner, where we ate lunch and rinsed off on an outdoor shower, the 9 mile mark where we stopped for an afternoon snack surrounded by people and dogs, and finally our campsite before 4pm. 

The wilderness area upstream of Gardner was fantastic, with lots of wildlife, few campers, only 2 paddlers and a cowboy with his horse and dogs.  The paddlers had put in with their own kayaks at Zolfo springs and made it down just fine, they said. Oh well, we had a great campsite to  wake up in and we hated to leave.  

Dawn was spectacular and I woke in time to see the sky start to lighten at 5:30am. It didn't fully rise until after 7. 

As we got down to the areas of the river with public access, particularly scou of Brownville, we felt like we were suddenly just surrounded by people at times.  People were sifting for sharks teeth, playing in the water, and cooling off on this hot Memorial Day Sunday.  As expected, we saw and heard lots of poor behavior, especially as the day wore on. When we got to our campsite at Oak Hill we were pleased to find no neighbors in the adjacent sites.    This was a very nice surprise.  

In camp, we set up, changed into dry shoes and then just expored. Jon, Jack and Bryan sifted for shark teeth, Mike went fishing, Kelly and Ryan played frisbee and I started a fire. It was a relaxing evening.  

Tomorrow we paddle the last 5 miles to Arcadia. It will be sad to end it but nice to get a shower. We definitely feel closer to civilization, sadly, as we have seen airboats and even a jet ski on this section.  We can hear fireworks and/or gun fire upstream.  The sound of an air conditioner or generator hums in the distance, from across the river, and we no longer feel like we are in the wilderness. Paddling the Boundary Waters this summer with this crew will change all that.  We can't wait.  We are as ready as we can be!