I'm back from my 44 mile canoe trip - alive and surprisingly not in pain. I have a couple tiny blisters on my left hand but other than that I'm good to go. After leaving my car at Gray Cloud Island, we took a school bus to the Hennepin side of the Coon Rapids Dam. We put holiday ribbons on our canoe because I thought there would be many, many Alumacraft canoes on the trip. Turns out there were only a handful of canoes like ours. We got a lot of comments on our festive look on the trip though and that was fun. Near the end, one of the ribbons fell off the canoe. We had to go back and get it. Everyone would know we were the ones who polluted the river with festive ribbons if we didn't pick it up. Our first stop was at Island of Peace park in Fridley. I met a friend of mine who was paddling with her daughter - what a small world. She took this photo of us in the morning of the second day. Notice how I am all protected? I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt with a spf factor of 15, gloves, and a sun hat. Plus I am all slathered up with sun block. My companion wears no gloves, no spf (until the afternoon), and no hat. I end up with sunburn and blisters. She doesn't. She is a tougher woman than I am. We stopped for lunch at Bassett creek - sub sandwiches and really big cookies! The food and snacks on this trip were wonderful. Just past 694 we saw a pair of osprey fishing. They hover in the air like giant, clumsy hummingbirds and zoom down into the water for the lunch. Next we paddled through downtown Minneapolis. We saw the wake boarding contests. We went through three locks. The locks result in a lot of waiting. We were waiting in our third lock and one female canoeist pulls out a mandolin and together we all sing my favorite dance tune, "Proud Mary." Even I sang and I usually don't sing in church or in public. Some men added the second "rolling" after the first "rolling." I thought we sounded great. It was one of those moments you want to preserve in your mind to bring comfort during the dark days of January. We passed a speed boat with a pirate flag. On board were 5 or 6 men. One of them was brandishing a sword. Several of the men kept yelling, "Aaargh! Aaaargh!" I guess they were pirates. We arrived at Fort Snelling about 4:30 p.m. No one told me I'd have to walk a mile up a steep hill! It's a good thing they didn't tell me, I might not have made it. I was exhausted. We set up my tent inside the fort. We had the option to camp inside or outside the fort. Inside the fort was reportedly for the people who liked to party. Party or not, how often do you get the chance to camp inside a fort? We picked a nice spot. I signed up for a massage. My turn came several hours later. This was a three minute massage. The male masseuse grabbed my right shoulder and squeezed and pinched it hard for a long time. At first it hurt and then I relaxed and almost started to drool. Man, that felt good. Dinner was late so I had a root beer float while I waited. I could still feel the waves even though I was sitting on a wooden platform. My vegetarian dinner was excellent. And then I found out there were bathrooms we could use with running water. Oh, how happy I was to use a sink again. After a day using baby wipes and hand sanitizer, I longed to use clean water on my hands and face. They even had soap! I was in heaven. We listened to the Chris Silver band. The female vocalist sounded a lot like Bonnie Raitt. As we watched the band perform, a bald eagle flew over the fort walls, saw us, and wheeled away to the south. We watched a clogging group clog. My friend and I went to bed early and I fell asleep listening to the Chris Silver band. After breakfast we packed up our tent and loaded our bags onto the truck. We hiked down the path about 8:30 a.m. and paddled past the Minnesota river. Right away the water was less clear and much more silty. We skipped the break at Harriet Island and paddled on through St. Paul. This was an awesome way to come into the city. I'll post photos tomorrow. We saw only a couple barges moving on Sunday. Some boat motorists went by us rather fast. Others slowed down for the canoes and kayaks. We turned our canoe to slice through the wave rather than be rocked side to side. We stayed close to the side of the river to be out of the way. But when we were going past a barge, the waves would ricochet off the barge and come back at us making the water all wicky wacky and hard to paddle through. We had a chipotle lunch at Kaposia landing. We kept paddling south. We went under Highway 494 and through South St. Paul and Newport. We see eagles, hawks, turkey vultures and osprey. Here we had a lot of waves to contend with from other boaters. There are some big boats out there. The bigger boats weren't really the problem. The problem are the speed boats who zoom up the river like they are late for an appointment and come zooming back down again. What is their hurry? Were they trying to see how many of us they could tip over? We stopped in Cottage Grove at the Lions levee park for the last break. We got out of the canoe and our feet sand into the muck. I could barely pick my feet up. I am standing in silt halfway up to my knee. If I stayed there longer I might have sunk completely. I'm glad I had my sandals on tight or I would have lost my shoes for sure. Off we went to finish the trip. We came upon a side channel of the river which was nice because the big boats didn't bother us in here. This section of the river in Cottage Grove on this quiet channel was absolutely beautiful. Limestone walls lined the east side. I have never seen so many arrowhead plants. We were paddling near one of the many safety boats when the safety boat kayaker said, "Oh, the lotus are in bloom!" I didn't know we had lotus in Minnesota. I had never seen these before. We came upon this giant colony of lotus. About 100 lotus were in full bloom and many more had buds. The lotus leaves were almost as big as my arm span and perfectly round. When I splashed water on the leaves, the water beaded up and slid off as if someone had just put Rain-X on them. My friend and I had to get in close. We canoed through the very shallow water so we could both smell the lotus and see them up close. Up close they look plastic and they have a faint soapy smell. I will try and post pictures tomorrow. We kept paddling though this enchanted channel until it ended and we were on the big river again. By now we're getting tired. Our shoulders ache and our rear ends feel dead. We hope to see the end point around each bend in the river and we are disappointed several times. Finally we see a National Park Service boat anchored. We must be close. They send us down a side channel and for once the sun is on our backs instead of our faces. But we still can't see the end. We keep paddling. It feels like we're paddling a little faster now. My friend and I are not fast paddlers. This alumacraft is a dinosaur of a canoe compared to the thin ones we see glide past us. And the kayaks are faster too because they're propelling on both sides with every stroke. Finally we see the white tents that signal the end of this trip. Being the person in the back of the canoe, I've done the steering for 44 miles. I stop paddling to put my sandals on and we get turned around away from our destination. I say to my friend, "Do you want to head right back or should we paddle around in here for a while?" I was kidding. Her reaction was priceless. We made it ashore. My joints creaked loudly as I stood up again. The time is 4 p.m. One of the volunteers said, "We've got hot showers ahead with some wine and beer if you want." He was kidding but that sure sounded good for a moment. They helped us out of the water. I got a shuttle ride to my car. As I drove up the road to load our gear, my car drifted to the left. I thought, "Now I have to paddle on the left to straighten out." Wait, no, I have a steering wheel. I turn the steering wheel a half inch and the car straightens out. It's so easy! I love steering wheels. The volunteers help us load our canoe on top of the car. My friend's cargo straps hold it down securely. Enough with the rope. Next time I move the canoe I'm buying some cargo straps. We drive home from Inver Grove Heights with the canoe on top. We unload and unpack. We had a great weekend. The people were wonderful - not one crabby person in the whole bunch. The food was great. The event was very well organized. But it was a Mississippi River Challenge. 44 miles of canoeing plus all the hiking and lifting was a lot of work. There is a good reason they don't call it the Mississippi River Easy Peasy.
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