Day 7 - The Mighty River

Today we woke up early to pack up our campsite and get trucking before the rain set in. We did not have an easy out from our campsite back to our walking route so we decided to paddle up river for a couple miles to a public boat access. Here's what we learned: there's a reason why people don't paddle up stream...especially not the Mississippi. This was some of the hardest paddling Abe and I have ever done. On the bright side no rain ever came and we saw a lot of wildlife including deer swimming (never seen before), Osprey, and the largest eagles nest we had ever seen. The nest could have held two adult humans in it.

We ended up traveling 10-12 miles. Towards the end of the day we got an email from a couple (Jen and Jan) who were helping us with a food drop in Little Falls. They said that it looked like we would be within 3 miles of her house at the end of our day and would be open to having us spend the night and eat a home cooked meal! At first the 3 miles seemed like it might be too far off of our path, but as luck would have it, our good friend Tommy was headed up to Brainerd at that exact moment and stopped by to drive us there. Abe and I sat in the tailgate holding the canoe. Don't try this at home!

We arrived at Jen and Jan's house in Bowlus, MN and immediately noticed a hot tub! This definitely helped the sore muscles. Dinner was delicious and the conversation was great. We had a big storm roll through that night but were in the comfort of a house. We can't thank Jen and Jan enough for the hospitality and showing us around small town MN.

Little Falls tomorrow!

Nothin' to it but to do it