Saturday, May 25, 2013

Day 13 - Here Comes The Sun

After 4 days with no sun we finally woke up to a cloudless day! The breeze was refreshing and lifted our spirits. We set out to paddle across Rice Lake and continue on the Mississippi up about 2 miles to French rapids. Our buddy Vinnie duffed in the canoe till here and then parted ways. We threw the canoe up and started our hiking. This part of the trip was beautiful and we saw tons of eagles, blue herons, and osprey.

By afternoon we were getting excited to walk through Ironton and land for the night in Crosby. About 6 miles from Crosby we were able to catch the Cayuna state park bike trail which leads right in to the middle of Crosby. We banged out the 6 miles in just over two hours and got to our campsite. The campsite was right next to a fairly populated park. It was fun to watch all the locals play on the playground and throw frisbees.

Abe and I found ourselves grabbing a cold ice tea outside a local eatery called the "Ya Betcha". Before we knew it we were in the middle of a conversation with 4 locals around our age. Abe was lucky enough to get a palm reading from one of them! Not what we had expected when venturing in to a northern MN town.

We returned to our campsite a couple hours later and began to chat with our tent neighbor. His name was Mike, he was recently retired, and has decided to take three months out of each year to go on long walks/hikes. He has hiked across Spain, France, and half of the AT. He is currently 70 days into his quest to walk up. The entire Mississippi. Mike told us he was looking to catch a 15 mile ride up to Palisades, MN the next day. It just so happened that we were getting picked up to head down to a wedding the next day. We told him we could do that and that he should just contact us when he's done for the day and we would pick him up.

The moon appears to be full, or one day from full. Abe and I had a 14 mile day and were pleased with the scenery we saw. and the people we had met. Now it's time for rest before another sunny day tomorrow.

Nothin' to it, but to do it.

2 comments:

  1. I remember many times when rye was a youngster sitting on the dock all day with a fishing pole in hand up at our family cabin - didn't even need to catch anything - just a peace in his heart one could feel when looking at him.

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  2. You guys rock and are an inspiration to everyone!

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