*Thousand is used here to represent tens of thousands of paddle strokes taken by several hundred kayakers, canoeists and the guy on the foam board. Thanks for the title Saul.
Only a select few photos made the cut to the post. The album can be viewed in its entirety here:
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| Mississippi River Challenge |
7AM Considering that three days ago I thought we were going to have to write apologies to everyone that pledged funds towards helping the river so we could do this event, the fact that I wasn’t exactly sure we could get to the car drop off/shuttle to start stop in time wasn’t really all that upsetting.
Matt claimed that Saul and Noel were leaving by 7 because they heard there wouldn’t be any more shuttles after 8:30, which shocked me a bit, since I think of them as usually being later to things than we are, so I stepped it up a little and got the boys in the car and we were off! Only to find that the parkway that we use to get to the highway was blocked off, again, for who knows what. Luckily Matt now knows a back way to 62, so we rather quickly made our way to the highway system and proceeded to Cottage Grove, and the school bus that would take us to Coon Rapids Dam to the beginning of two days of paddling madness.
8:07AM We’ve dropped off our gear at the gear truck, scowled at the spilled warm water that was to have cleansed sinuses for the next few days but was instead now moisturizing my trunk, and decided to check in with the Phillips. They were nearly here, but at least 10 minutes out. So my previous fear that we hadn’t left early enough was allayed and I knew once again, that we’re at least slightly more on time than they typically are. Yay us! We all made the second to last shuttle, and enjoyed that last 45 minutes of travel, knowing that doing it ourselves, in canoes, was going to take two days, even with the help of the current.
9:00AM Canoes in the water! We manage to avoid the shallow rock fields near the put in spot. Saul and Noel and the National Park Rangers are not so lucky. S&N make it off their rock after spinning off of it, the rangers get out and walk their canoe to deeper waters. Not the greatest spot to put in. Awesome for canoe and gear drop off the night before, but sucky for paddling. The water spilling over the dam causes choppy water, and a crazy current that pushes you into the rock field, which seemed nearly impossible to avoid, for even experienced paddlers.
The first few hours were mellow. The sky was overcast, which I was disappointed in the first day, and begging the sky for the second. The boats were pretty spread out, and avoiding zig-zagers was a non issue, unless they snuck up from behind. Since we were above the locks, there were no barges to worry about and very few motorized pleasure craft. Nothing to worry about except lighting (of which we had none).
We put in at Islands of Peace Park, our first break area. Peace Coffee, flavorless multi-grain chips, fruit strips, bananas and apples were waiting for us complements of Whole Foods. We ate up and commented to each other on how great we were feeling, that this was not nearly as much effort as we’d been anticipating, and isn’t the tail wind awesome?
The huge groups of people at the stop made “parking” rather interesting, as it continued to be at each stop along the way. The stops where volunteers provided guidance on where to pull in were a bazillion times nicer than the stops where they’d skipped that part of the volunteer experience.
Once we all felt refreshed we headed out, only to notice that nearly everyone else had already left (a common theme of the weekend). Weird, it’s not like we got there any later than a lot of other people, and we weren’t at the tail end of the group at this point either. Oh well, we’ll catch up by lunch.
Scenery went from trees, interspersed with homes, then apartment buildings, then homeless camps just bordering the industrial zone north of downtown Minneapolis. Optimus notes that the camps seem to favor spots near power lines, "probably so they can have lights."
1PM Lunch at Basset Creek Park. The volunteers at this stop are great! They guide us in to a spot, help keep the canoe stable so that the boys can get out and point us in the direction of food. There are massage chairs set up, sandwiches from Erbert & Gerberts accompanied by cookies, chips and fruit from Whole Foods, and Pink Lemonade to drink. Everything is delicious, including the chips, which this time are salty and chip tasting.
It starts to rain when we are nearly done eating, so I run to the canoe on the shore to get our rain gear. Saul claims he’ll tough it out, but is gone to get his jacket when I make it back up the hill from the shore. We finish eating in our gear, and return to the shore to find that nearly all the other boats have gone (Didn’t I tell you this was going to be a common theme?).
This next section is tiring, not so much because the paddling itself is difficult, but because of all the obstacles to unencumbered travel. Two locks and a lot of newbie and/or inconsiderate paddlers are encountered, including a woman that nearly wacked me in the face with her kayak paddle on two separate occasions, and another that was so close to the motor of a boat she was following I was shocked her kayak wasn’t sucked under and chopped to bits.
Paddling through the city and experiencing the locks was incredible! Such a different perspective than when you’re on land, much easier to check out the neat buildings that flank the river.
4PM Afternoon break at the Rowing Club along Lake St. Aveda is here! They have the magical blue oil! This stuff does wonders to revive tired muscles. I fill my pockets with the snacks I promised I’d bring back to Matt,who is exhausted both from the paddle, and enduring the sexism that replaced me carrying the canoe with a volunteer, but left him at the other end of a loaded down canoe, then fill my cupped palm with blue oil to rub into his fatigued arms. When I crouch down next to him and ask if he’d like the blue oil, he thinks I am kidding, “yeah, blue oil, that’d be great.”then he smells it, and I show him my little puddle of future happiness and he perks up, smiles, and exposes his arms so I can rub it in to the aching muscles.
We share the joys of blue oil with Saul and Noel, and Optimus tries some out too, because “I have been paddling some, not as much as you guys, but some.” To be honest, it may have revived us more than the snacks, because I can’t even remember what they are they’ve paled so much in the light of the blue oil. Likely the flavorless chips, flanked by fruit and granola bars provided by Whole Foods.
Much revived we get our canoe back in the water without the aid of volunteers and I can’t help but notice that we’re some of the last to leave yet again. Not that it matters, because the last lock of the trip holds all of us up next to the Ford plant in groups of 100+ canoes and kayaks at a time.
7PM We make it to the fort around 6:30 and I’ve learned to ask the volunteer to take Matt’s end of the canoe now so no one need be embarrassed by their hidden sexism. We get it up on the shore near the underbrush and start the climb to the fort. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, not since an elementary school field trip in fourth grade, if I remember correctly.
Sadly, the doctor’s office is not open, so I can’t show Optimus all the tools of medicine common in the time of John Adams (the historical figure he knows the best, thanks to McCullough’s biography of him that we listened to on several family car trips, and the subsequent HBO miniseries) work. Bone saws, little collections of blades used in unison to bleed a patient, the leather strap to bite down on when they’re sawing off your leg. . . you know, the interesting part of the fort. Oh well, they were kind enough to leave the round tower open, which afforded all who would brave the dark interior with awesome views of the surrounding areas. Most of which you can hardly tell is full of houses, due to the awesome urban forest Minnesotans have maintained.
Due to the highway noise, and our late arrival we scope out, decide on, then change our minds several times before we choose a spot to set up camp. We can camp within the fort walls, but opt not to, as we worry that the bands and their listeners may keep us up too late, leaving us the field just outside the walls as the next best option. There is water and bathrooms nearby and the entrance to the fort is close.
Once the tents are up we head in for beers and an impromptu yoga session led by yoga instructors from Core Power Yoga in DT Minneapolis. It’s exactly what I needed. My traveling companions, less Optimus, all seem to feel the same way. Hours of paddling just melted away and then were replaced with a pleasant buzz from the Summit provided in a canoe filled with ice. Classy!
Dinner was delicious grass fed beef on a bun, with sides of spicy tofu and a cauliflower curred pea something or other, and salad. We ate serenaded by a Grateful Dead cover band, and downed Root Beer Floats for dessert.
I got a second beer and we headed up the tower to watch the sun set and listen to the band. I spilled my beer in the shape of a fish and was guided gently back to the tent for the night. My companions stayed up until 11, watching fireworks over Minneapolis and St. Paul listening to the bands revisit some more GD classics.
6AM Morning came too soon, but I must have drank enough water, because I didn’t feel too shabby. The rest of the party claimed to feel pretty good too. I took that as a good sign for the day’s paddle.
Breakfast was Bruggers Bagels with cream cheese, jam, peanut butter and coffee flavored with blueberry yogurt (Saul’s addition) due to the lack of cream. All consumed while seated in a circle with my traveling partners. We commented on looking forward to not having locks to go through, and hopefully not having so many zig-zaging canoes near us as a result.
We left with the bulk of the paddlers, admiring the girth of the barges we were now sharing the river with and the beauty of the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
This section gave us the opportunity to admire some interesting infrastructure use (group of unicyclists on the bike trail) and shake our heads at the apparent lack of concern for the portions of it that are crumbling (barrier wall for a bridge support nearly gone).
Second Breakfast, first break stop, was at a Marina just outside Downtown St. Paul. More Whole Foods snacks, and breads from Wollet Bakery. Optimus also rediscovered Sunny D and chastised me for the removal of it from his lunch box after Kindergarten. “You WILL put it in my lunch again when I have finished the juice that I have now mom.”
Again, we were some of the last to leave. Probably not in our favor, as this next section was brutal with the sun, and the traffic and the wind unkindly coming from all directions but the rear.
DT St. Paul wasn’t as interesting to look at from the river as Minneapolis, mostly because it was so far above the river that there wasn’t much visible from where we were. Just outside of DT, there was a huge collection of barges not in use including some growing little clumps of native grasses and black-eyed susans that we contemplating raising goats on. It was also the location of my close encounter of the fish kind. I was paddling, talking to S&N, when a fish leapt out of the water at my paddle. It happened so quickly that I wouldn’t have believed it did at all, however, everyone else saw it too, and I was soaked. Crazy St. Paul fish!
A mile or so before the lunch stop Optimus started to melt down, and Matt and I were sagging (this is actually a term used by event organizers for people that can’t keep up and are pulled out of the challenge and transported to the finish, which I use here, because we were really close to falling in that category.). We kept drinking water, as did the boy, but we were not entirely sure that we’d continue on after the lunch break, especially when we realized that our lunch break area had no shade from the punishing sun.
Food and cool water, and a long break from paddling refreshed us enough to continue on to at least the next rest area, just barely. We couldn’t find S&N, assumed that they’d already left and left ourselves.
A kind storm cloud took pity on us, and hovered overhead for nearly an hour, we’d almost caught up to S&N, and followed them into a little bay to the left of the main put in for the rest of the boats.
We ate, visited the port-a-johns, and gathered the energy to continue on. Somehow we failed to notice that every one else left, and the safety boat failed to notice we were still on land. Whoops. Once in the water we quickly found the first left that a safety captain had informed Saul would be there prior to our last break (yeah Saul for asking for directions!) and once in the small channel near the marina he and Noel also spotted the waving orange flag of the safety boat rounding a leafy green corner.
Crisis averted, sort of. We were officially sagging. There were only two boats behind us. The safety kayaker and the woman that was using his inability to escape from her, due to the fact she was the last paddler, to regale him with advice for how the event could be better next year. . .ranger programs at each break stop, meal, and a audio/visual presentation with possible reenactment at the fort when the paddlers have all arrived. Apparently she’d like a bit more bang for her fifty dollars than safe passage down the river, transportation, three meals, four snacks and an evening of music in Fort Snelling.
Anyhow, somehow we made it. I don’t really remember much of that last section of the river, a lot of pleasure craft traffic, which meant a lot of waves, but from when we got out of the little channel to when we saw the cheering volunteers luring us to shore with sno cones I was on paddle without memory mode.
