Coach's Latest Adventures: Wisconsin River Trip

Wednesday - September 30th: Sandbar to Wyalusing State Park on the Mississippi River

2009-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

You know I am not cut out for this stopping early. Last evening I found myself just sitting on a log looking out over the water and thinking way too much. I like it better when I push all day long. Maybe it’s because I’m by myself. Last spring when I paddled with Dan, Mark and Toby the last few days on Lake Michigan, I looked forward to stopping early.

I made my turn onto the Mississippi River at around 1:00 PM. Another great trip almost finished. A trip with perfect conditions. With all the big water I had to cross this could have been a bear. Would I do this river again? No. Would I do any part of it again? Yes.

If one threw out the industrial part with all the dams and big flowages this would be a great river to paddle. The first 35 miles was beautiful and I recommend it to anyone for a day or two of paddling. The river sections between dams and flowages were also great to paddle but the problem is they are short. I definitely would do the Dells area again. It’s very scenic and there’s excellent camping all the way to Portage, WI. One could make it a short trip or week trip just depending how you’d like to do it. The same is true for this last 90 miles, lots of wilderness and you have a choice of camping on sandbars or at designated campsites with facilities.

It took a little while to find the channel off the Mississippi River to Wyalusing Park, but eventually I made. As I pulled into the landing, a guy, a little older than I, was just getting out of his kayak. Being a little proud of finishing I told him what I just did. He said, “Really, that must have been fun” and went on his way to load up his kayak. We did have a nice talk, but I mentioned that statement simply because once a trip is over, it is over. You realize it’s your adventure and now it’s time to get on to something else. So, I think I will stop at the casino on my way home and win back the $40.00 I lost on the Branson trip! (I will not report on how that turned out).

At the overlook where the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers come together

Tuesday - September 29th: Minneapolis to Sandbar south of Muscoda

2009-10-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

I’m back. We had a great trip to Branson. Played some golf and saw some very good shows with the Oakridge Boys being the best. Only down side was the $200.00 LuAnn and I lost at Terrible’s Casino on the way. Good thing is Lu got $170.00 of it back on the way home. Although I lost $30.00. Not good.

Well, we got back to Minneapolis last night. I stayed at my sisters and left this morning for Muscoda. This time rather than leaving my car in Muscoda and coming back I did the opposite. I left my gear in Muscoda and drove down to my finishing point and left my car at Wyalusing State Park. Again, in two rides I was back in Muscoda and still had time to do a little paddling.

This section of the river, the 90 plus miles from Prairie du Sac to Wyalusing has been designated a wilderness river. There are no dams and much of the shoreline away from towns is public land. The river itself is very wide, many places close to a quarter of a mile with a current estimated at 3 plus miles an hour. Everything makes for good paddling except for one thing. The water level is very low and you must stay in the main channel or you eventually will be stuck on a sandbar. Most times I could do this although the channel keeps winding back and forth across the river and on more than one occasion I found myself turning too late and ending up stuck and dragging my canoe.

I only went about 5 miles today and set up camp early on a sandbar. I figure with the current I can easily make it to Wyalusing by early afternoon.

So I will take it easy and lay back and do a little reminiscing.

Monday - September 21st: Prairie du Sac, WI to Muscoda, WI

2009-10-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

Even though the Packers lost I had a great time at the game yesterday with two great friends. (See Photos) I got back to Prairie du Sac last evening and got a motel room.

I now have 90 plus miles to go, which means I should be done in two days. Problem is I have less than two days to finish, because tomorrow afternoon I must meet my wife, LuAnn and our friends, Charlie and Joanne Wright in Minneapolis for our vacation trip to Branson, Mo. Not sure I can make it for I will need to leave my car here in Prairie du Sac, then when I finish I will need to find a ride back to my car, go back to Wyalusing to get my gear and still drive three plus hours to Minneapolis.

I did not make it. I made it as far as Muscoda and decided to stop around 6:00. Reason being there’s a nice park to camp at and gives me a safe place to leave my gear while I go back and get my car. I tried to get a hold of LuAnn a number of times to tell her I was stopping and would be in Minneapolis tomorrow, but could not reach her so just left a message.

It’s supposed to rain tonight so for only the second time I set up my tent. I was real cozy until around 4:00 in the morning when I was awakened by a nice pounding rain on my tent. Only one slight problem, the pounding rain on my tent was also pounding on my sleeping bag! Before I left for this trip I re-did my tent fly with water repellent spray. It was obvious the product was no good, I did not do it correctly or both. In any case I gathered my gear together and headed over to a shelter. Man, I’ve been lucky with so many things on this trip and here again with this being the only day of rain. One needs a little luck once in awhile. In my case maybe more often than not!

The rain let up a little around 5:30 so I put all my gear in my canoe and hid it in bushes then walked over to the local gas station to see if I could find a ride back to Prairie du Sac. Normally when people find out what I’m doing they are more than willing to help out. This was no different for I the first person I talked to took me about 15 miles down the road and said if he did not have to get to work he’d take me all the way. It took me two more rides and I was back to my car and back to my gear before 9:00AM.

I quickly packed up for it was still raining and headed for Minneapolis. About an hour down I decided to call LuAnn to tell her I was on my way. I did not call earlier for this morning she is at our daughter’s - she lives just down the road. Two days a week Lu helps with babysitting and this is one of the days. By now the twins, Devin and Drake are off to school and little Ryah should be awake.

I was about to dial when I realized I had a message from Lu from yesterday. This is what it said, “Larry, we are not leaving until Wednesday the 23rd!” Damn! I looked at the date on my watch, sure enough it showed Tuesday, Sept. 22nd. All this time I thought the 23rd was Tuesday! I could have easily finished! I could have not pushed so hard! I could have …. Oh, well as my friends would say, “Just another Hoff story!”

Thought about going back, but it’s still raining, my gear is wet and I’m too far down the road. Also, there’s my rule, never go backwards unless absolutely necessary. Plus, I will make some points by going all the way home and getting the yard mowed before we leave tomorrow. Good thinking on my part!

I will finish when we get back from Branson.

Saturday - September 19th: Portage, WI to Prairie du Sac, WI

2009-10-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

Up and at ‘em early and had a very easy paddle through the Portage area and made it to the I-94 bridge by around 9:00 AM. I mention the I-94 bridge for that is the freeway we take whenever going south and I’ve looked down on this river many times. From above, it looks a little intimidating for a canoe -down here not so.

From here the little info I have tells me it will take about 8 hours of paddling to get to Prairie du Sac. That means I’d arrive around five o’clock. Fortunately these estimated paddling times are way off for I’ve found all along I usually do each section in about half the time, maybe a little more than half depending on obstacles. So I figured I’d be there early afternoon and on my way to Green Bay by 3:00.

Basically there was not much to this paddle for after the I - 94 bridge I was soon on Lake Wisconsin which again is a huge flowage of over 9,500 acres and takes me all the way to my “LAST” dam at Prairie du Sac.

Again the weather was perfect so it was an easy lake paddle. I’m getting close to the end now for once I get below the Prairie du Sac Dam the last 94 miles is designated as a wilderness river. I will begin that section next Monday when I get back from the Packers game. As much as I’ve enjoyed the journey I do not like the lake/flowage paddling so I’m glad this is now over.

Fittingly when I got to the dam I took out just before the dam at a golf course. When I left for this journey I’d just finishing playing in a golf tournament so I guess this was the perfect place. Besides, once again the take-out at the dam did not look that good.

I’m not sure what golf hole I was at but I got many stares as I put my bike trailer together and towed my canoe away. By the way I made it there by 2:00PM.

As expected (maybe I worried a little) I found my car, packed up and was on my way to Green Bay by 3:00. Actually I will meet Jim and Newt in New London, WI. Motels are cheaper there and we are cheap!

Note: Check out my Photos album for a few photos of the crazy tailgaters at the game.

Friday - September 18th: Petenwell Dam to Portage, WI

2009-10-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Great night’s sleep and again it looks like another beautiful day for paddling.

Again the portage at the Petenwell Dam looked like it would be a tough one. So I took out at a boat landing short of the dam and pedaled around to the boat landing on the other side of State Hwy 21.

I was not on the water long for as I got into the Castle Rock flowage, I again was starting to be confronted with the green algae I had on the Petenwell flowage. Last night my canoe was covered with the stuff and it made for a messy unloading of the canoe. Plus no way could I use the water for washing. So rather than chance paddling through such a mess again, I made the decision to bike around this flowage.

Where I re-entered the water at a boat landing below the Castle Rock Dam I found a big yellow sign saying “Boat launch $3.00”. First one of these I’ve come across. As I thought, “Do they really charge canoeists portaging around the dam $3.00?” I noticed another sign saying, “Canoeists re-enter here”. Made me feel a little better.

I’ve been looking forward to this section. Soon I will be entering the Wisconsin Dells area which is one, if not the number one, tourist area in all of Wisconsin. Through this section both above and below the Dells Dam the river is lined with numerous sandstone high bluffs and rock formations.

Just past State Hwy 82 the bluffs began. Just gorgeous. Only one problem, I could not find my camera. Normally I have it and my cell phone in the small food container I have just in front of me, but neither the camera or phone was there. I was sure I did not leave anything at my campsite last night for I’ve been checking twice everything around me before I leave. (Never used to do that) Then I realized I set my tent up last night for the first time and before I went to sleep I put the phone and camera in one of screen pockets in my tent which is packed away. So I have no pictures of this area.

I will say that if you ever are in this area it’s a must-see either by canoe, boat or one of the many Wisconsin tourist boats. The high sandstone cliffs and numerous rock formations are unbelievable.

I took out at a private landing on the west side of the river short of downtown and the Kilbourn Dam. Glad I did for there was a huge sidewalk sale going on in downtown Wisconsin Dells and if I’d gone all the way to the dam I’d have been right in the middle of it. I got around all of this and was able to find an easy access to the water below the dam on the right.

Now with camera in hand I will take as many pictures of the lower dells as I can. Other than to restate that’s a must-see area I will let my pictures do the talking. (Please check photo album)

The rest of the day’s paddle was an interesting one. Once past the Dells area the river became very shallow. It was wide, but you had to continually move from one side of the river to the other to stay in the channel. If not you would find yourself getting out of your canoe and pulling across a sandbar. Of course on more than one occasion I found myself doing so, thinking I could take a shortcut.

Because of the sandy shore line and the many sandbars it’s a popular canoeing area and probably party area evidenced by the numerous places I saw remnants of campfires. Oh, to be young again! I did encounter four guys paddling this area. They were either getting in or out of their kayaks when I came by. I said “hi” and keep going only to hear, “That old dude is really booking!” Can’t say that that made my day.

It was getting dark as I approached Portage, Wi. I could hear the traffic from the I-39 freeway as I was continually getting in and out of my canoe to pull myself free of a sandbar for now it was difficult to find the channel.

Just short of I-39 I found a fairly isolated place and made camp. Another long day, but by far the most scenic. Need to get some sleep. For tomorrow I hope to be on the water early for I must get to Prairie du Sac hopefully by early afternoon. Tomorrow is Saturday and I will be driving to Green Bay to meet Jim and Newt for the Green Bay Packers game on Sunday. Hopefully I have a car waiting for me.

Thursday - September 17th: Stevens Point to Near Petenwell Dam

2009-10-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning to a very damp sleeping bag and a dense fog. I could hardly make out the sign that I was camped by. It said, “ No Camping in the Park!” Well, how was I to know, I am from out of town.

Anyway, I thought maybe I should not push my luck so I quickly put together my bike trailer and was off. I made a quick stop at a McDonalds and looked over my info on the portage around this dam. Yesterday I did not realize I had two dams within a couple of miles of each other and both with descriptions of difficult portages. So, I bike about 3 miles around both dams and entered at Al Tech Park.

Finally back on the water. The fog had not lifted yet (see picture) so I stayed close to shore for a few miles. By about 7:30 it was going and I was in store for another beautiful day.

In ten miles I came to the my third dam, the Biron Dam. Because again it would have been a difficult portage at the dam, (portage notes: Take-out on the steep rip rapped bank and proceed down the dike to a trail for a ¼ mile portage into the right channel.) I took out at a boat landing about a mile before the dam and re entered at another boat landing about a ½ mile below the dam. Three dams and it’s not even 10:00 in the morning and in four miles I have three more dams to get around in the Wisconsin Rapids area. Going to be one of those days again.

As I approached Wisconsin Rapids I gave a call to my long time friend Ken McGrath. Ken and his wife Sue have lived in Wisconsin Rapids for years. He’s also a retired teacher, but still does a lot of substitute teaching. Sue still works as a Registered Nurse. Ken and I, “Newt” as I call him, have been friends as long as Jim McIntyre and I have. The three of us grew up together in Barron, WI. Jim stayed in Barron while in seventh grade, Ken and family moved to New York and I to the Minneapolis area. Even though that happened we still have stayed very close for all these years. In fact, as I mentioned at the beginning, on Saturday I will be leaving the river and meeting Ken and Jim for our annual Packers game trip. Also, our wives knew each other before we knew them for they went to the same nursing school in Minneapolis. Small world.

Newt was able to come down and say a quick hello as I was getting ready for my next bike portage. He was on his way to Madison to help one of his sons.

I asked him about the dams and he thought it would be best to go around all three for they were not that far apart and find a place to get in after the Port Edwards dam. Glad he said that for I’d already decided to do that figuring I could get to a little side lake outside Wisconsin Rapids. My road map showed a small river leading from the lake back to the Wisconsin River. By doing this I would not have to cross the Bridge to Port Edwards on the other side of river and fight traffic. So, after taking a picture of Newt, I was on my way. It did not take long to get to my little lake and I felt good about now only having one more dam to go around in Nekoosa.

As I was getting ready to put back into the water at the landing an older fellow was there (well, older than me) and came over to see what I was up to. After a few minutes of conversation with me explaining my adventure to him, I was about to put in and shove off when he said, “Coach, if you are canoeing the length of the Wisconsin River, why are you putting in here?”

I stopped and looked at him and explain my reasoning, which I quickly found out was wrong. Reason being that little river I was going to paddle back to the Wisconsin on had a dam at the end of this lake and no water below it to paddle in.

Okay, now what. As you know one of my few rules is not to go backwards unless absolutely necessary. So it was off to Nekoosa - another 9 to 10 miles down the road.

I put my bike trailer back together, thanked the man and headed on my way. As I turned back onto the road I took a quick look back at the older gentlemen and he had this look on his face as to whether this nut really knew what he’s doing. Sometimes I wonder the same about myself.

Anyway when I finally did get back into the water I met another guy, Kerry. Another nice person that gave me some very good advice about the algae on Petenwell Flowage.

He told me it was very thick and very toxic. Last year they even closed the flowage for awhile because dogs and cats were dying from it. After some nice conversation with Kerry I was finally on my way. It was now about 1:00 or so and I probably had paddled for less than an hour and half and I’ve covered 30 miles of river by my portaging. Maybe for the first time it will be an early stop.

Once on the water it did not take long to get to the Petenwell Flowage. The following is a description from my internet notes: “The 23,040 acre Petenwell Flowage is the second largest inland body of water in Wisconsin. Rough water from wind and large boats can be hazardous to canoeists. Individuals must use extreme caution because of the size, complexity, and constantly changing conditions.”

I had none of the above problems. I crossed it with again a slight breeze to my back and no more than a ripple of wave action. Toughest part was working through the thick green algae Kerry had warned me about. (See pictures)

Yes, for the first time it was an early stop. Well, at least it was not dark. Very good day and five more dams are behind me thanks to my bike trailer system. If I may say so myself, I really like my set up. My bike - trailer system (My friend Jim Woodruff refers to it as my “junk yard”) not only comes in handy for the difficult portages, but it really helps in working my leg muscles that get little exercise in 12 or more hours of paddling.

Heck, it’s still light out and I’m sitting on shore just staring out over the water. Maybe I should keep going??? (I DIDN”T)

Wednesday - September 16th: North of Wausau to Stevens Point

2009-10-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Again just a very nice night and it looks like another great day.

It did not take long to get to the Wausau Dam and the Rothschild Dam was in three miles with what looked like a difficult portage so I decided to bike portage around both dams. I entered at the Domtar boat landing below the Rothschild Dam making for about a six to seven mile portage.

Once back in the water I had a nice current to paddle for about 3 or 4 miles. Nice way to start the day.

It was about 10 miles to the Mosinee Dam and what looks like the most difficult portage. Description from internet notes: “A telephone is provided attached to an informational sign at the portage for assistance provided by Mosinee Paper. Be prepared for about a 45 minute to one hour wait. To call ahead from any phone dial, 715 692-3304.” You know I’m not going to do this!

This was not the only obstacle. Before I got to the dam I had to weave my way through a number of islands in the flowage before the dam. I did make one small mistake, but quickly got back on course. Once I saw the dam, I looked for another way to get around it. On the right I saw some homes and a road very close to the water. Looked like the answer to my problem except when I paddled over to it, there was this big sign saying “Private property. Absolutely no trespassing.” Darn, all I had to do was pull my gear about 20’ and I’d be on the road.

No one was around to ask permission so I paddled a little more to my right and noticed a park in the distance. There had to be a landing there so off I went and did find a landing.

Got my gear packed up and started into town and was told the best place to get back into the water was about a mile or so downstream. It did not take long to get to this very nice boat landing below the Mosinee Dam. So what I thought would be the biggest problem of the day turned out to be much easier than I thought. Unaware though that a mistake will soon be made.

Back on the water I had a beautiful paddle for about 10 miles before I needed to make a sharp turn into Eau Pleine Reservoir which eventually leads to the bigger Du Bay Flowage. Not quite sure if I was going in the right direction, I went over to guy and gal that were fishing near what I thought could be a shortcut to my left around this big hook in the river. They told me it was not the way to go and that I should follow the main channel to the right and go all the way around. So that is what I did.

As I paddled on I notice a couple of more fishermen on my left. They looked pretty serious about their fishing so I did not stop to talk to them and on I went. I’d been paddling for well over 45 minutes and still had not come to Eau Pleine Reservoir. Figuring I may have made a mistake I was about to check my road map to see if I could figure out where I was, when I spotted a fishing boat in front of me. Realizing my map would do me no good I quickly paddled toward the fisherman. As I got closer something looked familiar about this boat. Then I realized it was the same two guys I passed 45 minutes earlier. Yep,, I paddled in a circle around an island!

Back on course I now realized to make it to Stevens Point it would require another full day plus of paddling. My motel stay was out the window. Oh well, I will save a dollar or two!

Soon I was to Lake Du Bay which spreads across 6,800 plus acres. Once again I had no wind so it made for an easy paddle. I’ve been very, very lucky on all these huge flowage lakes. With wind they could be almost impossible to cross. I still have the biggest flowage, Petenwell in front of me. Hopefully my luck holds for that one. Petenwell is the second biggest open body of water in Wisconsin.

Most of the afternoon was spent crossing Lake Du Bay. It was getting late when I went around the Du Bay Dam and I knew now I would not make it to Stevens Point before dark. Because of my screw-up earlier I was still about 10 miles away.

It was dark when I did enter the Stevens Point Flowage. I had a choice, find a place now or go across the flowage in the dark. Of course I chose the latter and kept going. I felt like I was in a small plane trying to make a landing on a huge runway guided only by faint lights in the distance.

Eventually I did make it across and found a nice little park on my right. I paddled over and found a place next to a building that I could tuck in for the night.

It did not take long to fall asleep for this was the toughest day I’ve had so far. Maybe it’s just been too many long days. Tomorrow I’ve got to slow down!

Tuesday - September 15th: Kings Dam to North of Wausau

2009-10-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful evening and good start to the day. Easily got around Kings Dam and it was a short paddle to Hwy U S 51 just outside Tomahawk, WI and the start of another flowage, Lake Mohawksin. Many homes along this lake.

Goal is to get as close to Wausau as possible. To do so I will have five more dams to work around which is getting annoying. I was hoping for a shorter day, but as my friend Jim McIntyre would say to me, “Always got to get those miles, always got to get those miles!” The dams and flowages really slow one down so to get my 50 miles it could be another long day. We will see.

THE DAM DAY!

The Tomahawk Dam was not bad to get around, maybe because it was early in the morning. Then it was about seven miles to Grandmother Dam which was an easy paddle with decent river current with a small flowage to cross just before the dam. This was a little more difficult to get around because I needed to work my way down some wooden steps below the power plant.

Next came Grandfather Dam which was interesting. Just before the dam you took a channel on the left that went around the main dam to a smaller dam. Here I needed to hook up my bike trail and go about a half mile along a trail before I could re-enter the water.

Once on the water I again had some decent current and encountered a number of easy rapids to paddle through before entry to the Alexander Flowage. Again, every flowage I cross today was easy for I still had no wind or waves to contend with. Just the darn dams!

Alexander Dam was another bike and trailer trip through a state park and down a trail. Then it was a long steep descent to the river over broken concrete.

Once on the river I again had decent river current until I approached Merrill, WI.

I was thinking of stopping here for I was tired, but I was only at the about the 140 mile mark so I need another 10 to maintain my 50 mile average. So on I went. Once again I hooked up my bike trailer and worked my way around the Merrill Dam to Riverside Park just below the dam.

Here again I had some decent current which made the 10 or so miles to the outskirts of Wausau a quicker paddle than I figured. Which was good because when I found a little spot where I could throw my tarp and sleeping bag down for the night, it was once again dark!

All in all it was a very good day. Each dam had its challenges, but the paddle between each was very enjoyable. Excellent scenery on the river sections and many beautiful homes along the many flowages.

Tomorrow the goal is to get to Stevens Point and take a motel and maybe a little earlier stop. For now it’s time to find the Big Dipper.

Monday - September 14th: Close to State Highway 70 to Lake Alice and Kings Dam

2009-10-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

What a great start to this trip. Yesterday I got in more miles than I thought, close to 40. Able to do that because I had more river current than I expected and of course paddling into the night a little helped.

Very peaceful evening last night. There were no visitors so I did not get caught for trespassing and I’m leaving right at daybreak before anyone does show up. Sleeping bag is a little damp so I strapped it to the front hull of the canoe until it dries out. Looks like another beautiful day.

It did not take long to get to State Highway 70 and my first dam, Otter Rapids. The paddle across my first flowage, Watersmeet Lake was easy - not hardly a ripple. Also it was just a short easy 500’ portage around Otter Rapids. Sure hope the rest are this easy, but I know better.

Once around Otter Rapids Dam I once again had some current . Lots of boulders in this section of the river as it parallels State Highway 70.

From Otter Rapids Dam to Rainbow Dam is only 7 miles so my river paddling was short lived as I was soon into the 4,165 acre Rainbow Reservoir. Once again it was a piece of cake crossing this body of water with only a slight breeze and that was at my back. Also, another easy portage around the dam.

I now have 20 miles to Rhinelander and the Rhinelander Dam. The first 10 was a very nice river paddle with the river being bordered on both sides by a nice mix of hardwoods with their leaves beginning to turn and the green of fir trees. Just a great setting.

As I got closer to Rhinelander I first had to work my way through seven or so miles of wild rice fields and then across the Rhinelander Flowage. All went without a hitch as the slight breeze was still at my back. I again was making better time than expected and felt I had a chance to get well past Rhinelander today with the goal being Kings Dam which is at the 104 mile mark and would make for a 60-plus mile day. If I could do that I would be on schedule for my 50 mile daily average. Conditions are good and I feel good so we will try.

Portage around the Rhinelander Dam was not so easy and I was glad I had my bike trailer system. Here’s the description of how to do it from the info I got off the internet. “Access to the shorter portage route (about 1/3 mile) is gated but typically open during normal business hours (call 715 369-4241) ahead for access anytime) or about a mile long route goes along city streets (take out on left, put-in on right).

My route: Gate was closed, no answer when I called. So I put my bike together and as I was doing so, a person told me to go around the left rather than the right and put in below Trigs Grocery Store. Long story short, I did not find any place to put in below the grocery store so ended up biking to US Highway 8 and putting in behind a motel.

Off again and within 5 miles I was again at a damn - dam, the Hat Rapids Dam. This was an easy portage of 500’. Once around I had about 7 miles of a very scenic and quick paddle through light rapids to Whirlpool Rapids which was considered Class Two rapids, but was more like Class One, although fun.

Soon past the rapids the water began to slow as I approached Lake Alice and Kings Dam. It was getting late, but once again I’d made some great time, even with the damn - dam portages! At about 8:00 I called it a day not far from the dam and found a nice cozy spot for my tarp and crawled in my sleeping bag. Another great day under perfect conditions, although I am a little tired! Tomorrow…. we will slow down.

Sunday September 13th: Headwaters of the Wisconsin River - Lac View Desert to near Eagle River, Wisconsin

2009-10-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

Rory’s birthday party was great. The golf tournament - well, I could have played a whole lot better.

I did not get started to Eagle River until around 6:30 last evening and got as far as Ladysmith, Wisconsin and found a nice cheap motel. I was on the road by 6:00 AM and made it to Eagle River by mid-morning.

I stopped at McDonalds for breakfast and got some local information on the river. Everyone I talked to felt the water would be too low to paddle at the headwaters. In the Eagle River area the water is down 6 to 8 feet and up at the headwaters the Wisconsin is only a small creek. The consensus was that I should go to the landing on Highway 20 about 5 miles from the headwaters and enter there, so I was off.

I got to the landing and found the water to be about a foot or so deep and maybe 10 feet wide, plenty good to paddle. I started to unload my gear only to notice a canoe coming from above. I asked the couple where they started and they said at the headwaters. They said they had to pull their canoe around some beaver dams only in a couple of places and that the water was high enough to paddle because they were letting water out at the dam.

Okay, back went my gear in the car and I was off to the headwaters. On the way I made a quick call to let the guys I met at McDonalds know I was going start at the headwaters.

Remember earlier when I said I had few plans for this trip? Well, one thing not planned was how I was going to get back to my car or get my car down to the end. Back-up plan is to call my old buddy, Jim McIntyre from Racine to help me out. If you’ve followed some of my Atlantic to Pacific journal and this spring’s Hugh Heward Challenge, Jim was the one doing a lot of shuttling me around on those two adventures.

Turns out I will not have to call him for the problem has already been taken care of. At McDonalds I met some guys who were on a week fishing trip in the area. They were from Wausau and Portage, Wisconsin and after talking with them and finding out I knew some of the same people they did through my coaching days, they offered to drive my car back. Plan was when they left they would drive it back home and eventually get it over to Prairie du Sac which wasn’t that far from them and leave it in the WalMart parking lot. Why Prairie du Sac rather than at the end? Well, that’s another part of the trip. Next Saturday I need to get over to Green Bay to meet my friend Jim and another long time friend, Ken McGrath. Each year the three of us get together for a Packers game and this happens to be the weekend. I figure I will be able to make it to Prairie du Sac by then. If not I should be close and should be able to find a ride.

All problems solved for now, time to get paddling!

I finally got paddling around 11:30 AM. At the headwaters there was a small parking lot and a trail leading over to the headwaters. The river was basically a small creek which crossed the road I came in on, through two small culverts that one could not paddle through. I followed the trail to the headwaters and found a nice camping area next to Lac View Desert and the small dam which was the Wisconsin River headwaters. I took a few pictures, then went back to the car and unloaded my gear. (Because it was only 100 yds to the culverts I decided to put in on the other side of them.)

I was off. Another adventure begins and what a beginning. Leaves are starting to change, weather is perfect and I’m doing what I like to do.

It is hard to imagine that eventually this small creek would become a major industrial river. Right now it reminds me of the Brule River back home. The Brule is a famous wilderness canoe river back home and the first 35 miles of this river is much the same.

I met a number of day paddlers as I wound my way down the river. There were a few nice camping areas in this stretch, but of course I came upon them well before I could stop. My goal was to get as close to Eagle River, WI and State Highway 70 as possible and that was 40 miles away.

By dark I was getting close, but now I was past the camping areas and more into private river homes. I kept paddling well past dark until I was tired of bumping into logs and such. Eventually I pulled over to a cabin. There was no one around so I decided to throw my tarp down next to the cabin's dock and call it a day. No need for a tent, I just grabbed my sleeping bag and crawled in. Stars were out and as I stared at the Big Dipper I thought, "What a start!" Also thought, “I hope if the owners of this cabin happen to show up that they are understanding!”

The Game Plan: early September 2009

2009-10-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

It’s mid-September, the leaves are starting to turn and it’s time to canoe the Wisconsin River. This river begins near the border of Upper Michigan with its headwaters, Lac Vieux Desert, which is actually in Upper Michigan.

The 430-mile Wisconsin River is the longest river in Wisconsin. It begins as a small stream at the Lac Vieux Desert dam and flows diagonally southwest across Wisconsin to the Mississippi River just south of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

For more information on the river go to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_River

Canoe map information can be found at: www.new.wvic.com/maps

Also, Jim Woodruff will be following me on his blog. If you followed my Hugh Heward adventure you will remember Jim as the Topologist who did such a great job following all those that did this challenge. He’s become a good friend and I know you will enjoy his blog: http://www.thetopologist.blogspot.com/

THE GAME PLAN
As usual there will not be much of a game plan other than I must be back on the 23rd of September because my wife LuAnn and I will be heading to Branson for a short vacation. So, once again there will be little time to smell the lily pads! I will need to average around 50 miles a day in order to finish on the 23rd. Normally 50 miles is not that tough to do under normal conditions, but the Wisconsin is basically an industrial hydro-power and paper mill river and I will encounter 26 dams I will need to portage around. Behind each of these dams will be backwater flowages. So basically for much of the river it will be like paddling on a lake with little current to help one along. Most likely I will be putting in some long paddling days to maintain a 50 mile average.

My gear is packed; I have my road map, some portage information and canoe on top of the car. I will head out tomorrow for Eagle River, Wisconsin and the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. Although it will be a late start tomorrow, for I have a golf tournament tomorrow morning and will need a quick trip in the opposite direction to Somerset, WI. It’s our grandson Rory’s 6th birthday tomorrow and no way will I miss it.

I do hope to be paddling on Sunday September 13.

May 4th - Hammond Marina to Chicago

2009-05-13T03:52:00.000-07:00

Mark as usual was already up and had his tent down when I crawled out of mine. Normally Toby is up, but this morning he's still snug in his sleeping bag. Must be catching an extra wink because of the trains coming by every half hour last night. Dan likes his sleep and as usual was the last one up, but he's always ready to push off when it's time to go.

We took our time this morning for we had less than 12 miles to go. Again the water was relatively calm with only a slight breeze coming from the southeast which for one of the few times will helped while we've been on Lake Michigan.

For the last 2 1/2 days we've been able to see the skyline of Chicago. First with a dim veiw of the Sears building, then the beautiful sunset view of two days ago and now the whole city has jumped right out in front of us. Spectacular view from the water.

Again, not much conversation for I'm sure my fellow paddlers have many thoughts going through their heads as I do.

The last couple of days I've played back in my mind the many things that have transpired on this journey. All good. Even the bad weather days are good ones. What's jumped out most have been the people I've met. On all my journeys I've met so many nice people and this trip has been no exception. I think back to the beginning when Mel Herrera and Gloria Kelly treated us all to dinner the night before we pushed off. Then there was Ron Dean, Bryan Taylor and Chuck Amboy joining us for the first day of paddling. Bob Bradford, who'd I'd get to know better later was also there to see us off.

I think back to how we all started off together only to find myself paddling with Jon until about noon and then by myself until these last three days. I had a blast during that time, fighting the current of the Huron, meeting so many people wondering what I was doing as I bike-portaged parts of Ann Arbor. My cross country trip from Dexter to the Grand River - a view that reminded me a lot of the farm country of my home state of Wisconsin. The start down the flooded Grand River, twisting and turning through a mass of trees, but for the first time going with the current. All good thoughts.

Then came a very special meeting. I can still see Karen and Nancy escorting Karen's father, Jim Woodruff down to the water's edge when I was pulling into the Dimondale park. I've been looking forward to meeting Jim for it's been through his endless research of Hugh Heward's voyage in 1790 that we are retracing Heward's route from Detroit to Chicago. He'd been tracking all of us from the beginning with a running account of what we are doing and comparing it with the actual adventure of Hugh Heward. Just an amazing job . Now I had the honor of meeting the man. I remember introducing myself only to hear what sounded like my own father's direct way of talking telling me, "For gosh sakes man, what are you doing standing in that water with sandals on? Don't you realize you're in Michigan? Put some boots on!" (On my website at http://www.lhoff.com/ you can listen and see the entire conversation) That set the tone for a great evening and the beginning of friendships I will cherish from now on.

I continued to paddle towards Chicago thinking of the many other people I've met, especially during the Hugh Heward 50 Mile Challenge. Chuck Amboy graciously inviting all of us for lunch at the English Inn in Dimondale the day before the challenge. This allowed me the chance to reunite with Toby, Dan, Mark, Charlie and Jon for the first time since Detroit. Then there was Mike Lehrer who took his time to show me the town of Portland. I was able to met both he and his wife again at the challenge. Great people. Mike even thought I was a halfway decent paddler. I remember being in awe of Bob Bradford when I learned he was using the same canoe he and his partner used in setting the record for paddling the length of the Mississippi. Janet, Bob's wife, an awesome paddler in her own right, would paddle with him on this challenge. His son, Mike and nephew paddled one of, if not the fastest, racing canoes in the challenge. There were so many others. Nancy Anderson comes to mind. She seems to be everywhere helping in any way she can. Scott Smith, one of Dan's brothers comes to mind. What a great day I had visiting with him and seeing his Superior Canoe Shop.

For me, the 50-Mile Challenge was the number one highlight. For this was what the journey was all about - raising awareness and a few dollars for the Verlen Kruger Memorial. These group of people have worked hard at this project. Basically collecting a nickel at a time. No big sponsor, no big grants, no big money from the town treasury, just great people honoring a man that's meant so much to them. I never got to meet Verlen, but I feel I know him well. Anyone that enjoys the outdoors and dreams can truly appreciate a person like Verlen Kruger who lived his dream to the fullest. So I hope my little journal and blog may help in seeing the dream of Verlen's friends come true in the near future. Some out there may also like to see it come true, if so I hope you take the time to look at the Verlen Kruger Memorial website http://www.verlenkrugermemorial.org/ and possibly buy a brick.

You can go directly to the brick order form here: www.verlenkrugermemorial.org/id27.html.

We are now very close to the end of this adventure and I'd like to comment on the three men that allowed me to finish this trip with them.

Toby Nipper is 58 years old from Florida. He's only been paddling for two years. Back then he entered a canoe race on the gulf of Florida and promised himself if he finished the race he'd never go back to work. He finished and he's not been back to work since. In fact in a few days he will be off on another trip. By the way, he will give anyone a run for their money in a canoe. I believe we've become pretty good friends in the last few days and I hope to paddle with him again. Maybe some day in the Boundary Waters with a couple of my outlaw friends!

Mark Predwojewski is 39 years old from Irons, MI. As mentioneded before Mark has taken over Verlen's canoe business and is the person I bought my Kruger canoe from. He reminds me a lot of my son Eric. Eric is a talented artist who is very particular in what he does. Mark's craftmanship is very much the same. He also has a little of our son Dean in him. Dean is easy- going, nothing bothers him and that has been true with Mark. How he's put up with these three old men is beyond me. But, he's done an outstanding job babysitting us! Just a class act and world class paddler.

Dan Smith is also 58 years old from Portland, MI. The past three days he's shared a number of good times he and Verlen have had over the years. One being canoeing the Yukon River. I've come to believe no one misses Verlen more than Dan. Dan's a driving force behind the memorial and he will see it through. No one more than Dan wants to paddle the Grand River and look over and see the watchful eyes of Verlen. Dan, I know your efforts are sincerely appreciated by all.

Then there's Jim "The Topologist" Woodruff. If you have not read Jim's blog you are really missing something. He's a special man with a gift for writing, although his daughter and son must censor his pen once in awhile. Click on the following: http://www.thetopologist.blogspot.com/ It's a must read.

We've arrived. No fanfare other than Mike Smith and his girlfriend here to greet us. Mike will be shuttling Toby, Dan and Mark back to Michigan. My friend Jim McIntyre will be here soon to take me home. Can not thank Jim enough. He's been a trooper once again.

Before everyone packs up we will paddle a mile to the Chicago River. Dan, Mark, Toby, Mike Smith and his girlfriend will paddle down the river for a mile or two. I will not, for Jim will be here soon and I do not want him waiting around for another 2 or 3 hours. So I said my goodbyes to some very special friends and headed home.

Mr. Topoligist my friend, your "cat herding" is complete. Job well done!

The 2009 Ultimate Hugh Heward Challenge Paddlers

Cat Herder Jim Woodruff Sr. A Very Special Friend!

May 3rd - A Day and a Half From Chicago

2009-05-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

Just a gorgeous morning. In the 60's and a slight breeze. We were on the water by 7:30 - actually 6:30 for we are now in the Central Time Zone. Mark and Dan still go by Eastern Time.

The suggestion was made, "Maybe we could cut straight across to Chicago. It's only 32 miles." This is what Jon Holmes did a couple of days ago. Jon is the paddler I started with on the Detroit River. When I left the lake a few days ago he moved ahead and was a couple of days in front of Mark, Dan and Toby when I joined them two days ago. A friend joined him for this 30 plus mile journey. From what we hear it was not the easiest of crossings. They fought winds and were quite dehydrated when they reach Chicago. Good news is they made it and are safe. Congrats Jon! Wish we could have spent more time together on this trip, You can follow Jon's journey at http://www.advonthegrand.com/)

At about 11:00 we came to a spot on the lake where we needed to make a decision to either continue to follow the shoreline to the left or cut the corner to Gary, IN. Cutting the corner saves a good 10 miles of paddling. Did not take long for a decision. We are on our way to Gary, IN. Our aiming point is a steel mill we see 12 miles away.

Crossing was very easy for the winds stayed calm. Only real excitement was when I was taking pictures of the many lake trout fishermen fishing these waters, Toby takes off. By the time I got back to paddling he was some distance in front. Dan must have been feeling a little spry this morning for he took off after him. I promised myself at the start it was going to be an easy day of paddling. Of course that went right out the window and off I went.

After sometime I could see Dan right behind Toby, but Toby did not let up. He just kept going. When I reached Dan, he said, "Enough of this", and backed off. Of course I had to continue. Finally I caught Toby and paddled about half a canoe length behind him for a few minutes, thinking he'd slow down. He didn't, he just kept it going. I'd came to my senses and decided to wait for Dan and Mark. Later Toby stopped and joined us. I think Mark said something like, "Are you kids done now?!"

For the rest of the day we all paddled together, reaching the steel mill in the early afternoon. We now had about 7 miles to go to Hammond, IN where we hoped to camp for the night. That would leave us about 12 miles to go to Chicago in the morning.

Mike Smith, Dan's brother, has been helping us out the last few days by googling earth and seeking out possible camping spots for us. Dan would keep in touch by cell phone. Each day we'd decided on a camp spot and then change it at least twice. This was no exception, we must have called Mike at least 4 times. Each time we asked him to find something further ahead.

Thanks, Mike for your patience and especially thanks for today's stopping point. We ended up at a state of the art marina in Hammond. Mike had made arrangements with the management telling them of our arrival. When we got there we were each handed a key that allowed us entry in and out of the marina, plus more important, the facility that had the nice warm showers! Great job, Mike. Nest to the marina was a hugh casino, which meant a huge buffet. Nothing could be better unless one could win a couple of bucks at the casino. Mark, Dan and Toby were smart enough not to play. This Norwegien could not resist. Fortunately I only played for about a half hour and even walked out a couple of bucks ahead.

That evening we set up camp on the marina's lawn. Not a lot of conversation this evening. I think all of us have thoughts on finishing tomorrow and what's transpired since the start. My thoughts are with my brother who'd be 63 today. We lost him in a car accident in 1963 at the age of 16. Happy birthday, Don.

Saturday - May 2nd

2009-05-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Man, I was cold last night. I have a great sleeping bag (15 degree Feathered Friends) but I do not use a sleeping pad. Normally I have what's called a space blanket which is basically a small tarp with an aluminum coating on one side that does a good job blocking the cold of the ground from my sleeping bag. It fits perfectly inside my tent and on torrential rainy days keeps my tent totally waterproof. I've always put the tarp inside my tent. I found this to be better, for if you put it on the ground and then the tent on top, water can get between the tarp and the tent and you are one wet baby if that happens.

I mentioned being cold to the guys in the morning and Toby said, "Maybe you should carry more than a hanky in your pack!" Hmmm, the give and take has started!

To defend myself, I do travel light, which comes from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail where every ounce counts. Although my total pack weight, not counting food and water is about 20- 25 lbs I have all the essentials one needs. Although, I may rethink this after seeing all the comforts that Mark, Dan and Toby have. I wouldn't be surprised if they soon set up the TV satellite dish!

Can you tell I'm having a good time?

Anyway, the space blanket I forgot at home. It wouldn't feel right if I hadn't forgotten something. Just have to re-adjust this evening.

This morning the wind again was coming from the southwest directly into our face. It was a fairly strong wind causing for some rough water and if the wind stays we will not make many miles. Fortunately it died down by around 10 and by noon the lake was quite calm making for a very easy day of paddling.

Toby and I spent the day chasing each other. Not sure why, just two old guys pretending they were kids. Well at least one old guy and a supposedly one mature adult (Toby is only 58). Dan and Mark, by far the smarter, took their time and enjoyed the beautiful day. They didn't say anything to us, but I'm sure between the two of them there were some sly comments made about our actions.

Again we camped at about 6:30 just past Michigan City. Heck, I must be getting old, yesterday I was wondering why so early, today I was looking forward to it. Besides we'd made another 30 miles and if all goes well, we will be in Chicago in a day and a half. In fact we can see the skyline of Chicago from our campsite. Really a picturesque site as the sun sets directly over Chicago. I have some nice pictures of it which will be posted soon along with rest of the pictures I've taken on this journey.

Just another great day, paddling with 3 great guys. Time for bed. "Hey Toby, tomorrow I might let you pass me!"

Friday - May 1st - I'm Back on the Water

2009-05-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yes! Mark Przedwojewski called early yesterday morning, inviting me to join them. He assured me that they would love to have me join them. So, a quick call to Jim and I was off to Racine. And once again Jim would shuttle me back. Plan was to meet them this morning (Friday) at Van Buren State Park about 5 miles or so from where I left the lake.

We were at the Park at about 7:30 in the morning. I had everything ready. I figured that when they arrived they would not want to stop but just have me join them as they paddled by.

In about 45 minutes I could see them coming. I thanked Jim once again and told him I would see him in Chicago in three or four days.

I was right. It was too early for them to stop, so I quickly jumped into my canoe and joined them.

It felt good to be back on the water, especially knowing I'd be finishing with the group I started with.

We battled some rain and fairly strong winds in our faces all morning, which slowed our pace to about less than two miles an hour, according to Toby's GPS tracker.

Just after noon we arrived at St Joseph, MI. I was paddling a little ahead of Toby when I noticed he was heading to shore. Not quite sure what he was doing, I stayed where I was until I noticed Dan and Mark doing the same thing, so I paddled back.

Sail time! The wind had switched and now was slightly quartering us from the northwest. I had never seen a sail used on a canoe, yet alone done this, so I was all eyes. Mark and Toby would be sailing by themselves. Dan and I would catamaran together for I had no sail and would rely on Dan's. Very interesting set-up. Verlen Kruger designed this craft to allow for sailing. In order to do it you need to be catamaraned together or have outriggers when by yourself. Mark and Dan had the outrigger setup which is basically an aluminum pole that stretches out 5 or 6 feet on each side of the canoe with an inflatable outrigger on each side, giving the canoe the stability needed.

Once set up, off we went. Really cool! Right along with the wind pushing us we also paddled. Dan said with the right wind you could easily do 7 - 8 or more miles an hour and just sit back and relax. Our wind was not that strong or directly behind us, but with light paddling we were making 4 plus miles an hour.

Man, could I've used this system when I did my Atlantic to Pacific journey, especially on the big waters of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. I liken this to my bike portaging. Difference being, biking can be harder than paddling but you can cover more distance on a road than a winding river.

We sailed right until 5:30 when Dan mentioned we should start looking for a campsite. I thought to myself, "Campsite? - It's 5:30 - Campsite at 5:30?" I usually start looking about 15 minutes before the sun goes down and then keep paddling because I figure there's a better one around the corner, so this is new territory for me.

Dan pulled in at about 6:00 near Warren Dunes State Park. We'd come about 30 some miles which was a great day considering the wind we paddled against this morning. Although, I must admit as we each set up camp, I felt we should still be paddling. I could hear my dad now, "What are you doing stopping? You've only put in a half day's work!"

Soon I settled down and found myself really enjoying being off the water and just plain relaxing. After supper we even built a campfire. I've never done this! Although, our time around the fire was short lived because we all were tired.

As I lay in my tent I felt good. I was back on the water and paddling with three great guys. I was hoping in these last few days I'd learn a lot about paddling and these guys are as good as they come. In our first day together I've already learned a ton.

Stopping at 6:00 - in bed without having to set up camp in the dark - campfire - Man, as Dan would say, "It doesn't get any better than this!"

Sorry Dad, but I agree!

Sunday- April 26th - Day after the challenge

2009-05-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my good friend Jim Mc Intyre again drove all the way from Racine, WI to pick me up after the 50-Mile Challenge and take me back to Saugatuck, MI. I called Pat Paquette and told him we were on our way. Pat gave us directions to Spectators Bar and Grill. Once there, Pat treated us to one of the best steak dinners I've every had. What a nice place! Lots of room both at the bar and for dinner, plus a beautiful outdoor patio. Very clean and a great atmosphere. If you are ever out this way I wholeheartedly suggest you stop. Plus, Saugatuck is a beautiful little community and worth visiting.

Not only could we not pay for dinner, Pat had a room reserved for us at the Best Western. Can not thank him enough, for a good shower and nice bed was just what the doctor ordered.

Pat met us in the morning for breakfast with his business partner Clair and his son Alex. After breakfast he gave us a tour of the town and showed us the new football complex which was state of the art with synthetic turf and track. Unbelievable facility for such a small community.

It was now time to get back in the water so we drove down to the beach. Took a bunch of pictures and said my goodbyes to Pat and Alex. Jim was going to find a semi-pro baseball game to watch and catch up with me in a day or so. I'd stay in contact by cell phone with him.

What was just great was to see Pat and his son Alex again. He's done well for himself and again has made an old coach feel very proud.

When I pushed off from shore it was just beginning to rain and rain it did. It poured off and on for most of the day. Although I was snug in my canoe with the canoe skirt around me so no water could get in, it still made it a miserable paddle. Once when I crossed a bay and was some distance from shore, fog set in (see picture) and made it difficult to see the shore. This could have been a problem if it had stayed for I had no compass. In fact as I was concentrating on the shoreline a rolling wave that I did not see hit me and I thought I was about to flip. Not a good situation, but a lesson learned.

I continued to paddle until about 3:00PM. The wind was picking up which with the rain continued to make things miserable. I've been in this situation many times and did not mind it. In fact I usually enjoyed the challenge, but today was different. My heart was not into it. Maybe it was the feeling that I'd had last evening as Jim and I drove back from Portland. I felt I'd accomplished what I wanted to and from here on it was all anticlimactic. Maybe I just did not like paddling big open water for all you see all day long is the same sight, water. Mostly I think it was my thought that I should be finishing this with the paddlers I'd started with, Dan Smith, Mark Prezdwojewski and Toby Nipper. They were still about 3 to 4 days behind me and if I continue there's no chance of them catching up, even if I did lollygag a little, which is hard for me to do.

Whatever it was I decided to paddle to shore about a few miles from South Haven and call Jim. There was no real place to pull out and get to a road so I just pulled over and walked up over a mountain of a sand dune. I knocked on a door to see if it was okay if I got out here and used their driveway to get to the highway. Now this was not just your little rambler home along the beach so I was preparing for the answer "no". Instead, when they heard about my journey, the couple (did not get names) was like everyone else - more than willing to help. So I pulled everything up and over the sand dune, put my bike trailer system together to the astonishment of the two and was on my way. I did get hold of Jim and he met me along the road in about an hour. I told him I needed to think about this. Used the excuse that it was too dangerous out there by myself and would make a decision in the morning.

Next morning I awoke at 5:00, went outside and walked around thinking about what I should do. Weather was good with no wind so I could easily go, but I just didn't want to. Later, after Jim awoke, we went to breakfast. I told him I would start out again and see how things go. That changed quickly for the winds picked up and the weather report called for hazardous lake winds with no lake travel advised. My decsion was made for me. We headed home.

Actually I felt good about this. I will be back. Hopefully I will have the chance to continue with Mark, Dan and Toby in a few days. For days I felt this challenge should be finished with all of us together. Now it's possible, but if they would like to continue on by themselves I would understand. Then I would come back at a later time and finish, which I must do one way or the other.

Time to get out of here before I change my mind again!

Hugh Heward 50 Mile Challenge - Saturday - April 25th

2009-05-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

The day started with a group of us going to Mike's at 5:00 for breakfast. By 5:30 in the morning, Nancy Anderson and her crew of volunteers were beginning to set up their registration table. They will be handing out maps for the challenge and collecting the $10.00 fee that goes towards the Verlen Memorial. Last year they had over 80 participants and hope for a hundred or more this year.

The Heward Challenge began a number of years ago by another organization (forgot the name) with just a handful of paddlers. In recent years Jim Woodruff (I believe) approached the Kruger Foundation about taking it over and developing it into a fundraiser for their project. They jumped at the chance.

The challenge will began approximately at 7:00. There's really no offical start time for it's a challenge against oneself. We will paddle towards Lansing, MI where we will need to portage around two dams. Soon after we come upon Jim Woodruff's home. Jim will be there along with family and friends to greet paddlers as they come by. Many will stop as I will for a visit and thank him for all the effort he's put into this event and so many others. He's an amazing man of 87 and sharp as a tack.

As we continue on we will come to one more dam in Grand Ledge, the halfway point. Also, the starting point for canoeists doing the 25 mile challenge. (Some will also join as for the last 10 miles). After the Grand Ledge portage it's clear sailing to Portland where we will finish at the site of the Verlen Kruger Memorial. We will be greeted with three blasts from a horn and applause upon our approach and given much needed food and refeshments.

When we got back from breakfast at 6:30 there were people all over and still more coming in. I hustled to get my gear and canoe ready. Because there was no official start time, canoes were starting to enter the water about 10 minutes to seven.

Some participants were there to see how fast they could do the 50 miles. Most were there just to enjoy the day. Also, there were a handful of racing canoes, both doubles and singles. They were using this challenge as a warmup for a marathon race later in May. I was told most would be starting about 2 hours behind us and would still beat us to Portland. Hummm!

Racing canoes are very different than a Kruger Canoe. They are built for speed - long, narrow and light. A Kruger Canoe is built for expedition canoeing - rugged and stable. Although designed to move well in the water, they are no match for a racing canoe or a top of the line kayak for pure speed.

I entered the water at about 7:05 and soon found myself paddling with Dan Smith, Toby Nipper and Todd Ceaser. Dan and Toby are two of the canoeists I started with back in Detroit. Mark Przedwojewski is starting later and will be paddling alongside Marissa and Hannah. Brian Weber, Marissa's father, will also be paddling with the girls. Brian asked earlier if Mark would be willing to give advice and tips to the girls as they paddle. Mark, as always on this journey, was more than willing to help.

As the morning wore on I found myself mainly paddling with Toby Nipper. We were enjoying the morning at a very comfortable paddle speed when two young guys came by in a canoe and asked if we were going all the way to Portland. Toby said, "We are hoping we can make it." One of the guys said, " Well, you look like you are doing okay paddling and if you keep it up you should make it".

As they paddled away Toby looked at me and smiled. I did not say anything and we continued on our way enjoying each other's company. Then about a half hour later I could see the two guys that had passed us a couple hundred yards in front. I told Toby, "I think I will go up there and play with those guys for awhile." Off I went. Soon they saw me coming and started to paddle faster. I would get close and when they started paddling harder I would back off, then pick it up again. We did this until we were within sight of the first dam in Lansing, MI. Then I picked it up and got to the landing at the same time they did. I could see they were a little tired and struggling as they carried their canoe around the dam to the put-in spot. As I put my canoe in the water and about to push off I looked over at the two guys. They seemed to have a look that was saying, "who is this guy!" I did not say a word - just smiled and went on my way. Never did see them again. (You know, everyone once in a while you need to prove to yourself your not ready for the rocking chair!)

This set the tone for the rest of the day. What was going to be just an easy paddle to Portland quickly turned into...okay, let's see how fast I can get there.

Even though I was on a mission I did meet and chat with many people on my way. Just past Lansing, I stopped at Jim Woodruff''s home. He was sitting in a lawn chair next to the river, greeting everyone as they went by. Many stopped as I did. I signed Jim's guest book, chatted for awhile and went on my way.

Later I started to see more canoes and kayaks in front of me as some paddlers were doing the 25 mile challenge while others were paddling the last 10 miles. As I paddled by many asked who I was and I would answer, "They call me Coach."

"Coach", they would say, "You're the one with the fold-up bike! Glad to meet you Coach." Felt good to hear that.

At 3:38 I arrived in Portland at the site of the future Verlen Kruger Memorial. It's a beautiful spot along the river. Already they have a small pavillion up and the boulder in place where soon a bronze statue of Verlen Kruger will face the river.

There were people all over and lots of food to eat. As a paddler approached, someone would announce his or her arrival by blowing a horn with much clapping and lots of handshakes. All in all over 100 paddlers took part in this Challenge. Very impressive, for it was not the greatest of days - it rained hard most of the atfternoon. But nothing could take away from the pride everyone felt in not only accomplishing the challenge but more important - raising money for the memorial.

Later, Jim Woodfruff arrived with his son and daughter. He handed me a Hugh Heward shirt with a big smile while his daughter took our picture. I left very touched and honored.

Now I could finish what I'd set out to do. I'd just completed the Hugh Heward 50 Mile Challenge and still had the remainder of the Ultimate Challenge to go. But purchasing a brick that will be part of the Verlen Kruger Memorial was the main goal for this trip.

Our brick will read:
IN MEMORY OF OUR SON
RYAN JOSEPH HOFF

Note: By the way, not all the racing canoes beat me to Portland!

NOTE ON CURRENT STATUS (FRI. MAY 1ST)

2009-04-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

My journal is behind by a number of days. Just so everyone knows, I left Lake Michigan last Monday because of high winds and unsafe conditions. I have no experience on big water and made the decision to go home with the hope of returning when Mark, Dan and Toby get to where I left off. They may want to continue by themselves and if that is the case I'd come back later in May when I was better prepared.

Brief review:

Last Sunday I ran into some fog when I was cutting across a bay on my way to South Haven. It came up quick and I was about a 1/4 mile from shore and I could barely see it. Also, as I concentrated on getting to shore, I did not see a rolling wave come which would have swamped me if it were not for the skirt covering my canoe. I left the lake at that time, called my friend Jim McIntyre who was still in the area and told him I was off the water and biking. We found a motel later in the day and I told him I'd make a decision in the morning on continuing or not.

The decision was made quickly as the following morning there was a strong wind making paddling all but impossible. (Wind got even stronger as the day went on.)

I have no patience in waiting nor did I want to bike portage, so we headed for home.

Today, Thursday, April 30th, Mark called early in the morning and invited me to join them. I quickly called my good friend Jim and told him I was heading back to the water. What a friend! Again, without hesitation, he said he'd take me over. So back to Racine, WI I went. Transferred my gear and canoe to his car and off we went.

As I write this, Thursday evening, Jim and I are in a motel just north of Michigan City. Tomorrow morning I will hook up with Dan, Mark and Toby and continue on to Chicago.
I sincerely am thankful they are allowing me to join them. Hopefully we finish this adventure as we started, all together. Just the way it should be.

Note:
I will not be posting entries until we get to Chicago which hopefully is within 3 days.

Friday, April 24th

2009-04-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Up very early this morning and on the water well before sun up. Again the water was calm, just a slight breeze from the southeast. A very peaceful paddle all morning.

At about 8:30 I noticed what looked liked a park and figured I must be at Tunnel Park in Holland. I pulled over to shore to check it out. At Tunnel Park there's supposed to be a tunnel through the sand dunes and into the park. I saw no tunnel but decided to check it out anyway and walked up and over the sand dunes. Sure enough it was a park so I decided to get out and pulled my canoe and gear up and over the sand dunes. Once on the other side, I found out it was not Tunnel Park but Kirk Park. This meant I still had about 7 or 8 miles to go to Holland. I needed to get to Holland by 10:00 in order to get back to Eaton Rapids for the luncheon by noon. So I hooked up my bike and started pedaling on a very nice bike trail.

I arrived at Tunnel Park just before 10:00 and my former football player, Pat Paquette, arrived a short time later. We pack everything up and headed for Eaton Rapids.

Pat Paquette is one of the most talented athletes to come out of Superior, WI and that is saying a lot. For I believe Superior still has the most individuals inducted into national hall of fames than any other city. I'm sure that is correct for a town under 50,000 people. Pat played for us in the mid 70's. As a sophomore, he not only started, but was a main factor in us being the number one football team in the state until we stubbed our toe late in the season and lost two games in overtime. That happens in life. Big thing is one must pull themselves up and get after it again, which that team did.

Fortunately over the years I had very talented players and we were very successful. But success to me was what became of those players after football. In most cases they've became very successful young men making significant contributions to the communities they live in. Pat is no exception. He, along with his partner Clair, own Spectators University Bar and Grill in Saugatuck, MI. Pat tells me it's going well. More important was when he told all the ways they give back to the community. (Had a little tear in my eye and a heart full of pride as he spoke.)

We arrived in Eaton Rapids shortly after noon. There must have been 20 plus people at the luncheon including the five paddlers I started with, Toby, Mark, Dan, Charlie and Jon. Great reunion and lots of stories of our journey passed back and forth.

Chuck Ambroy was also there. Chuck and a friend (name I forgot) paddled the first day of this trip from Detroit and has some great pictures I hope to post when I finish. More important, Chuck picked up the tab! Another unbelievable paddle angel! Also there was Jim Woodruff, as stated in earlier journal entries, responsible for starting the Hugh Heward 50 Mile Challenge a few years back. Great to see he and his daughter Karen again. (He continues to call my canoe a junkyard! )

Because it was only about 2:00pm I decided to paddle to Dimondale with Toby, Mark, Dan and Charlie. I've done this section already and could ride over but I'd be there with nothing to do. Joining us for the paddle were Nancy Anderson who met me when she came to Dimondale with the Woodruffs, and shuttled me to Portland a few days ago. (There was one more person, who's name I've forgotten.) Just a nice relaxing paddle, sharing conversation with all.

At Dimondale we were met by other paddlers doing the 50 miler. Turned out to be a great evening meeting new people including Bob Bradford, his wife, son and nephew. Bob saw us off at the start of our journey back in Detroit. What I did not know then was he and his partner, Clark Eid hold the record for paddling the length of the Mississippi in a time of: 18 days 4 hours and 51 minutes. Unbelieveable! Check it out at: http://www.mississippichallenge.org/ He and his wife will be paddling a Kruger Crusier tomorrow. They are good and will be the first Kruger Canoe to arrive in Portland. His son and nephew will be in a racing canoe and most likely will be the the first racing team to arrive in Portland. Very talented family.

I also met Brian Weber, his daughter, Marissa and her friend Hannah Grow. Brian is also blogging this trip for Kruger Canoes at: http://www.krugercanoes.blogspot.com/ He's a great young man and works a lot with at-risk children. We shared lots of ideas which I hope to follow up on when I finish. His daughter, Marissa and friend Hannah will be the youngest paddlers tomorrow. They have paddled all over the USA for breast cancer, including doing a paddle from Kansas City to St. Louis. You must check out there website at: http://www.theadventuresofsuperboo.blogspot.com/

I must also mention Pat Harrington and Robin Barfoot were there to help all us paddlers out in any way they could. Pat went beyond the call of duty. He works on bikes and took mine home with him and did a complete service job on it. What did I say about paddle angels, they are unbelievable! Thanks Pat and Robin.

A group of us had a great dinner at Mike', up town. Mike plans to open at 5:00 in the morning so whoever wants can have breakfast before we push off.

Time for bed. More great friends! Just another great day.

Thursday April 23

2009-04-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Woke up today still cold but at least it's bright skies. I'm figuring approximately 40/45 miles to Grand Haven and the entry point to Lake Michigan. Also figure it's a 3-Advil day in order to do it.

Took my time today, sort of hoping for the weather to warm up and lay in my tent and didn't get in the water until well after 8:00. No wind at all today and still had excellent current and made great time. I paddled until noon when I saw on river right (this is a new term I've learned on this journey -"river right" or "river left" - I used to call it the left or right side of the river) a sandy beach with a nice grassy knoll above it. I thought "Heck, I haven't taken a real break except for portages. I think I'm going to stop for lunch", which I did. I spent a good 15 - 20 minutes, which is unusual but it felt good.

I continued paddling on to Grand Haven, with the thoughts that I not only need to get to Grand Haven but I need to get as close to Holland as possible. Pat Paquette, who played football for me back in the 70s, now lives in the Holland area and has offered to drive me back to Dimondale tomorrow for the 50 mile Challenge, which is being held on Saturday. This challenge is very important to me, which I will explain in a later post.

I continued on my way and at about 2:00 I thought I was getting real close to Grand Haven, which was hard to believe. I didn't think I could be here this quick. It seemed like I had only 5-6 more miles to go. After looking at my map for a change it turns out that I have more like 14 miles to go because of the twists and turns into Grand Haven.

Eventually I found myself paddling through the channel heading to the lighthouse at the entry to Lake Michigan and officially turned the corner onto Lake Michigan at 5:03.

My thoughts earlier were - will I actually be able to paddle into Lake Michigan? Living near Lake Superior I know how treacherous it can be coming out of a harbor entrance onto a big body of water like Lake Michigan. It doesn't take a lot of wind to make things difficult.

As it turned out, luck was on my side once again for there was barely a walleye chop on the water and I was able to make the entry and turn south toward Chicago with ease.

I spent some time along the city beach next to the entry taking pictures and checking my maps to see how far it was to Holland. I figured it was approximately 20 miles so I should be able to make Holland by noon tomorrow and decided to set up camp when I could find an isolated spot. Just then, Karen (Jim Woodruff's daughter) called. I told her I would be back for the 5:00PM luncheon, pause,,, she said it was at noon! Old age on my part had set in again! After our conversation I figure I must keep paddling, hoping to make at least another 6 to 8 miles.

I finally stopped well after dark, with hope of an early start tomorrow I'd have a chance to make it to Holland by 10:00AM! I believe this is the best mileage day I've had on this trip. Normally I'd feel good about such an effort, but tonight I'm thinking, WHY!

I'm now laying in my sleeping bag, looking at the Big Dipper and feeling good to be this far in 7 days. Chicago should be within reach by mid-week if conditions are anywhere like they are today.

As I gaze at the stars I'm thinking about the many people who've helped me out along the way. Yesterday for example, while portaging in Grand Rapids, two young ladies went out of their way to get me a sandwich. When I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, hikers called such people Trail Angels. Now I call them Paddle Angels. THANKS TO ALL!

Damn, I'm tired!

Wednesday April 22

2009-04-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I believe this is the coldest night I've spent. I didn't jump in the river this morning. I camped somewhere below Lyons and got started as quickly as possible, if for no other reason than to get warmed up.

Basically today was just a non-eventful day of paddling until I got to Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids is a beautiful city and from the river it looks like a lot of building going on. Hard to believe in these times. I pulled out at Riverside Park and followed the bike trail around the dam in the center of the city. There was a small detour due to road construction in the middle but what a beautiful ride. Grand Rapids is a very pretty city and you could not tell we are in a recession for there's building construction going on everywhere

Just past the dam was an entry point that according to a guy I met is called the kayak slide. Basically it was just a newly built ramp to the water directly below the dam where there were still significant rapids. At first I wasn't sure if I should even enter, but then I said "What the heck". A little tricky getting back in the canoe but this canoe just doesn't tip. Once on my way I just sailed through the rapids with ease.

I continued down through Grand Rapids and about 8:30 made camp somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Good day of paddling but I sure hope it warms up tomorrow. I heard it is supposed to.

Time for bed. With thoughts of making it to Lake Michigan tomorrow.

Tuesday April 21

2009-04-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

I woke and saw that it was light out. I thought to myself, "Man, I'm late. I gotta get going!". Then I realized I was in a motel room and didn't need to go anywhere. It was 8:30 and I was still in bed. I must have really needed this rest for normally I'm awake before sun-up.

I took my time getting everything together so it was still cold and raining out. By the way, I forgot to mention yesterday it was cold and rainy most of the trip. For the first time, I used the skirt on my canoe. The skirt is similar to what you see on a kayak. It surrounds my entire body and allows no water to get into the canoe. I felt like a bug snug in a rug. It also keeps my lower body warm and with a rain jacket it's like being in my own little home.

I paddled all the way across the country a couple of years ago and never took the time to see how this works. Now I sure wish I had for it would have kept me from bailing water out of my canoe day after day. Just like me - takes too much time to test things out. Oh well, the world is still spinning.

I was just getting ready to take things down to my canoe when the telephone rings. Chuck Amboy was one of the day paddlers that started out with us from Belle Isle. He and the other day paddlers went as far as the mouth of the Huron River. He called to tell me that he had some good pictures and wondered how he could get them to me. Also that Friday before the 50 Mile Heward Challenge there will be a dinner in Dimondale for the paddlers. He wanted me to know that if there was anything he could do for me, he was willing to help. I really felt this was a nice gesture. Thanks, Chuck. I will see you next Saturday.

Not long after, Mike Leyrer called. He is part of the Kruger Memorial Project and lives in Portland. Wanted to know if there was anything he could do to help me get started this morning. He offered to show me the options to get back in the water and give me a tour of the town of Portland. I took him up on his offer and the two of us took about a half hour just riding around. Very interesting man, and very helpful. The pride and respect he feels for Verlen and the memorial project comes through loud and clear.

Mike brought me back to the motel. He was amazed at how light I was traveling. Actually, I thought I was traveling pretty heavy. He also was very interested in my little 20" bike and my trailer set-up. I told him I was fortunate to walk the Pacific Crest Trail, where you had to go light and this has carried over to everything I have done since. I said the key for going light is never carry anything with you that you do not use every day, other than making sure you are prepared for the elements.

I said my goodbyes to Mike only to see him again at the first dam portage just outside Portland. For all his good intentions to show me the options I had to get in the water, as I rode my bike down the bike trail next to the Grand River, I missed every one of them and ended up on the outskirts of town. Stopping for a minute to figure out where I was, a man came by and asked me if I was looking for the river. I said "I think I missed the landing". He said "Yes, it's back in mid-town". Now knowing I don't turn around, I asked him "How do I get to the dam?" He gave me directions so off I went.

As I was unloading at the dam, Mike pulls up. I told him with all the great instructions you gave me, I still screwed up. He chuckled, helped me unload and I was on my way. He told me that Dan Smith's brother Scott would be down the river at the first bridge I came to and wanted me to say hello when I got there.

Before I left, I asked Mike how long it would take me to get to Scott. He said he wasn't sure but maybe an hour. I got there in just a little over half an hour for the river was fast. Scott was standing on a bank with a trailer filled with canoes and a big smile on his face. I pulled in. We introduced ourselves to each other and I asked if I could take a picture of him next to his canoes. He said yes and if I wanted to, I could come up and see his shop, which was less than a mile away. I jumped at the chance for I was very interested in seeing the step by step process of canoe building.

Scott continues building the most popular designs of the Sawyer Canoe plus his own version of Verlen's canoe. Very impressive. Anyone out there interested in canoeing definitely should look at Scott's website. He has something for everyone. http://superiorcanoes.com/

Scott took me back to the water. I said goodbye and look forward to seeing him again at the 50 mile challenge.

The rest of the day was spent paddling in and out of rain, sleet and snow. It was a lot like being in the Boundary Waters. Cold, miserable and enjoying every minute of it. I ended up somewhere past the dam at Lyons before I made camp. As I tucked in for the night I hoped that tomorrow brought a little bit more warmth and that the rain would be over.

Two and a half days of this is enough. Plus I miss seeing the Big Dipper.

By the way, a couple of times on this journey I've been asked what the Big Dipper represents on my website. Thought I'd take this time to explain. A few things have changed since I wrote the entry below for my Pacific Crest Trail journal back in 2003. My mother has passed away. I have two more grandchildren, Ryah and Avery. And of course, many more friends, including the ones I'm meeting on this journey.

The Big Dipper is made up of seven stars and each star has its own meaning to me while out on this trail. Starting from the handle the first star represents my wife, LuAnn, and I take a few minutes to remember all that she means to me and what a great person she is in her own right. She’s a very giving person and if you know her, well let's just say you’ve been blessed. Last night I was thinking about the time I came home a little late and figured I better make a big impression. So when I got to the bedroom door I hollered out, “Superman” and did a half turn in the air and landed on the floor rather than the bed! She’d rearranged the furniture! Can’t Win!The second star represents my sons Dean and Eric, and my daughter Heidi. I could not be prouder of them and their significant others. I told them a long time ago that all I wanted them to do is just grow up to be a little better than their father. Well, they’ve out done me 10 fold! The third star represents our grand children Liv and Rory (Dean and Erin), Devin and Drake (Heidi and Nate) and Lily (Heather). If you have grandchildren you know how special they are! The fourth star represents my mother, Ellen and father, Clarence. My mother is 90 years old and hanging in there. Short-term memory is shot but does not have an ache in her body. She lives with my sister, Clarice. My father has passed away, but I think of him often. I just simply owe them everything. The fifth star represents my sisters Clarice, Cheryl, Sonja, and my brother Don. If you’ve followed my journal you know we lost Don when he was sixteen, yet there is hardly a day that goes by that I do not think about him. My sisters are great and I wish we could see each other more than we do. I see Clarice the most and she and her husband, Ron have helped me a lot getting to and from airports on this hike. The sixth star represents all the people back home. I think about the people I grew up with, like Mac and Newt. My high school and college friends like Niles, Umland, Dorn, Leitzke, Casper, Phil, Cal, Warz, Zeke, Russ, and so many others. My high school coach, John Hansen and college coach, Edor Nelson that played such a part in my own coaching philosophy. My friends in Eau Claire, Diz, Tex, Mic, Browny, Daryl and Denny. They too played a big part in my teaching and coaching philosophy. Then there’s Charlie, Jim, Dean, John and Mike who are my hunting partners back home (Better get back, somebody needs to shoot their deer for them!). I’ve been fortunate to have been touched by so many people it’s impossible to mention all of them, specially all the wonderful people in our community of, Superior, Wisconsin. I’m proud to be a SPARTAN! Lastly, I think of my good coaching buddy, Ted. We’ve been friends for over 30 years, running around to coaching clinics together. Ted has brain cancer and he and his family are always in my prayers. I’ll see you when I get home Ted.Finally, the seventh star, which represents all the great people I’ve met on this trail. All are very special in there own right. It’s been an honor to hike and meet so many nice people. Geezer, Cupcake, Yucca, Kimber, Stretch, Walt, Billy Goat, Garlic Man, Frank, Just Jane, Tapeworm, Chuckie V, La De Da, Pel Mel, Birdie, Suge and Grave Digger are just a few that I had the pleasure to hike with. Phil (Donk), Chaz, Commodore, Yogi and Gottago are the five I know the best. I’ll never forget them. Heck, they did a great job taking care of me!!!Then, finally, I look for the first satellite to pass overhead. That satellite represents my son, Ryan, just simply telling me, “Dad everything is okay. I’m in good hands. Just remember and be strengthened by all the good times I had and not be weakened by my going home.”

Monday April 20

2009-04-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

It rained most of the night and still is drizzling as I get set to continue on to the Grand River. Sure glad I stopped when I did yesterday for I got my tent set up and everything secure before it really started to come down. Also, it felt good just to relax and reminisce about all that’s transpired since I left Belle Isle in Detroit. Plus, a good night’s sleep is just what the doctor ordered.

Once packed, I started for the Grand River, eager to begin paddling with the current rather than fighting it. It took less than 45 minutes to get to the Grand River landing off Dixon Road. River was flooded. All I saw was what looked like a big pond with trees and deadfalls in a tangled mess. I couldn’t really make out a real river. I pondered whether I should enter here, for if this is what I faced I did not want to get tangled up in trees and deadfalls in the middle of nowhere, which I felt could easily happen with the fast current. (Must be getting old, I’m thinking of safety before I act!) So, I decided to move up to the next portage which I was told from talking to a guy earlier was not far away.

I forgot the name of the landing I put in at, but it looked a whole lot better than the other, although there were still plenty of deadfalls.

It felt good to be back on the river. Current was fast, river was flooded and from the starting point to Eaton Rapids, many times I found myself weaving in and out of trees and deadfalls. At times I felt I missed a turn and was lost in a bayou.

As I paddled into Eaton Rapids I was looking for a take-out spot as I approached a dam I needed to portage around. I passed a boat landing back aways, but figured there had to be one closer to the dam. I was wrong. All I found were homes and private property. I was thinking to myself, shucks, I have to turn around and go back. Nothing bothers me more than backtracking. Just then I spotted a man cleaning up his yard on the other side of the river not far from the dam. I thought, heck it’s worth a try, maybe he’ll let me cross his property.

Darren Tanner, a young man who’d just bought the home and property was more than happy to allow me to portage across his land once he heard what I was doing. As many have in the past, he seemed bewildered as I put my bike portaging system together and told some of my story.
Thanks, Darren.

It was getting close to 2:00 as I re-entered the water and head to Dimondale. It’s at Dimondale I’m leaving the water and moving up to Portland, MI. Dimondale is the starting point for the 50 mile Hugh Heward Challenge which is being held next Saturday, the 25th of April. My plan is to come back to do this then, for this is the big event for the Kruger Memorial Project and I do not want to miss it. So, I will continue on from Portland and return in the afternoon on the 24th to Dimondale.

Karen Stock, the daughter of Jim Woodruff who’s tracking and blogging this event for the Kruger Memorial Project has arranged for her brother to meet me at Dimondale and shuttle me to Portland. I made phone contact with Karen as I left Eaton Rapids and she told me her brother would be there. She said that she and her Dad will be coming down also to meet me and hoped I’d join them for dinner once we got back to Portland.

The trip from Eaton Rapids to Dimondale was much the same as the previous - in and out of deadfalls and twice portaging around river logjams.

I arrived at Dimondale around 5:00 and called Karen and found out they were only a couple of minutes away.

The first day’s journey on the Grand River is over, but the day’s adventure is not.

As I paddled over to the park in Dimondale, I saw a couple of cars pull up. Two ladies and an elderly man (sorry, Jim) were coming toward me waving and telling me to wave back as they took pictures. When I reached the shore, Karen was there with her dad, and said, “This guy has been waiting to meet you.” The man said, “Glad to meet you. My name is Jim Woodruff. I’m the topologist for this adventure". I said, “Hi, I’m Larry Hoff. They call me Coach.” Jim said something like, “Get out of water for gosh sakes. You’re in Michigan. Put some boots on!” I only have sandals with me and was standing in about a foot of water. I told him I was from Superior, WI and this was like mid-summer. That set the tone for the evening.

Jim Woodruff is 87 years old and a long time friend of Verlen Kruger. I’ve mentioned in an earlier posting that he’s the originator of the Heward Challenge and has done a tremendous amount of research on Heward’s voyage across Michigan to Chicago. For the Kruger Memorial Project, Jim is also tracking and updating the progress of the Intrepid 4: Dan, Mark, Charlie, Toby and also Jon Holm the young man I paddled with when we started out. What is also unique is that in his blog, Jim correlates the original Heward journey timeline with the current progress of the paddlers behind me.

Note: You can read about everyone’s progress on Jim’s blog at www.thetopologist.blogspot.com

You can also find information on the trip on the Kruger Canoes blog at www.krugercanoes.blogspot.com.

I encourage you to check both websites as they have lots of pictures, slideshows and good accounts of the paddling.

Soon Jim Woodruff Jr. showed up and we quickly packed my gear in the cars and loaded my canoe on Jim Jr.’s car and off we went to Portland, MI.

I rode with Nancy Anderson, who a very avid canoeist and outdoors person. She was visiting Jim this day and decided to come along. Very nice person and did Jim’s transcribing for his Hugh Heward book. We had a very nice conversation as we rode back to Portland. At Portland we made a quick stop at Jim’s home along the Grand River. Jim took me inside and showed me his office where he does all his writing. Very impressive. He also took me out on his deck, pointed to a telephone pole in line with a big fir tree crossing the Grand River and pointed to a bluff on the other side. He said “That is where Verlen is buried.” You could see the pride in his eyes for the man he loved so dearly.

We then drove on to Portland with a quick stop at the Best Western so I could get a room for the evening and then drove to a local restaurant for dinner. What a beautiful evening! Story after story. Jim telling his, I telling a few of mine, learning that Jim Jr. does a lot of biking and did a big trip in Europe not too long ago. Karen was a woman in her fifties but you couldn’t tell it. She’d gone out of her way to see that I got from Portland to here. I cannot express how grateful I am.

As the evening went on it became quite clear that Karen and Jim are very proud of their father and rightfully so. I know Karen is also going to post some pictures and comments about this evening on Jim’s blog, so if interested you might check out his website. Thanks for a great evening, Jim, Jim Jr., Karen and Nancy. Looking forward to seeing you again this coming weekend.

April 19 Sunday

2009-04-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

After studying my map last evening I see the best way for me to get to the Grand River is to bike portage by taking the Island Lake Road to Hwy 52, then Territorial Road to the Grand River. So I packed up and proceeded on my way to Dexter, stopping only long enough for a journal entry and continued on my way on Island Lake Road. Island Lake Road started out as a paved road but quickly turned into a gravel road.

Side Note: The best way to explain what it's like to pull a canoe by bike is this. First of all, my bike is a Dahon with 20" wheels and naturally folds up. My bike trailer is basically a T of pipes with 16" wheels. The middle of the canoe sits over the wheels and the front of the canoe ties to the extended pipe that attaches to the bike. There is a V attachment that goes around the pipe that the front of the canoe rests in and allows me to attach it to the trailer. One slight problem I forgot to mention earlier is that on my first portage I could not find the V attachment. Must have left it in Jim's car or back at Belle Isle. At the time I felt I was in deep trouble for I couldn't figure out how I could keep the canoe attached to the trailer. But with the habit of losing things and re-adjusting for many years, I figured out if I take my tiedown strap, wrap it around the pipe and then around the stern of the canoe and cinch it down tight I can create my own V attachment to secure the canoe to the trailer frame. It is working well. If I do say so myself, that's pretty good thinking for a full-blooded Norwegian.

Anyway, to give you an idea of what it's like to pull a canoe, it's like having two of your grandchildren sitting in a wagon - both maybe a few pounds overweight - and you are pulling them on this little 20" folding bike through a yard where the grass hasn't been cut for a month. In other words, it's a little bit like paddling upstream but only using your legs. Although I can keep up about a 7-10 mph pace.

As I continued on my way, it felt good to be doing something beside paddling. Also I see this state from a different view other than the river. It's very pretty. Very much like my home state of Wisconsin. Lots of farms, rolling hills, and forests. I saw numerous deer and wild turkeys as I pedaled. Around 3:00 in the afternoon it started to rain. I wasn't that far now from the Grand River and decided rather than get real wet I will look for a place to camp. Not much farther down the road, I found what looked like an old abandoned railroad trail. I worked my way down the trail until I was out of sight and set up camp. Snug in my tent with the rain now starting to pick up, it actually felt good to be taking what I call my first real break.

Normally it's tough for me to stop before dark but today my body tells me I need the rest. I sure hope the others are OK.

April 18 Saturday

2009-04-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

Falling asleep last night, I ached so much I wondered if I could really complete this trip. Then this morning I woke up feeling great. Took my dip in the river and got ready to go. Last night when I camped I wasn't sure exactly where I was. After looking at the map Dan gave me I believe I'm somewhere close to the Lower Huron Metropark.

As I paddled, I soon came upon a pullout for the French Landing portage, the dam between the Lower Huron and Belleville Lake. Again I'm not sure I came out at the right spot. This was a little bit of a trek to get around this dam and I'm thinking of the guys behind me who will have to pull their canoes and gear this far without the bike system I have.

Now that I'm on Belleville Lake, the river will be dammed up a lot between here and Ann Arbor so I will be getting out numerous times. The good news is the series of lakes have little current in them so the paddling will be much easier. So I'm figuring today's paddle will be much easier. As I continued to cross Belleville Lake, I was amazed at how beautiful the homes were on both sides. This continued all the way along.

I paddled across Belleville Lake with ease but once the lake narrowed back to a river the current became a little stronger as I approached Ford Dam and then Ford Lake, both named for President Ford who was from Grand Rapids, MI. This portage was relatively easy - out of a beautiful hydro park, over a highway and right down to Ford Lake.

Back on the water again, Ford Lake was another beautiful paddle. At the far end I took a picture of a real beautiful golf course which reminded me that our course back home opened up last Friday which means my golfing buddies are getting a head start on me. I'm sure because of that they will give me a few strokes per nine when I get back.

I went underneath the I-94 bridge and now I'm starting to get back into the river and the current is picking up. I passed under Congress Bridge with a number of people on top fishing with lines in the water. They couldn't tell I was coming through so I was careful not to hit any of the lines which accomplished. Once getting past the bridge, I looked back to see if I had snagged a line and the canoe went sideways. I'd just hit a small rapids and had to move quickly to get my canoe under control.

As I proceeded upstream, the current got stronger and stronger and of course I'm getting slower. At one point a fisherman on the bank hollared at me - "It looks like you're going backwards". I took a quick glance at the bank and realized I surely wasn't going forwards even though I was paddling as hard as I could. I still was a little ways from Peninsular Dam portage but found a little spot on the left where I could maneuver over and pull out.

Once on land I was in somewhat of a woods but I could see an opening above which turned out to be a little park. So I loaded everything onto my bike trailer and pulled everything up to the park. Looking at my map, I saw I was close to Huron River Drive in Ypsilanti so I knew I was able to bike to the next portage. As I'm biking down Huron Drive, I did not see the dam right away until I got past it. I looked down and saw no portage so I thought it must be ahead a little bit so I kept riding.

Soon I came to another dam but the river was a ways away and again I did not see any portage so I continued down Huron Drive. Soon I came to a third dam. Did not see the portage so the decision was made to continue as I was now at the outskirts of Ann Arbor.

Ended up pedaling through Ann Arbor until I got to the far end of Ann Arbor and Barton Pond. Here I was able to get back in and paddle for the rest of the afternoon until I got to a bridge where Barton Pond again became the river. At this point it was like when I had to get out earlier at Ypsilanti. There was no way I could make any progress. There was a small canoe landing here so I pulled in and checked my maps and realized I'm back near Huron River Drive and that the road followed the river all the way to Dexter. It was getting late so I felt it was a good time to get out and follow Huron River Drive to find a good place to camp for the night.

As I'm peddling down Huron River Drive I notice the current is very swift and lots of deadfall in the water. From here it looks like it's almost impossible to paddle so I kept going until I found a little cornfield in a place I figured I could tuck in without disturbing anyone for the evening.

It was now about 8:00 and time to quit to figure out my next day's strategy. As I lay in my tent, I kept thinking about the people behind me. How difficult this is going to be for them. I've got a feeling they are going to be doing a lot of walking, pullling their canoes and gear behind them through this entire section. My hat goes off to them for I do not know them well but I've got a good feeling they will not give up.

For me, I have no clue what I am going to be doing for I no longer have any maps other than a road map. I know that we are to continue to Portage Lake which is about eighteen miles from Dexter, just ahead of me. From there I thought there were supposed to be small rivers that we would follow and a short road portage as we worked our way to the Grand River. For the life of me, as I study my map, I can't figure out how that will happen.

Well, time for bed. I'll figure it out in the morning.

April 17th - Official Start Time 9:00AM Eastern Time

2009-04-19T16:15:00.001-07:00

Jim and I were up at 5:30 and as always I was rarin' to go. We met the same crew from last night for breakfast at 6:30 and then proceeded to caravan four vehicles to Belle Isle, our starting point, where we will meet the rest of the paddling crew.

We arrived at about 8:00 and most of the rest of the paddlers were there waiting for us. After quick greetings everyone scurried to unload and get ready for the push-off. Following pictures, we were on the water officially at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. The group included Mark Prezdwojeski, Dan Smith, Charlie Parmalee, Toby Nipper, Ron Dean, Bryan Taylor, Chuck Amboy, Jon Holm and me.

After more pictures were taken from the shore, we eventually headed down the Detroit River close to 9:30. As we headed out Dan and Mark were side by side just in front of the rest of us. I was thinking "Just the way it should be." Dan heads up the Kruger Memorial Park and Mark, once Verlen's apprentice, now owns and continues to build Kruger Canoes. All but two of us are paddling Krugers. The other two are in kayaks.

Before long I found myself paddling next to Jon Holm, in one of the kayaks, who is from Lowell, MI and owns an outdoor sporting goods business. For most of the morning we paddled side by side sharing stories. He is in his early forties and shares many qualities that I see in my own children. As we paddled, I asked many questions about the area and it basically boiled down to that we are seeing the Detroit River from its best view. Paddling the Detroit River reminded me a lot of paddling the Ohio. Very similar, especially around the Cincinnatti area, with cities on both sides of the river. In this case, Detroit on the U.S. side and Windsor on the Canadian side.

About an hour into our paddle, Jon and I were now out in front and I asked if he could see how close the others were. He looked back and said they were not very close. Jon had similar plans as I. The main group of Mark, Dan, Charlie and Toby are planning to take three weeks to do this trip. Jon was thinking more like myself - twelve to fifteen days. So we discussed possibly staying together for the trip. I just smiled, for it seemed like he was paddling very smoothly and I not quite but close to being at my maximum comfort paddling stroke. In other words I had about half a gear left and Jon looked like he had a couple of gears to go.

Late in the morning we came to a small island where we had a choice of going around it from either direction. I decided to go to the right, Jon decided to go on the left side of it, where he had plans to stop at a little park at the far end. I told him "You will probably get there before me but I might not be ready to stop yet. I'm sure you will catch me somewhere down the river." Of course, once he went his way and I went mine, the competitive juices kicked in and I picked up my stroke, hoping to at least be close to meeting him at the other end.

To my surprise at the far end of the island I could not see Jon yet so I anticipated my way was much shorter and continued on. With all the fishing boats around I assured myself that Jon would not be in any danger. Lake Erie is a tremendous walleye resource and this is spawning season for walleyes and there are fishing boats in the Detroit River by the hundreds. I'm been finding myself weaving in and out of them all morning.

So I continued on my way expecting to see Jon sometime in the afternoon. I continued to paddle and around 2:30 p.m. I started looking for the mouth of the Huron River. I made a couple of wrong turns. I asked bank fishermen a couple of times if they knew where the river was but no-one spoke English. For a minute I thought I might have gone a little bit too far. I did finally find the mouth at around 3:15.

For the last hour or so I was out of the Detroit River and on the shore of Lake Erie and the waves were picking up. Now that I'm on the Huron the water is much calmer and not much current. I expected more. This changed quickly. Just as I paddled under the I-85 bridge the river narrowed and the current really picked up. Before, I was thinking I was easily going to make my day's destination to Willow Metropark but now I wasn't sure.

At about 6:30 p.m. I was getting close to my first portage at Flat Rock Dam but at the same time I was paddling less than a mile an hour it seemed. I hadn't been out of the canoe yet today when I decided to pull into a little opening next to a church. There a gentleman and a lady helped me get my gear out of the water so I could get to the other side of the dam. I really appreciated the help. For some reason my body wasn't responding to nine and a half straight hours of paddling.

Once on the other side of the dam I decided to continue bike portaging because it was getting late and my body needed the break and peddling felt good.

Well,,,I was biking further than I was expecting to and finally found the place where I could get back in the water over a bank. Once on the river it was now dark, close to 9:00 and I found a mudflat on the right side of the river where I pulled in for the night. I stretched out a tarp for my sleeping bag and lay there thinking about the day.

I had done way more than I expected. I'm now thinking I'm not going to see the rest of the group until we hook up for the 50-Mile Challenge from Dimondale to Portland on April 25. This has been an annual challenge in memory of Verlen, and Dan and Mark's plans are to be at Dimondale on the 24th. My plans were and are to skip this part when I get to Dimondale and continue on till the 24th, when I come back to canoe the challenge with the group.

I realize this river is going to be tougher than I expected with the current. I have my bike portaging system. Everyone else only has portaging wheels which means they will be walking around dams and any water that could be too hard to paddle. Now I understand why Mark and Dan planned for three weeks rather than the two I felt it would take. One good thing is before I left Belle Isle, Dan gave me a very good detailed map of the Huron River showing portages, dangerous water, etc. All I had was a road map. Needless to say this was not going to help me much.

Time for bed. I'm whipped.

Note: I was finally able to write this three days into the journey at Dexter. Hopefully once I get to Portland, MI in two days, I will have another chance to update. All is going well.

April 16, 2009 Evening Before The Start of the Challenge

2009-04-18T03:23:00.000-07:00

Jim and I arrived in Detroit, actually St. Clair Shore, where we met the others who plan to do this challenge for dinner.

Dan Smith is from Portland, MI and was a very close friend of Verlin Kruger and the person who's heading up the Verlin Kruger Memorial Park. I met Dan the year before I started my Atlantic to Pacific trek. On a football clinic trip the spring of 2005 I stopped to see Dan and get info on the Kruger Canoe. He was very helpful and shared numerous stories about canoeing and Verlin Kruger.

Mark Prezdwojewski was also there. He was Verlen Kruger's apprentice for many years and upon his death took over and continues to build the Kruger Canoe. I actually bought number 213 from him in 2005. Great young man and a very accomplished paddler. From what I heard and seen he's doing an excellent job in carrying on the canoe legacy of Verlin.

The rest at dinner were Charlie Parmalee who did this challenge last year and Toby Nipper, who came all the way from Florida to do the challenge. Others not doing the challenge were Bob Bradford, Mel Herrera and Gloria Kelly. Mel bought dinner for everyone. Thanks Mel.

All except Jim and I were camping out at Mel and Gloria's home. By Jim's request our camping spot was the Red Roof Inn.

As you can imagine there was a lot of excitement and lot of stories. I sat back and listened, thinking this Kruger guy had to be a special person to have these friends come together and there will be more as we go on this journey and paddle 400 and some miles in his memory. For now I'm the outsider, but hopefully tomorrow I will start to earn their friendship too.

Background for "Hugh Heward Challenge" Paddle

2009-04-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

The trip was starting out just a little too smoothly for my liking. I'd already had my gear put together two days in advance rather than an hour before leaving and most of the honey-do list was done. Just didn't feel right being so prepared. Anyway, at 9:00 AM, after saying my goodbyes, I headed down the driveway only to turn around about a mile down the road and head back to the house. Half hour later, after searching all over the house, my mother-in-law who's 94, found my glasses and I started out again! Thanks Glenys! Things were getting back to normal real quick.

First stop, bank in Solon Springs for some cash. Quickly done and I was off again only to stop for gas in Minong and realize I left my credit card in the ATM back in Solon. A mad dash back! No credit card in machine. Went into the bank with the hope it was turned in. Found out something I never knew before - that if you do not take your credit card from an ATM the machine will either pull it back in to store it or shred it. Fortunately, in banks it is stored. Thank you very much!

So, now that I've forgotten a couple of things already, things really are back to normal and I feel a lot better. Hopefully when I get to Detroit I still have my canoe and paddles!

The rest of the trip to Racine, WI where I'm meeting my friend, Jim McIntyre who's taking me to Detroit, went smoothly. I even made a couple of bucks at the casino near Black River Falls, WI!

Tomorrow, Thursday, Jim and I will head to Detroit where I will hook up with 7 others who plan to do this challenge starting on Friday at 8:30 in the morning. The challenge is actually a fundraiser for The Verlen Kruger Memorial which is being built in Portland, Michigan along the Grand River, which is one of the rivers we will be paddling. Verlen is considered the guru when it comes to long distance paddling. It is a Kruger canoe which he designed that I used to paddle from the Atlantic to the Pacific and will be using on this trip.

When I was doing research for what type of canoe to use on my cross country trip, a friend told me about Verlen Kruger and his adventures and canoe designs. The day I called I found out he'd passed away the night before. Bad timing, but I was intrigued and continued to learn as much as I could about this man and his adventures. Needless to say it's an amazing story and suggest you take a look at: http://www.verlenkruger.com

So, it is in honor and memory of Verlen that I decided to participate in "The Hugh Heward Challenge" in the hope I can be of some help in drawing awareness to the project so the many friends of Verlen's will in the near future see the memorial become a reality.

The following is the memorial park website: http://www.verlinkrugermemorial.org/

Hopefully this will give all that follow my journey a good background.

Note: I will attempt to post journal entries as often as possible and hope to post the first day's paddle this coming Saturday or Sunday.

What’s up for 2009

2009-03-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

2008 slid by without any long distance adventures. The only trip I made was our annual Memorial Day Weekend trip to the Boundary Waters. I was hoping to do some hiking, but never got a chance. Instead I spent the summer working on the honey-do list and improving my golf game. Both had mixed results.

Actually both were adventures in themselves.

Golf game continues to be an adventure each time I go out and the following is a little of the honey-do list adventures:

1. Replace two window upstairs - windows are in. Window jams and trim…well, as a good friend of mine says, one should take his time in doing such detailed work. In other words, not totally finished which I’m reminded of weekly.

2. Re-roof the house. I did go up and look at it! Plus I’ve been advised it WILL be taken care of before any 2009 trips.

3. Put in a new shower in “my” bathroom. Shower is in, although the trim work is at the same stage as the windows. Everything went well except for cutting through the hot water line with a sawzall! You do not want to hear the rest of the story. Plans are now to redo the entire bathroom. Another “It will be done before any 2009 adventures.”

4. Install my septic tank and put in new drain field piping. This was my adventure for the year. While in college and seven or so years after, my summer job was putting in sewer and water pipe for a big company in Minneapolis so this was going to be a piece of cake. And it would have been except for one thing. In my summer job I was the one working in the ditch while someone else did the digging with the backhoe. Here I had to do my own backhoe work. Big mistake! Long story short, the first thing I did was put the bucket through the top of the septic tank. Then as I was digging up the drain pipe I cut through the 220v power line leading to the hot top and in the same bucket I also cut through the propane gas line leading to the house!

Not a good thing. So how I avoided blowing up the neighborhood is beyond me. Taking slightly longer than anticipated I did accomplish the job and if I may say so myself it works great!
So windows should be done soon and the bathroom by spring. That leaves the roof. LuAnn suggested maybe it would be best if we hire someone else to do it! Why she would say that is beyond me, but I’m taking her advice for once!

So, if all goes well I’m putting together some thoughts for the summer. Plan is rather than do one big trip, I want to do two or three small trips of 10 to 15 days each, spread out over the summer.

St. Croix River: From the headwaters in Solon Springs, WI to the Somerset Landing near Stillwater, MN

2007-09-07T13:23:00.001-07:00

You know I’ve hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, I biked around the USA and canoed across the USA from one ocean to the other and have seen amazing scenery in all parts of our country. All of which has reinforced my belief that the part of the country I live in, Northeastern Wisconsin, takes a backseat to no-one. Along Lake Superior is the Superior Hiking Trail, rated the number two hiking trail in the USA by Backpacker Magazine. Not far away is the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area and Isle Royale, a primitive wilderness island in Lake Superior. Plus I can look out our living room window across Lyman Lake and have as nice a sunset every evening as any I’ve experienced. If you love the outdoors, whether it’s hiking, biking, canoeing, fishing, golfing, birding - you name it - and have never been to our part of the country, I encourage you to do a little research and check us out. I think you’d enjoy it.

Just a few weeks ago I experienced another great outdoor resource we have, the St. Croix River. The St. Croix River starts in a watershed area near Solon Springs, WI, only 12 miles from our house. On the west side of the watershed/spring area St. Croix Lake is formed which becomes the headwaters for the St. Croix River. The river runs partly through northern Wisconsin and eventually becomes the border between Wisconsin and Minnesota until it reaches the Mississippi River south of St. Paul, MN. On the east side of the same watershed is formed the Brule River, another nationally famous river known for its trout and steelhead fishing.
Looking for something to do one day, I decided to paddle the St. Croix down to the Somerset Landing which is just west of where our oldest son Dean, wife Erin and their children Liv and Rory live. It was about 150 miles and figured I could do it four days, which as always turned out to be less: two and a half days.

What a great trip. I’ve heard it was a nice river to paddle but I did not expect it to be as great as it was.

Day One:
My wife LuAnn gave me a ride to Solon Springs where I would hook up my trailer and canoe to my bike with the plan to pedal down to Trego, Wisconsin some 25 miles away and enter the Namekagon River which joins the St. Croix near Danbury, WI. As I was assembling my trailer, Charlie Sanford came by. Charlie is a former student from way back in the early 70’s who along with his wife own the White Birch Supper Club just down the road here in Solon Springs. One of our favorite places to eat and well known for its great food. Also, Bob Smith and George Vandeberghe from the county highway department stopped to see what I was doing.

At the time I was fixing a flat tire on my bike and told the guys that the fine wire off truck radial tires was the biggest problem in getting flats. Also that it was tough to find the wires in my tires when repairing them. Bob had a good solution. He said if you take a woman’s nylon and run it around the inside of the tire it would snag on the wire and your problem is solved. I thought that was a great idea, but later as I was riding down the road I wondered how I’d explain having a woman’s nylon stocking in my pack when I got home! Decided not to try it.

Well, I finally got on the road around 10:30 a.m. and pedaled down to Minong , WI and decided rather than go to Trego I’d turn west on highway 77 and catch the Namekagon where it crossed the highway some 15 miles from Minong. This was only to find out the water was so low that I’d be doing more dragging than canoeing.

So, to make a long story short, that 30 mile bike portage on a hot, close to 100-degree day turned into a 64 mile bike portage to Danbury, WI where I entered the St. Croix at the Minnesota - Wisconsin border. I arrived at 5:00 in the afternoon and even though I was tired I still needed to paddle to a campsite. Of course I couldn’t take the first good site I came to - I had to paddle 15 miles until dark!

Fortunately it was a great campsite as I found to my surprise that all the camping sites along this river are great. Most with a picnic table, fire ring, toilet and many with a pump for fresh water which this one had. A long day but a good one. A tough bike ride, but well worth it when I got on the river. The river was beautiful as it wound its way through a beautiful forest with numerous whitetails drinking water along the banks, beaver and otter playing along the banks and every once in awhile a hawk or bald eagle would fly overhead.
Nice full moon this evening and I’m tired. Time for bed.

Day Two:
I wasn’t feeling that good last night. When I lay down in my tent my head started spinning and I felt weak all over. This morning I feel better, but still weak. Must have pushed a little bit too hard in the heat yesterday, plus I never drink enough water so probably got a little dehydrated. It’s going to be hot again today so I will try and drink more water and take a couple of breaks.
Beautiful morning, great sunrise and there is only a slight breeze so it should make for a good day of paddling if the heat doesn’t get me.

At about 9:00 a.m. I came to a rapids and low water area that stretches out over what seemed to be 10 miles. I was in and out of my canoe for the rest of the morning, dragging it over one sandbar after another. Time consuming but also sort of fun. I was told earlier that a couple of weeks ago a man who was quite large was floating down the river in a rubber raft when he punctured it in this area and was stranded. He wasn’t capable of hiking out of this remote area so as the story goes they airlifted him out by helicopter.

It took me until about noon to get to highway 70 and the Grantsburg, WI boat landing. Still weak and feeling the heat I decided to stop on the MN side of the river where there’s an interpreter center about the St. Croix River. ( I’d only made about 15 miles so for me to stop meant I needed to stop) I spent a good hour here which is probably the longest rest I’ve ever taken, but I feel a whole lot better. Hopefully the afternoon goes better. My plan for the day was to get as close to St. Croix Falls, WI today as I can. Which means I have over 30 miles to go today.

Well, the afternoon was better. Fewer sandbars to pull my canoe across and I even took another 45 minute rest at about 3:30. I did paddle until dark and got to a campsite about 6 miles from St. Croix Falls. I should have cell reception sometime in the morning and I plan on calling my son and some friends who live in Stillwater, MN tomorrow morning to see if they want to meet me for breakfast in St. Croix Falls. I have to portage around the hydro dam at St. Croix and it’s only 25 miles for them to come so I hope it works out.

Great day on a great river.

Day Three:
I started a little later this morning in order to get to St. Croix Falls at around 9:30 a.m. I was able to reach both Dean and our friends Ann & Merald Nesji and both said they’d meet me at the boat landing.

It worked out perfect. As I rounded my last corner I could see the hydro dam and on the left, the boat landing. Just walking down to it were Ann & Merald. Ann & Merald are a part of a group of friends Lu Ann I have that goes back to our high school and college days. We all try to get together as much as possible and for many years now have taken spring vacations together - sometimes with 10 or more couples.

As I got closer to the landing I saw Dean pull up with his son Rory Ryan. All four were standing on the dock which made for a great picture as I paddled in. Rory helped me put my trailer and bike together and even found a stowaway passenger I was carrying: a huge toad!
We went to the only restaurant in town and had a great breakfast. Ann & Merald told me they were heading out west to see their daughter in a couple of days and planned on taking the same road I took over the Rockies at Lolo Pass. It will be interesting if they thought the area was as nice as I did.

After breakfast I thanked Merald and Ann for coming and wished them safe travels. I made plans with Dean for picking me up later in the afternoon. I figured I had 25 plus miles to go and should be at the Somerset Landing in the early afternoon and shouldn’t be any later than 5:00 p.m. In any case I figured I’d have cell reception and would call when I got close.
I had about 3 miles to pedal to the St. Croix State Park where I would re-enter the river below the dam. I got to a little canoe landing and took apart my bike and trailer and loaded everything into my canoe and headed out - only to find out that in my haste I was not on the river but rather a pond with no outlet to the river!

So I did it all over again, put my trailer and bike back together and went the 200 yards to the river. Anyway, after wasting 45 minutes I was back on the river. The St. Croix Falls (WI side of the River) / Taylor Falls (MN side of River) is a neat State Park area. Here the river is lined with high granite bluffs which have been a big tourist attraction for years. I remember back in my youth coming here many times swimming and climbing around on these bluffs.

This is a big recreational part of the river and for the next 10 miles or so, all the way to the Osceola bridge and boat landing, I would meet a number of people canoeing and swimming along the shoreline. Once some young guys wanted to test this old guy in a race. They were over on my left and I pretended like I didn’t see them and would paddle right with them for awhile then go ahead and then drop back. Then when I figured they were getting tired I took off, all along pretending I didn’t see them. You know, every once in awhile I have to revert back to my childish ways!

The rest of the day was a very peaceful paddle. I arrived at the Somerset boat landing at about 4:30 in the afternoon only to notice my son’s car pulling away and right behind him it looked like his wife was following. Sure enough it was, but she happened to glance over and saw me and came back to the landing.

They were leaving because they could not get cell reception so they were going back up to the highway to see if I’d called. Dean did not realize that Erin had came back so when he got to the road he thought she’d made a wrong turn and spent the next hour looking for her. Once he’d come back to the landing, but did not come all the way down and did not see Erin’s car so he left. (Sounds like his dad, too much in a hurry!)

In the end we got everything packed up and old Grandpa had finished another trip and was ready to tell Liv and Rory some good tales about his travels!

NOTE: Paddling the St. Croix River was more than I expected it to be. For those of you interested in paddling or river floating, both the St. Croix and the Namegakon are two rivers you need to look at. I know I will be at it again, if not yearly. At this time of the year the water is low but still manageable. Spring would be a great time, although you most likely would be fighting mosquitoes at that time. I think I’d prefer the fall when the leaves are changing. Also, this is a very dry year for us so I think the water level is lower than usual. You can find very detailed information about the St. Croix River at:
http://www.nps.gov/sacn/planyourvisit/maps.htm
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/canoeing/stcroixriver/index.htm

August 26th CONNECTING THE DOTS

2007-09-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

It’s been driving me nuts since I got home from Astoria, Oregon.

What has? The 300 miles I still needed to do in Montana from Fort Benton to the Fort Peck Lake Dam.

If you remember, because of high water in the Fort Benton area and then high winds on Fort Peck Lake I decided to skip this section with the idea of possibly doing it with friends this fall or next spring. Well, I could not get anyone to bite on the idea and I knew sitting around until next spring just was not in the cards.

I even took a side trip on the St. Croix River which starts only a few miles from our house and connects into the Mississippi river just south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. I paddled as far Stillwater, Minnesota which is only a few miles from our son Dean’s home in Somerset, WI. It was a great trip and as pretty a paddle as I’ve done. However, it did little to ease my mind about not finishing my Atlantic to Pacific adventure.

So, last Sunday, August 26th I drove back to Fort Peck Lake, got a shuttle ride to Fort Benton and connected the last dots of my paddle and bike portage trip across the USA! I am now officially done!

The following is a summary of the five and half day adventure.

Yes, I know one of the reasons to skip this section last June and come back later to finish it was because I wanted to enjoy the 150 miles of the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River from Fort Benton to the Kipp Recreation area. I had plans of only doing 30 or so miles a day, stopping early and fishing along the way. Ended up doing it in 2 and a half days and my nice compact fishing gear, specially bought for this trip, still has not been used. I figured there’s no sense changing my tactics now so I just took off paddling from sun-up to sundown and beyond because of the beautiful full moon.

This area of Montana is called the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument and covers 375,000 acres of public land. The Missouri River which flows through it is called the Missouri National Wild and Scenic River in this area. It’s a very popular paddle in the summer. I was told there could be over 1,000 canoeists every year. On my trip I met only two paddlers and that was at my first day’s campsite. Other than that I saw only one other group stopped at the Judith Landing Recreation Area which is at the half way point.

My first day I got a little late start, but still ended up doing 55.7 miles to Eagle Creek Recreation Area. Nice campsite with two very clean enclosed bathrooms and a number of fire rings spread out for over 300 yards along the north side of the river. It was easy to tell this is a very popular site where many canoeists could camp.

Today there was just one other canoe and I did not see it until I took a walk. Ron Berndt and Lance Sateren from Bismarck, ND had set up camp at the far east end of the Eagle Creek Recreation Area. Nice guys. Ron is an engineer for the B&N railroad (I believe that is correct) and Lance is a pharmacist. They plan to paddle to the halfway point, Judith Landing, over a three day period, which means they are doing it the right way: taking their time and smelling the roses along their way.

I really had an enjoyable evening. Both Ron and Lance have done a lot of the same things I have. Ron has biked across the USA and both have been up in the Boundary Water Canoe Wilderness which is one of my favorite areas.

The next morning I pushed off at around 6:30. Ron and Lance were down by the shore so I paddled over. We said our goodbyes with the hope that maybe someday we’d meet again. I didn’t realize it at the time, but as it turned out Lance and Ron would be the only people I’d meet on this trip.

The next four and a half days were spent paddling from sun-up to well into the evening. I was on a mission to get this done and get across Fort Peck Lake while the weather was good.
This 150 miles of the Missouri Wild Scenic River is very nice, especially the first half from Fort Benton to Judith Landing. Lots of great camping in this area for both group and solo campers. From Judith Landing to Kipp Recreation area the camping sites left a lot to be desired although the scenery all along this stretch of the Missouri is beautiful. Hopefully my pictures do it some justice. I will say, if you are into this type of adventure it’s worth doing.

Well, in short I made it to Fort Peck Marina in a total of five and half days, getting almost across Fort Peck Lake without any trouble. Fort Peck Lake has been the demise of many a paddler over the years for the winds can come up at a moment’s notice and blow for days, leaving one stranded for days.

Fortunately for me I hit it right. When I got to the big part of the lake there was no absolutely no wind. The lake was like glass and I was able to get all the way to The Pines Recreational Area under perfect conditions. Although, on my radio every hour the weather guy would say, “The temperature is stuck at 98 degrees!” Anyway, I only had 14 to 15 miles to go on my last day and I was finished.

Problem was on my last day the winds came up and I needed to paddle across the widest part of the lake and the forecast called for wind advisories all day on Fort Peck Lake. So I had a choice to try and make it or hook up my canoe to my bike and pedal 30 miles around the lake on a very difficult gravel road. Although I did not like it, I decided to pedal. If it had not been for the incident on Lake Sakakawea I probably would have tried to paddle, but that incident was enough to convince me maybe I’m not as invincible as I once was. (Is there a country western song that goes something like that?)

So, I hooked up my canoe and started off and wouldn’t you know it, the wind stopped. I almost decided to put back into the water, which would have been a mistake, for it wasn’t long and the wind was howling again. As I pedaled thoughts came back of when I started this trip on the Potomac River. There I spent much of the time pedaling alongside the Potomac on the C & O Canal pathway. I thought, as much as I would have liked paddling to the marina, it seems fitting to end the way I started.

I arrived at the Marina just after noon. When I started last Sunday, Tara Waterson at the marina said I could park my car for a dollar a day. At the time she mentioned it probably would take two or more weeks. I told her I planned to be back in no more than seven days. She said, “Oh, you don’t plan on stopping to smell the roses!” Seems like I’ve heard that more than once before.

I told Tara that I was a little disappointed that I had to bike portage in rather than paddle. She said it was the right decision. She told me that normally there would be over 100 boats on the water and that she knew of only three and they are up against the earth dam protected from the wind. Plus, in all the years she’s been working at the marina she had never seen anyone pedal a canoe in. She took a picture of me and my rig and said it will be a topic of conversation for years to come.

With that I packed up my gear, put the canoe on top of the car and headed home. Just as I got into my car I noticed this note in a plastic bag under my windshield wiper blades. I got out, opened it up and it said, “Congratulations, Coach. Ryan would have been proud!” Signed Ron and Lance. Neat, for they had to drive some 100 miles out of their way to do that, plus do some research about Ryan. Thanks, Ron and Lance. It meant a lot. See you down the road someday.
As I’ve said many times, the people I’ve met really made this trip. Ron and Lance are quality as are so many others I’ve met since I’ve started these adventures. It’s hard to explain how much good I’ve received from so many. I just hope I have given a little back along the way.

ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC REFLECTIONS

2007-07-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's been some 10 days or so since I got to the Pacific Ocean. The following are some of my thoughts in reflecting back on this journey and answers to questions I've been asked.

1. What did you like best? Without question it would be the people I met. Which also means last year's trip from Washington, DC to Bismarck was the most fun.

2. What about this year? I was anticipating this year's trip to be even better than last, but that was not the case. I had to make way too many adjustments and my mind was not into it.

3. What would you do differently? The only thing I would really do different is without question I would start at Astoria, OR and go from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. When I got home this is one of the first things I heard. Why do you think he went east to west rather than west to east with the prevailing winds? Jokingly they said probably because that was the toughest way to do it: remember, we are talking about Larry Hoff!

Actually, I thought east to west would be the easiest. I thought the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would be the easiest to go upstream and the Ohio, Snake and Columbia the toughest. As it turned out the Missouri was almost impossible because of the wing dams. The Columbia and Snake by far would have been the easiest to go upstream. Except for the stretch from Astoria on the Columbia to the Bonneville Dam at Cascade Locks the Columbia is basically one lake after another and so was the Snake to Lewiston, ID.

Only change I would have needed to make was starting my bike ride from Lewiston rather than Orofino, ID. The Ohio would have been very manageable at the right time of the year. You would just need to avoid the early spring runoff.

Actually, because of having to do so much of the Missouri from west to east, my trip became almost a west to east adventure after all.

4. What was the equipment you had with you? The big three were:

A. Kruger Canoe. If you are looking into long distance water travel, look at this canoe first. http://www.krugercanoes.com/

B. Dahon folding bike: Used for portaging and it worked great for portaging and going over the mountains. http://www.dahon.com/

C. Paddleboy Trailer: To my surprise it worked better than expected. Plus it came apart and stored easily in the canoe as did the folding bike.http://www.paddleboy.com/

I also used a ZRE paddle that weighed about 7 ounces. (a light paddle is a must). http://www.zre.com/

Other than the above I went very light. Tent, sleeping bag, rain jacket (no rain pants), light jacket, silk long johns (if it got cold at night), bike gloves, life jacket, sandals (only shoes I brought with), cap, sunglasses (bought many pair along the way because I kept losing them), paddled in shorts and t-shirt and pair of hiker pants and shirt for going to town, radio, bike repair kit and bike tubes, first-aid kit, toiletries, plus food and water.

5. What is next? I will bike/paddle from home to Stillwater, MN starting July 30. After that, not sure. I've thought about swimming across the English Channel, but then likely it will be a hike. Maybe in Norway some day.

6. Which of the three adventures did you enjoy most? Hiking the PCT would be first. The beauty and peacefulness of this journey would be hard to match. You can hike with people when
you want and be by yourself. It was also the most demanding physically. The canoe trip was a close second. Especially the first year. The bike ride was the least enjoyable. Maybe because I liked the backcountry more.

7. Would you ever do any of these adventures again? Actually yes, God willing, I definitely
plan on re-hiking the PCT when I'm 70. Maybe do the bike trip again when I'm 75 and the canoe trip at 80.

I still have some clean up work to do on this trip before I can officially say I've paddled from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Plans are to do the Missouri National Wild Scenic portion of the Missouri and Fort Peck Lake either later this fall or most likely next spring. As I mentioned earlier in a journal entry I skipped this part because I want to take my time and enjoy it. Many have told me this section is one of the top recreational paddle trips in the USA. So I plan to do it as such. Take my time (well, as much as I can) and really enjoy it. I brought a fold-up fishing pole with me and never used it, because I was so wrapped up in making time. I plan to use it when I do this section.

Hiking 2,650 some miles across the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington, biking close to 10,000 miles around the perimeter of the USA and then canoeing and bike portaging from the Atlantic to the Pacific...not sure if I should be proud of that or wonder if I'm sane. (DON"T ANSWER THAT!) I guess I should be proud for I'm not sure anyone else has done the three, let alone at age 63. Yet again, who's that foolish?!

The one thing I do know is that there are a lot of nice people in our country. Thanks again to all that helped me out when needed it and I cherish all the new friends I've made.

By the way, if you are looking for a nice place to vacation, Superior/Duluth and the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin is a great place to put on your agenda someday. Sometimes I wonder why I go off on these trips considering the view we have from our living room.

Note: I will be posting my journey to Stillwater, MN to give those not familiar with Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota some idea of how beautiful and peaceful we have it in this part of the country.

On My Way Home!

2007-07-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

July 7th: Jim picked me up in Astoria sometime after 12:30PM on July 7. We loaded everything up and decided to head down the road and get as far as we could, whiched turned out to be Ellensburg, WA about 120 miles east of Seattle. The next day we decided to go down to Yakima, WA to see a minor league baseball game. While I was paddling the last few days, Jim went to Eugene, OR to watch a minor league game and the Yakima team was playing the Eugene team. To Jim's surprise there was a player from Barron, WI playing for Yakima. Barron is where I and Jim are from. I moved to the Minneapolis, MN area after 8th grade. Anyway, Jim wanted to go see him again so we did.

July 8th: Jim and I drove to Livingston, MT with the idea that I would finish paddling Fort Peck Lake and then on to Culbertson, MT where I left off when I decided to move ahead because of river conditions earlier.

July 9th: We were up early and off to a boat landing at the southwest end of Fort Peck Lake. When we arrived I was about to put in and start my paddle when for some reason I turned on the car radio to the local weather channel. I found out that there was a wind advisory for the lake for the next day with winds of 30 miles an hour and gusts to 40. That changed everything, for there was no way I could paddle this vast body of water in those conditions and if I started I could be stranded in the middle of nowhere for days. So I decided to move up to the dam and do the river below the dam to Culbertson. In an earlier journal entry I mentioned I was leaving the river section from Fort Benton to Lake Fort Peck for a later date. Hoping to do that section as a family vacation next year or maybe with a couple of friends this fall. That section of the river is called The National Wild Scenic River and is supposed to be one of the best recreational paddle trips in the USA. I thought this would be a great way to complete this trip - with friends or family. Now I will need to add the lake crossing to that trip. (Finances are also a bit of a concern if I had to wait around now for the weather to be favorable).

Well, I put in below the dam and had a great day. Jim went off to Williston, ND and will be back tomorrow to pick me up. The current was fast, plus I had the strong wind at my back. Just a real enjoyable day of paddling, actually day and late evening for I did not quit until after dark, making camp on a nice island somewhere between Poplar, MT and Brockton, MT. Only down side to the day (which really was not a downside), but this part of the river twists and turns all the way to Williston. I like to go in a straight line and many times I was paddling 5 miles in one direction only to come back at 180 degrees and be within a quarter mile of where I just paddled.

July 10th: I was on the water by 6:30 leaving my last campsite of the journey. Man, last campsite. It seems just like yesterday I stopped at my first campsite along the Potomac River. I remember back then I was about 3 weeks from knee replacement surgery and having to soak my knee in the river every evening to get the swelling down.

Again I had the strong wind at my back. If I'd have started out yesterday on Fort Peck Lake I'd be sitting on some shoreline right now going nuts. Glad I made the decision I did.

Funny, knowing this is my last day I had no sentimental thoughts - just paddled and cursed every snake-like turn I made!

I got to the Culbertson bridge in the early afternoon and Jim was there waiting. What a trooper he's been. We were inseperable as kids and now again, here is this old man pretending he's a kid and his friend is there to take care of him, just like he did so many years ago. Thanks, my good friend.

Time to go home. For all practical purposes this journey is over. Funny how this works. Like the PCT hike before and the bike ride around the USA, there's no fanfare, no real sense of joy, no jumping in the air, no high fives. My thoughts are, okay that's over, let's pack up and go home. Strange.... wonder what else is out there that an old guy can do?

NOTE: When I get back home I will reflect on all that's happened. I hope you've enjoyed following along.

July 6th: Island by Skamokowa to Astoria Bridge

2007-07-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

I was up early and just lay around knowing I did not have to hurry this morning. I only have 20 miles - maybe less to go to Astoria. Looks like it's going to be a great day. As of now there is only a breeze, but my plan is to cross over to the Oregon side as soon as possible where the water is shallow and I can work in and out of a number of grass islands almost all the way to Astoria. That way if the wind does come up I will not be out in this vast open water area. (Must be getting just a little smarter. Normally I'd take the straight line approach.)

As I paddled I thought I'd be thinking about all the experiences I've had along the way, but to my surprise, I thought about nothing, just paddled, took some pictures and enjoyed the morning.

Then as I came around the last little bend about 3 miles from Astoria all that changed. As I looked out I saw the Astoria Bridge in the distance, my ending point. On the left was the town of Astoria basically on a hillside. It reminded me of home as it looked like a small Duluth with the high bridge connecting Duluth with my home town of Superior.

I looked off to my right and I saw this seagull land about 10 yards away. I was in a little slack water in this bay and the seagull was out in the strong tide water just floating very fast by me. It seemed as though the seagull was looking right at me and saying, "Hey dummy! Move over here, it's a lot easier!" So I did and for about 5 minutes the seagull and I floated side by side as I gazed at the bridge and the surroundings.

As I gazed ahead it was like everything in about 10 seconds flashed before me. The start way back in Washington DC and how apprehensive I was about the trip. All the great people I met as I worked my way along the Potomac. The crossing of the Appalachian Mountains. Camping with the nice people along the Ohio and Missouri. My friend Bob Maxwell and his wife, Marcia helping me out at Paducah. My friend Jim McIntyre helping along the Missouri and now again he will be meeting me around noon to take me home. My cousin Gary Hoff who got me and my gear to my starting point in Bismarck this year. Then this year, the tipping over on Lake Sakakawea and wanting to quit, only to know I couldn't. The help I got in Williston when my trailer broke. The ride over the Rockies. The Barrazza family in Orofino who kept my gear as I biked over the Rockies. The hassles of the Columbia in the wind surfing areas. All the people that made this possible. Especially Balance Bar, Jeff Foster Trucking and Bass Pro. I thought how much I would once again like to thank them and all the other special people who were there to help me when I needed it most. Then, as I was approaching the bridge thoughts switched to my family and how supportive they've been. My wife LuAnn, sons Dean and Eric, daughter Heidi and grandkids, Devin, Drake, Ryah, Liv, Rory and Lily. GrandPa will be home soon!

The water is starting to get rough. I only have about 200 yards to go and the waves are picking up so my thoughts go back to getting to the bridge before I flip over. I manage to do so. I go directly under the bridge and take a picture straight up at it. Then I swing around a pillar and head over to the shoreline by the Holiday Inn Express motel. As I went by the motel I noticed a small sandy beach and it was the only place I saw where I could land, for everything else along the way was high walls and piers.

As I pulled up there was a man and his boy. They were the first people I met and were kind enough to take a picture in front of my boat. A few minutes later others came down to see what I was doing. Once they found out, they seemed more excited than I. I took a picture of them and they ran back up to get their cameras and did the same. They also were kind enough to help me get my canoe and gear up to a small park next to the motel.

Well, I'm done. Once again I start thinking about all that has happened. (I will write more about this in a later blog) It all started by looking at a sign in the Cascade Mountains years ago on a family trip, which said, " A walk to Mexico" and my wife looking at it and saying, "No, you're not!" That led to walking the Pacific Crest Trail, which led to a bicycle ride around the perimeter of the USA and then this. Even now to me it seems a little amazing. Maybe a little meaningless history for I've not been able to find any information on anyone else doing such. I passed thousands of people having no idea what I'm doing. I'm not even sure many people are reading this journal, but I do hope for those that are and for the many people I did meet, they too follow their dreams. Life is too short not to. I, for one, do not want to sit around waiting for the guy to come cover me over with his shovel! Do you?

Ryan, "WE MADE IT!"

July 5th: Fisher Island to an Island west of Skamokowa,WA

2007-07-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

What a great evening. Nice sunset and I even woke up to see the finale of the Longview fireworks!

I have less than 60 miles to go! Plans for the day is to get to or just past Skamokowa, WA. Then tomorrow I will have less than 20 miles to Astoria.

What a morning, absolutely no wind and I have the tide again in my favor. By noon I was already at the Cathlamet, WA bridge. This was a little bit sentimental for if the weather was bad I was going to make this my stop. In a few miles I will approach wide open water that if the weather were bad I may not be able to navigate. Not today, there's only a slight chop and I only had about 5 miles of wind area early that I was able to get through with little trouble.

Well, for the 3rd day in a row I stopped early! (Hard to believe, I know) I'm on an island just west of the village of Skamokowa and tomorrow I will have less than 20 miles to go and I will be at the Astoria Bridge, and where the Columbia river opens to the Pacific Ocean. Atlantic to the Pacific...I'll be darned, I think I'm going to make it!

July 4th: St. Helens to Just past Longview, WA

2007-07-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last night, just before bed I asked Dennis (Dennis really knows this river and gave me a river map and showed me what lies ahead for me) if this wind will continue tomorrow. He said, "No, it normally starts around late afternoon and blows all night, but in the morning it will be calm." Well, I was up and on the river by 6:00 and that wind, well it was still blowing! Good thing was that I could get along the Oregon shore and be a little bit protected, plus I have the tide going out which will help big time.

At about 1o:ooAM I was approaching Kalama, WA when the wind was really getting tough, so I decided to pull over and take a break. There were a number of fishermen along the shore (this time of year they are fishing for steelhead) and I asked one if this wind would die down. He said it usually does soon and then picks back up in the late afternoon.

Well around 12:30 it died down some so I continued on my way. I had only about 10 miles to go until I reach Longview and then I turn west again with the hope the wind will not have as much as an effect as it does now coming straight out of the north. I figure when I turn I will be protected more. Not the case. When I made my turn the wind also decided to turn, it is now out of the west. Paddling was tough so at around 6:30 I decided to stop at Fisher Island and set up camp. Fisher Island is just west of Longview and I figured I still can make it to Astoria on the 6th, plus it was the Fourth of July and I could relax and watch the Longview fireworks.

Time for a quick dip in the river, have dinner and relax for the second day in a row with an early finish to the day!

July 3rd: Camas to St. Helens, Or

2007-07-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, was I looking forward to today, hoping for no wind and I got it. I got up at 5:00. Jim was still sleeping when I left for a walk. When I came back at about 10 minutes to 6:00, Jim was still sleeping so I decided to go down the street to eat at McDonalds. When I got back Jim was still sawing logs so I woke him up by saying, " Half the day is gone - let's get going."

At 7:30 I set off from the Camas Marina saying goodbye to Jim until I reach Asotria which I hope will be on July 6th. Jim has been unbelievable in following me around and always being there whenever I needed him. Now that the dams are over with, I told him go do your own thing for awhile. He agreed so I'm off feeling good that Jim will be able to enjoy himself.

What a great day. No wind to speak of and I have current, plus for most of the late morning and afternoon the tide was going from high to low which means I was picking up more current.

I made it to Portland around noon. As I paddled through I'd see many people walking along the shore or along walkways, plus many boats. There were a number of restaurants along the way with many people sitting out on decks having lunch and taking a glance down as I came back. They, like all along this trip, have no idea what I'm doing and I've often wondered how different this trip would be if they knew what I was doing as I paddled by. Personally, I am glad they do not. I like it just the way it is - that I meet people and they learn personally from me what I doing. Why? Well every time that happens I've gained new friends. I feel I've made many new friends and that has really made this trip.

It was getting close to 4:00PM and now I'm heading north as the the Columbia turns north at Portland/Vancover until I reach Longview, WA. Also the wind is picking up and the tide is now at the low point so paddling is becoming more difficult.

By 4:30 I reach St. Helens, OR and I notice this island with a small marina across from St. Helens. Also there are many tents set up all along this island that looks like its a good mile long. I figured with the wind as strong as it is that this would be a good place to pull in and take a rest.

As I brought my canoe up on shore, I asked a guy if this was a private place? He said no, that it was a St. Helens city park plus you can camp here for free. Well, that word, "free", sounded good so I thought just maybe I'd stop now and take advantage, which in a few minutes after meeting some of the people here made my decision easy to do so.

What a neat group. People went out of their way to help me in any way they could. Down on the marina there were many boats docked and all were having a great time partying. I got a great picture of the group that you will need to check out.

I'm glad I stopped, for again I feel I made friends with a real neat group of people. Someday I hope to come back. This is a neat area.

July 2nd: Below Dalles Dam to Cascade Locks and then on to Camas

2007-07-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

What a day this was!

First, I must say our day in Seattle was great. We saw two great baseball games on June 30 and July 1, plus it was good just to joke around with my friend Jim without worrying about paddling. Only downside was our motel. I always look for the cheap one. Cheapest we could find was for $75.00 and I would not recommend it to anyone. In all my adventures I've stayed in some real dumps and this rates right with some of the $25.00 ones I stayed in in New Mexico when I did my bike ride. Hurts that I had to pay $75.00 for worse than those!

Last night we decided to drive back to Cascade Locks and get a room there because that is where I expected to end after today's paddle. We got a room at the Cascade Motel which is actually a number of very nice cabins. (see picture) As bad as our motel was in Seattle, this was a real treat. If you ever come through this area I recommend it very highly. The couple that own it are very nice and will do all in their power to make sure your stay is a pleasant one. In fact, we thought we'd stay two nights, but the events of the day changed that.

We were on the road back up to The Dalles by 5:00 in the morning. My hope was that with an early start I'd be able to beat the wind. Again, this is wind surfing area all the way to Cascade Locks. In fact the owners at the Cascade Motel said that the Olympic Sailing team practiced in this area. Not what I needed to hear.

Well, everything start well, but ended quickly. After about 10 miles the winds started up and within 15 minutes they were howling. Again I was paddling in waves and when I decided to give it up I could no longer make headway. I called Jim and told him I was going back about two miles where he could come to my rescue.

On my paddle back I was really down. Nothing was going the way I planned and now I have 30 miles still to go to Cascade Locks and it was going to be another bike portage. I thought about having Jim take me back to Cascade Locks and paddling back upstream but dashed that idea on my paddle back to meet Jim because some of the waves hitting me from behind were swinging my canoe sideways which was a little nerve-racking.

So here I am again biking, not what I want to do. Only good thing is I'm getting a good workout and when I get to Cascade Locks this wind-surfing dammed up area is over. At Cascade Locks is the Bonneville Dam which is the last dam . From here to the ocean I'm supposed to have less wind trouble plus current which can be up to 5 miles an hour when the tide is on its way out. Surprisingly the tide comes all the way back to this area some 160 miles inland.

Now as bad and as down as I was this morning, things really changed around this afternoon.

At about 2:00 Jim and I decided to continue on and go down to the portage below the Bonneville Dam. He would continue on to Camas, WA about 30 miles downstream and I would paddle as far as I could and camp and meet him in the morning.

Off he went and I headed out. What a change in what I've experienced above these dams. I have a good current and I have little wave action. It felt like I was back on the Ohio River. I was moving, scenery was spectacular and I was once again enjoying the trip. In fact I was enjoying it so much by 8:30 PM I was in Camas and calling Jim to pick me up.

A day that started so bad really ended on a high note. For the first time in a long time I was looking forward to tomorrow.

I guess Jim summed up the day best. When he came to pick me up we was just shaking his head and said, "You're an animal." I said what is that supposed to mean? He said he meant it in a good way, explaining that you just paddled 15 plus miles in extremely difficult conditions this morning only to get on a little bike and pedal 32 miles and then paddle another 30 miles and you look like you just finished a walk around the block.

I stopped to think about what he said. Yeah, I guess it was a good day, but honestly and I've said this before, the toughest part about this trip is the mental part (which is now a whole lot better). The physical for whatever reason is the fun part. I hope the fun continues, because I dread the mental part when I cannot move forward. Time to get a bite to eat. I think even my dad would say it was good half day's work!

June 30th: Biggs to The Dalles Dam and on to Seattle

2007-07-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I was glad everything turned out okay. Although, honestly I was hoping for a better start upon my return. I knew this was going to be a tough area to get through, but I guess because I was so lucky on the dammed up lakes on the Missouri my luck would continue here. Not the case. Things have been frustrating. I have little patience when I cannot make the headway I expect and I have no patience at all to sit around.

On the good side, this morning the wind is only a breeze and I'm on the water at 6:00 AM. If I can get across this two or so mile wide area (favorite for the wind surfers) I should be more protected even if the wind picks up.

I made it with ease and the rest of the paddle was the best I've had since I hit the Columbia. Once I made it across the widest part I made a turn to the northwest and then back west and all the way to The Dalles Dam. The water was like smooth glass. (Check out picture)

I wasn't sure when I'd get to the Dam. I told Jim it could take until noon. My hope was 10:30, for this is the day we are going up to Seattle to watch the Seattle Mariners baseball team play the Toronto Blue Jays. Jim is a big baseball fan and has been to 34 major parks and has not been to the new park in Seattle. So that was part of the deal in his coming to pick me up - that we go up and watch a couple of games.

Well, for once luck was on my side. With the glass-like water I made it to the dam by 9:30 and we were on our way to Seattle by 10:30. Finally a good day of paddling and I'm quitting at 9:30!

I'm glad for Jim we are going to be able to make the game tonight. We also will watch the afternoon game tomorrow and then head back to continue to the Pacific.

Note: Must admit all day long I thought about how many miles I could have made today. Stupid!

June 29th. Irrigon, OR to Biggs, OR

2007-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Jim and I picked up my gear in Irrigon and headed to the nearest restaurant for breakfast. The morning was beautiful and there was little wind so I'm hoping for a good day of paddling. This area all the way to The Dalles is a big wind surfing area, so getting through this section could be very tough, but right now it is relatively calm.

Jim lets me off at the boat ramp west of Irrigon and because the highway goes right along the river, we hope to meet around 3:00 PM . I say goodbye and I'm off. It feels good to be back on the water, conditions are good and I figure I can make it to Biggs by 7:00 or 8:00 PM - about 40-plus miles away.

Everything is going good until around 3:30. I'm feeling very lucky that I have little wind and am able to make good time. I figure I'm a little under 20 miles from Biggs when a breeze starts up. Then in about 30 minutes the little breeze is a 20 mile an hour wind and I'm back into high waves again. For the last hour I've been looking for Jim but do not see him. Also, because I figured I'd be meeting him I did not put my bike or trailer in my canoe so all I can do is pull over somewhere and hope he shows.

I continue to try and make headway but can make little, so I give up and pull over along the OR side of the river. Now this is the side where Jim is supposed to meet me. But the road is also a freeway so getting out and meeting Jim will be a slight problem. I now wish I had my bike and trailer. Big mistake!

Eventually, Jim calls my cell (very lucky to have reception where I am). I let him know approximately where I am and he tells me he's been back and forth in that area for the last hour and could not see me. I guess I must have looked like part of a wave or I was just out of sight when he passed.

Anyway I get my gear up over the riverbank, back across a railroad track and then over the barbed wire fence along the freeway and we head to Biggs where Jim has a room for us.

The day ended being about 15 miles short of Biggs, which also means I have 15 miles to make up because I will need to get back into the water tomorrow at the Maryhill State Park. It is across the river on the Washington side from Biggs. There are no entry points between where I got out and Biggs. Besides, I do not think the State Patrol will like it if he sees us re-entering alongside the freeway tomorrow!

All in all it was a good day. Even with the frustration both Jim and I had in not finding each other when things got tough, we both are still smiling.

I was back on the water and I felt good.

June 28th: Back to Portland

2007-07-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

I hope today is not a sign of how the finish is going to be to my trip. I was supposed to fly out of Duluth at 12:45, but ended up leaving at 2:35 because of plane delays, which meant I would miss my flight from Minneapolis to Portland. In the end I got to Portland at 9:30 PM, which is 11:30 Central. I was rerouted from Portland to Boise, ID and then to Portland. Not a pleasant day.

On the good side, my friend Jim was there waiting for me with a smile. LuAnn was able to get in touch with him earlier in the day to let him know I would be late.

Well, the day ended with a 2-plus hour drive to Biggs, OR where we were able to get a room for the night. So, at 1:00 in the morning, (3:00 central time) I'm in bed, hoping this is the bad day and tomorrow I will have good paddling conditions.

June 27th: Return to Portland Tomorrow

2007-06-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, June 28th, I will fly back to Portland arriving at 4:00 PM Portland time. My long- time friend going way back to kindergarden, Jim McIntyre, will be picking me up at the airport. He brought me back home from Bismarck last year and said he'd be there again this year to see me finish this trip and take me back home. He loves baseball and is visiting a number of major league baseball parks as he works his way to Portland. On June 30th and July 1st he will be going up to Seattle for a couple of ball games and hopes I can join him. I told him I couldn't promise anything until I see how it goes on the river on the 29th. If it goes well I will go with him. The plan is to finish on the 5th or 6th of July. Not sure if anyone plans to be at the end, but if they are it will be either of those days. I will know better after a couple of days paddling. I will either end in Astoria, OR or Cathlamet, WA.

That means I will need to do about 35 to 40 miles a day in order to make it and still go up to Seattle. I always figure I can make 30 to 35 miles a day under most circumstances. I base that on my experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail when I averaged 28 miles a day. On flat terrain like in Oregon 30 plus mile days were common. I can paddle faster than I can walk. Most of the time I'm able to make 50 miles a day with little trouble. My concern now is the wind. If it is anything like what I had before I came home it will really be tough.

I had a great time on my 10 days at home. I was able to play some golf, watch my daughter's twins play a couple of baseball games, spent a day with my son, Dean and his family in Somerset, WI and I also had a nice visit our other son Eric back here in Superior. Plus LuAnn and I were able to go out for dinner a couple of times with friends. It will be tough to leave.

Now you would think a guy would rest up for this final push, which I thought I would, but like always I needed to do some exercise so I ended up biking 25 miles each day I was home and doing an hour on my elliptical machine every day except for two. That added up to over 250 miles. Heck, in mileage for the trip that means I'm somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean! I can go back and just sunbathe on the beach!

Well, it's getting late and I still need to get my stuff together.

My goal, besides finishing on the 5th or 6th, is to also for once slow it down and enjoy the last few days with my good friend. I always seem to say that, but this time I hope I can.

June 17th: Sand Station to Portland

2007-06-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

There will be no paddling today. The wind howled all night and was still blowing as hard as it was yesterday. So the plan for the day is to bike portage to the next town, Umatilla, to find a place to store my gear and work on getting a ride to Portland. To my surprise this was made very easy as a young lady who was at the campground stopped by as I was getting ready and asked if I was the guy paddling across the country. I said I was and after a short conversation and learning what my plans for the day were, offered to give me a ride into Umatilla and then as far as the Dalles area where she'd be turning south to Bend, OR. Again, help was there when needed.

We loaded my gear and strapped my canoe to the top of her car and headed for Umatilla. As we drove through Umatilla there was a feeling that came over me that this was not the place to store the canoe. I just felt there was something better down the road. So we drove on and in about 10 miles there was this nice new self storage place alongside the highway. Sarah drove in and because it was Sunday there was no one around but a sign saying call this number for service, which I did. Long story short, the lady on the other end said she had units available but wasn't sure if I could get my canoe in, but welcomed me to try and if it worked to send her twenty dollars when I got home. Very nice, except the units were too small so I called back and asked if she had any other options. She said I was more than welcome to bring my gear to her home which was just down the highway, and store it there if I did not mind it being outside next to her garage. I said that would work.

Again, as I've stated before, long ago I quit worrying about how things are going to work out when I'm in these situations. They just do and again I'm very grateful for the help I've received.
Sarah dropped me off in the Dalles and headed on her way. She was very interested in my trip as she too enjoys the outdoors.

The Dalles area turns out to be a huge summer vacation area for wind surfers. There are people all over the place with at least 3 huge truck stop type service stations on both sides of the road along with a motel and a number of fast food places. I figured it would be easier than I thought to catch a ride to Portland with this many people and I was right for the first person, a truck driver having lunch next to me offered me a ride once he knew what I was doing. So a day that could have been much longer was over by three in the afternoon and I was watching the end of USA Open Golf Tournament in my room.

Tomorrow I will fly out at 6:00 in the morning for home and then will return to Portland on the 28th. It will be good to be home and be with family again.

Not much further to go. I will post my plans for the remainder of my trip before I return.

June 16th: Below Lower Monumental Dam to Sand Station

2007-06-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Interesting day. It started out relatively peacefully with a nice morning paddle to Ice Harbor Dam. The portage around the dam was about a mile. The takeout was easy but I found no boat ramp to put in at below the dam, rather it became another climb down over a rocky shoreline. As I paddle towards the Tri-Cities area I notice a lot more farming along both sides of the river with massive well pumps every mile or so pumping water from the Snake River to the fields. The call this area Palouse Country, whatever that means.

By noon I make it to the confluence of the Columbia in the Tri-Cities area. Everything has gone well all morning. Very little wind and just a nice cool day for paddling. I got my first hint that the afternoon will be the total opposite when I tried to take a short cut from the main channel and got hung up on one sandbar after another. It took a good 15 to minutes to get through. Twice I had to get out and pull my canoe over a variety of sandbars. Once clear I next needed to get down and around the wide open lake area which stretches south and then west of the Tri-Cities. I thought I had it all figured out, but after an hour of paddling I realized I was going too far south and was about to miss my turn west. To me it looked like I needed to go around a huge grain dock at the far end of this massive bay, but instead I should have started across the lake almost immediately when I made my turn off the Snake. Now I must cross the widest part of this lake, which looks like it is over two miles wide. In my notes it talked about this area being very dangerous because the winds can come up quickly. Reason this thought crossed my mind was because the winds were coming up a little more than quickly! By the time I was in the middle of this bay, whitecaps were beginning to form and I was approximately a mile from either shore. After paddling for close to another hour (a paddle that should have taken 15 minutes) I make it to the west shoreline and start to follow that shoreline around a 90 degree corner of the Columbia. Even though I'm somewhat protected by the rock wall along this shoreline, paddling is extremely tough.

I also notice one sailboat, with motor running, heading very fast to the Tri-Cities area and on the far shoreline a couple more heading to Walla Walla Yacht Club marina. I realize I'm the only one left on the water and I'm on the far northwest side of the river with nothing but a tall riprap of rock wall for miles in both directions. Well, I continue to paddle close to shore, hoping that when I complete the west turn things will get better. Not the case, they were getting worse which became very obvious when I notice this unusual block of wood lodged in the rocky riprap on the shoreline that I thought I passed a minute or so ago. Which turned out to be the case, for I was paddling as hard as I could and I was losing ground! I was going backwards.

Decision time. I could stay on this rock cliff side and wait it out or I could try and make it over to the other side. I thought back to the Lake Sakakawea incident when I almost lost everything including my life (forgot to mention that then). After assessing the situation I figured I would try to get across. Why do that? Well, here I felt I was in more control of the situation than I was on Lake Sakakawea. There's a car on the far shoreline driving back and forth watching me so I figure if I do dump someone will know it. Second, the water is much warmer so hypothermia should not be an issue. Plus the number one reason: I had to try! So off I went! I paddled as much as I could at a 45 degree angle into the waves. Which quickly became impossible. (By the way I figure it to be about 3/4 of a mile across.) So I decided on paddling as fast as I could, parallel with the waves and as the big ones came I turned to go with them and let them carry me like a surfboard. Out in the middle as I was doing the surfing technique I could look straight down and I mean straight down at the lower part of the wave which seemed a good 10 feet below me. It was a very serious situation, but I must say, just to ease the tension, at one point I thought, "I wonder what kind of style points they are giving me on shore." This worked well except when every so often two waves would come almost at the same time. Twice I thought I was going over but somehow managed not to. Well, I made it across and that car that was watching left when I was within 50 feet of the shore, knowing I was out of harm's way. I was hoping to thank the person, but he/she probably thought they'd wasted enough time with this idiot!

Well, I got everything out of my canoe, emptied out the water and put my trailer together for what I figured was going to be a very tough, into the wind 20 mile bike portage to the nearest camping area, Sand Station, which is east of Umatilla, OR.

Later that evening after arriving at the park I was informed the winds were gusting over 45 miles an hour and were expected to last through the next day. Now I really am glad I made the decision to cross over the lake. Even more glad the day is over.

Now I must figure out where to store my gear and how I'm going to get to Portland. I figure my paddling is over so I'm thinking I will bike portage as far as I can tomorrow morning, keeping an eye out for a storage unit where I may be able to keep my gear.

Well, that's for tomorrow. Right now I need a good night's rest after a very interesting day!

June 15th: Snake River (West of Boyer Park) to Below Lower Monumental Dam

2007-06-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

Last night as lay in my tent going over the day's events and wondering about portaging around the dams ahead, I was looking at my map and thinking, man it looks like a long way to Portland. Yesterday when I was figuring the mileage and made the decision to go home I added it up to be actually less than 300 miles, more like 275. Now I see I made a slight error in my calculations. Slight - by about 90 miles! It is actually 360 plus miles, which means I'm going to be way off no matter how hard I work to get to Portland. Yesterday I was hoping to be near Cascade Locks by Sunday at noon. That would put me 40 miles from Portland. Now it looks like I will be lucky to get to Umatilla or Roosevelt, OR which are 180 and 120 miles respectively away from Portland. That means everything must go right...and of course 14 - 15 hour days.

I can hear my friend Jim ( Jim is my friend that goes way back to kindergarden who's meeting me in Portland on the 27th) now when I tell him. His comment will be, "Hoff, why, for all these years, do I continue to put up with your nonsense!" (Plus a few words that need not be mentioned). After he's finished his tirade, I will give him the response I always do, " Because I'm the only friend you got!" He will come back with another response that need not be mentioned, but in the end I know he'll be here and we'll make do. Although, I do feel bad about it, there's not many that would come all this way to pick up a foolish old man canoeing across the country. But again, deep down he knows I'll always be there for him when needed.

The day went well, although what breeze there was naturally was in my face, coming out of the northwest in the morning. And when I made my turn southwest, the wind did the same. Sometimes you just cannot win. I was able to make it around the next two dams, Little Goose and Lower Mounmental with little trouble. In fact I picked up some valuable mileage by bike portaging a little further around each. Tomorrow if all goes well I should be close to the Tri-Cities area in the morning which is where the Snake joins the Columbia. With a good day tomorrow and a half day on Sunday I may have a chance to get to the Roosevelt/Arlington area which puts me about 120 miles from Portland. We'll see; time for bed.

June 14th: Clarkston to somewhere past Boyer Park on the Snake River

2007-06-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Gordy and Dave helped me get down to the river this morning. (see picture) The gate from the marina I came through last night was locked so we had to carry my canoe and gear down over the river bank next to the marina.

Although this is the Snake river it actually is a series of lakes starting here at Clarkston all the way to the Tri-Cities where it joins the Columbia River. Then the Columbia also becomes a series of lakes all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This is because both rivers have a number of dams now. Back in the Lewis and Clark days this was a free and fast flowing river. Not now. It is basically slack water with little or no current and most likely I will have the prevailing winds in my face coming from the west or northwest which could drastically cut my mileage.

However, today there is little wind and I can tell there is a little current in my favor.

As I pushed off I noticed my first barge accross the river. Very small, as is the tugboat pushing it, as compared to the barges on the Ohio.

The day's paddle went well. In the morning I thought I was making super fast time as I was counting down the numbers painted on bark markers alongside the riverbanks. I noticed I was at 24 in about two hours and knew I'd started at 34. Figuring these were mile markers I was doing great. Then in two more hours the next marker appeared, 22! So I figured it could not be mile markers but rather markers numbered only to let barges know what turn in the river they were at.

Late in the day I was out in the middle of nowhere and I heard voices. So a scull of about 7 rowers came paddling by with a motorboat yelling instructions to them. I figure they were learning the art of skulling, but out here I see nothing that shows a marina or town nearby.

In a mile I found out my answer. On the north shore was this nice building with the name, Cougar's Rowing Club. Must be a town somewhere nearby that loves this sport.

At about 6:30 PM I was approaching my first dam on the Snake, which I will need to portage around. On the Ohio if you remember, I was allowed to go through the locks. Here I am not. Plus they only have certain times of the day they open the locks to public motorboat traffic. This will be a bit of a hassle for it means I will need to hook up to my bike and portage around. This portage is supposed to be about a mile but some will be as much as 5 miles as I move along.

Well, as I neared the Lower Granite Dam there was a sign saying the portage is on the right side of the river. Naturally I was on the left side, so moved over but never found the portage. I went all the way to the dam, but no portage (I was on the earth side of the dam so it was safe.) I couldn't get out here because of the steep rock wall so I paddled back until I found a place I could get my gear up and over to what was a dirt road. I carried my first load of stuff up and on my way back I noticed this sign lying on the ground that said, "Boat Portage". Some portage landing. Nothing more than a low spot in the riverbank.

Well, I got my gear loaded up and headed up to the road leading away from the dam only to see that the road was gated off. I looked all around but there was no-one in sight. I pedaled over to the road on the dam leading to the locks. That too was gated off. I yelled; no answer. Went back; still no-one around. I'm inside a gated area with barbed wire strung all the way around the top. Now what. I figured I'd have to set up camp here until morning and as I was about to do so, I see a white pickup coming up the road on the other side of the gate. Good, they came to my rescue. The guy stopped at the gate, got out and said, "How did you get in there? Don't you know you are trespassing on federal property?" I said, " Well, I came by way of the river and was just following the signs that lead me to your fine portage and came up here to get to the other side and found myself gated in." Well, he made a phone call to the lockmaster, upon which I was asked to show my ID, which of course was packed away. Eventually I was allowed through and the man I was talking to turned out to be a very nice person. He said he was just following his instructions and was sorry for the hassle. He told me most of the dams ahead are not gated like this one. Maybe one more, but then they should all be outside the lock authority area. He pointed out where I could get back into the river and left. Where he pointed to was another spot downriver where I would need to carry most of my gear over a bank. Man, these dam portages are going to be more of a hassle than I thought. I lost an hour or more of time, although I believe by the time I stopped to make camp I'd come 40 or more miles and that was with a very late morning start. I hope that continues and I will be in good shape. On the down side, because of the late start, I only stopped once and that was for a quick bathroom stop. Just a bit of a sore back as I crawl to my tent. Tomorrow I will take some breaks.

June 14th (Morning) Clarkston, WA

2007-06-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last night my plans were to take my first real day off today. It is now about 9:00AM and I'm just pacing, so as soon as I finish this entry I will get on the water. Not only am I antsy, but my friend Jim McIntyre plans to meet me in Portland at the end of the month and bring me home. Well, I figure I have about 300 miles and I will be in Portland and at the rate I'm going I will be there in 6 t0 7 days, which means I will be 10 or more days ahead of Jim. So, here is the plan. No way can I sit around for 10 days. I still have a round trip air fare ticket I have not used. I figure I will take advantage of it now. So I booked a flight home from Portland for the 18th with a return to Portland on the 27th. That way I will get a much needed rest plus I will be with family and be back when Jim gets here.

That means I must get a move on it. I figure I can get to or very close to Cascade Locks in the next 4 and half days, find a place to store my gear and get a ride to the airport. I'm not sure how all this is going to work, but somehow it will. Plus it's a new challenge.

Between now and then I will be mostly in a remote area until I get to the Tri-Cities area of Washington, so I will be doing the next 4 day journal entries when I get home.

Time to get moving...It will be good to be back with family and friends.

I wonder if I can still hit a golf ball?

June 13th Orofino to Clarkston WA

2007-06-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

I did not go over to the Barrazza's until around 10:30 since I knew they got home late and wanted to make sure they were up when I did. Lino was nice enough to take me to the local grocery store and do other errands before I set out.

I cannot thank the Barrazzas enough. Like so many times before, the people I meet have been unbelievable in how they go out of their way to help and the Barrazzas rate right at the top. Lino, I will stay in touch and thanks for everything. Lina, remember, you need to email when you finish your GED. I'm very proud that you are going to finish your education.

Well I was off for Clarkston at around 2:00. The Clearwater is fast and I was told I would have a few small rapids to negotiate along the way. Even though I had 40 miles to go, I expected to get to Clarkston in the early evening, which I did.

It was less than 5 minutes since I departed and I noticed this jet ski coming at me. It was the local sheriff water patrol coming. They were doing some water safety training for the local youth and just wanted to know what I was doing. I told him, and he said "Did you know you have some tough rapids ahead?" I said, "No. I was told it was a piece of cake." When he asked who told me that I told him it was the local Forest DNR station. He shook his head. Long story short, he escorted me through the first two rapid areas and told me how to get around two more. Great help.

With the fast flowing water and the rapids I needed to negotiate it made for a fun trip all the way to Clarkston where the Clearwater joins the Snake River.

Two rivers left: Snake and Columbia. Of course I'm way ahead of schedule. Feel good though. (Although, I have alot of the Missouri to do later).

June 12th Lochsa Lodge at Lowell, ID to Orofino, ID

2007-06-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Up at 5:00 AM and on the road at 5:30. What a beautiful morning and what a wonderful place Lochsa Lodge is. This will be a place someday I hope to come back to. Anyone that likes the outdoors in a semi-rustic atmosphere has many options here including excellent fishing and river rafting. One needs to put Lochsa Lodge as a destination.

It's 120 miles to Orofino and most is a gradual downhill ride. I hope to be there by early evening if all goes well. All did go well on my beautiful scenic ride to Lowell - 66 miles away. I stopped to take some pictures, which you can find in my photo album. I made it by 11:00 AM and had a great breakfast at the local cafe.

Here is where I met Dave who is from Alaska and is biking to Florida. I wasn't sure if he started in Alaska. We had a nice chat and he was somewhat surprised when I told him I came from Lowell on my little bike. He said he'd biked only 10 miles so far. As surprised as he was of my ride I know I would be going nuts if I'd only ridden 10 miles for a morning. I guess I cannot slow down because much of the day for me is having a good tough workout.

Well the rest of the day (about 45 more miles) was a lot tougher. Pedaling was a lot tougher all afternoon and figured it was because I may be going a little more uphill at times when it looked level. (Happens a lot in the mountains. You think you are on level ground and you are actually going up or down) Anyway, that was not the reason. When I finally did get to Orofino I found out that my back brakes where slightly rubbing! Darn, probably could have stopped and checked it out earlier.

Only the Barrazza's daughter was home when I arrived in Orofino. Lino and his wife Tracy were out of town at a Nez Perce Indian funeral and would be home tomorrow. So I went and found a place to stay and called it a day. In fact I felt it was a great 3 days, with a great ride over the Rockies that took two days less than I expected.

June 11 th: Lincoln, MT to Lowell, Idaho

2007-06-17T06:52:00.001-07:00

It was still misting out when I awoke at 5:00 (it was light out well before 5:00), but the forecast was for clearing skies, plus it was a fairly warm mist so I decided to get started.

As I left Lincoln I was expecting my ride to be a gradual downhill into Missoula for that was the way I remembered it on my drive over. I was wrong! It was a very deceiving up and down for the first three quarters of the ride, plus I had a good wind in my face for most of the morning. On the good side, the scenery was spectacular and it made for a good hard day's workout.

I made it to Missoula around 3:30PM. In fact I was some 12 miles on the far side of Missoula in Lolo Springs having lunch, this being my first real stop except for taking a few pictures.

I was thinking of ending the day here, but I hear this little voice telling me you never stop until you get to the top of the hill. My Pacific Crest Trail friend from Australia, Phil Preston always said that when we were hiking together and he had a long ascent. Well, I was now facing a 32 mile ride to the top of Lolo Pass and needed to make a decision, which of course was, "You never stop until you get to the top of the hill!" So off I went and happy I did for the ride was not that tough. All but the last four miles was a very gradual ascent. The last four miles, however, seemed to be over 7 percent grade. In fact I had to stop a couple of times to rest which I hate to do, but finally made it to the top. Now it was 5 miles of downhill at the same grade I just came up. My goal now was to make it to the Lochsa Lodge resort at Lowell, ID (At Lolo Pass I entered Idaho and gained an hour in time).

What a fun five mile ride. I won't say how fast I was moving, but I do not think my little bike wheels could turn any faster.

Great ride today, beautiful scenery and I made close to 160 miles on my little bike. She's a beauty and rides as well as the bike I used when I went around the USA.

Good day's work and I'm at one of the most picturesque places I ever stayed. Very remote with a number of rustic cabins, a little grocery store and a nice lodge where I'm about to have a steak!

June 10th Great Falls, MT to Lincoln, MT

2007-06-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

I picked up my bike in Missoula on the way back to Great Falls. Chris, the person how worked on it, did a fantastic job and I was confident it would hold up. I got back to Great Falls in the early afternoon and set off for Lincoln. I stopped at a gas station to get some food, water and snacks and bumped into an young man named Jim who said he was going my way and offered a ride to the outskirts of Great Falls, which I decided to take.

My ride was a little further than expected for I fell asleep and when Jim stopped we were some 20 miles further than I expected. On the good side I was closer to Lincoln and out of traffic, just needed to remember I had some twenty miles to make up. Plus, now I had a chance to make it to Lincoln which I figured was about 55 miles away.

For most of today's ride I was riding in open country which was not that interesting. Towards the end I started a gradual climb into the foothills of the Rockies which ended with about a 4 mile 6 percent grade over Rogers Pass and then a downhill glide into Lincoln.

First pass out of the way without incident and I'm very cozy in my 45.00 motel room as it is raining!

June 10 - 12 Great Falls to Orofino, ID

2007-06-13T13:35:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update.
Made it to Orofino, ID a lot faster than I anticipated. Boy, can this little old bike move! I did 160 miles one day and 120 another day. No problems but one very sore rear end.
Plan is to get back in the water today in Orofino below the dam. Then on to Lewiston, ID where the Clearwater River meets the Snake River.
As soon as I get to Lewiston, I will update the journal with more details. Time to get going!

June 10th Return to Great Falls

2007-06-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

Got my gear over to Orofino. As I drove into town I thought to myself, someone doesn't know it yet, but they are about to have a change in their evening plans and hopefully a new friend. I drove around town for a little while until I noticed a group of people having a barbeque. Perfect!I drove up and introduced myself. For some reason they looked a little puzzled and bewildered! In the end, Tracy Dean, Lina Barraza, Lino Barraza, Tracy Barraza, April Barraza, Kris Dean and Matt Fleming were excited to help. (You will need to check my pictures, should be posted by mid week.)

Back in Great Falls and I will be heading out tomorrow morning bright and early. I'm thinking it will take about 4 days. It should be a fun ride. The road has a decent shoulder and the grade over the two passes I must go does not look too bad. View is going to be spectacular. I noticed a fair number of touring bicyclists on that route as I drove over. It will be interesting to chat with them if I run into them on my way back.

I will update when I get back to Orofino.

June 9, 2007 Great Falls, MT

2007-06-09T09:17:00.001-07:00

I've gone over and over as to what is the best next move. Either could work. Twice I was ready to put my canoe in the water and head out, but in the end, I went to Great Falls to rent a car and get my gear over the mountains to Orofino, ID where I can safely enter the Clearwater River.

Something inside me just kept tell me this was the way to go, plus I wasn't sure how I was going to get everything back to Great Falls for I did not have a ride set up.

With my friend Jim picking me up for the ride back home I figured the simplest solution is to complete this section on the way back. Plans to begin with were to take some time to do some sightseeing anyway on the ride home so I figure we can work this in.

So I'm off. Soon I will have my act together.

Oh, I forgot to mention before I left Great Falls I still had to solve the problem of carrying my tent, sleeping bag and the other gear I would need for biking across the mountains. I had visions of using a backpack, but in Missoula I stopped at the Bicycle Works bike shop and they fixed me up with a bike rack and panniers and did a maintance check on my bike so I should be set. I left the bike off on my way over and picked it up on my way back. I will stop and say hi on my ride over for they are right on the road I will be traveling.

June 8, 2007: Drive From Williston to Great Falls, MT

2007-06-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Decision has been made. I've decided to go up to Great Falls, MT and work my way back to Williston.

Yesterday, after my workout I went down to the Highway 85 bridge to check out the river flow. To me it is doable, but definitely it will be a challenge. All evening I pondered what I should do. If I continue upstream it's for sure going take longer and I know each day I will be beating myself up to fight to get mileage. Just the way I am.

I know the canoe purist and probably my Pacific Crest Trail friends will be thinking I'm getting soft. Maybe so, but I was thinking about a couple emails I got which basically said, "Hey Coach do what is going to be most enjoyable." Well, the toughest part of these kind of adventures is staying in the right frame of mind and since I hit the water my mind has been tetering.

So I'm off to Great Falls. My ride cannot leave from here until around noon so I've decided to get in a half day's work by pedaling my canoe and gear as far as I can.

I said good by to Bob, the morning maintance engineer at the Airport International Inn and headed down the road. It felt good to be back and the canoe trailer was working very well.

All the way to the border of MT it seemed I was basically heading uphill. That was bad enough but I was also bucking a good wind (which later I found out was 17 miles an hour). Also kept noticing a noise coming from my wheels. I pulled over and took one off to see what was wrong. Looked okay although I wondered if I put a little chain oil on the bearing if that would help. Sure enough that is all they needed. I was rolling a lot smoother. (Probably should have done that back in Washington, D.C.!)

Well I made it to Culbertson, MT before my ride picked me. 40 miles,,,not bad for a good half day's work. (Actually 7 hours since I started at 6:30 and was picked up at 1:30)

It was a long boring ride, especially as I continued to think about my decision. Around 8:00 we arrived in Fort Benton, MT. Fort Benton is right on the Missouri just east of Great Falls. What a beautiful area. One of the neatest places I've ever been. This section of the river, Great Falls to Lake Fort Peck is the most scenic and well traveled part of the Missouri and I can see why.

My first thought was this section I should be doing with my friends Charlie Wright and Jim Waletzko. Basically it's float for much the way and right now it would be a very quick float for the river is as high as anyone can ever remember because of the heavy rains in the mountains.

In fact people are waiting in the local canoe campgrounds for the water to go down so they can start their trip. The river is fast, but it looks safe enough to me. Not sure why they're waiting.

But I do have another concern. With the current whipping as fast as it is I know I'm going to be piling up big miles and a trip that should take a week or more to enjoy will be done in a whole lot less time. This is too nice of a section to do that. So more decisions. Do I just rush through this or do I keep moving and save this for when I start my return trip home? Next would be the bike ride over the mountains. If I did that I'd follow the Lewis Clark Bike route and camp along the way, which should be fun. I believe it's 300+ mile trip to where I need to go.

I told Dan (my ride) that I would stay here for the night in the canoe campground and work on my next move. I figured I'd visit the visitors center in the morning and chat with the canoe camper.

This is beautiful. If you have never been here I suggest you put it on your list of places to visit. Especially if you're into scenic river canoe trips. You could go by yourself or hook up with an outfitter.

Maybe if my PCT friend , Keith Drury is following my journey he could add a comment about what he thinks about this section of the river. Keith paddled the Missouri a few years back.

Time for a walk before sunset. More questions to ponder.

June 7, 2007: STILL IN WILLISTON

2007-06-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well, Williston did not get the severe thunderstorms everyone else in ND got last night. Just a little rain, but it was very windy. Nor did I get my 75 miles of biking in, probably 50, which made for a decent workout.

Today it is very windy. It must be at least 30+ miles an hour, which made for a no paddle day. I thought hard about biking portaging today, but then that too could be dangereous, which was confirmed when I rode my bike over to the library and fitness center. I think I'd have been blown all over the place if I'd ventured out. So instead I'm still here and very antsy.

So for today's workout I pedaled over to Anytime Fitness Center for a workout. I had a good one, spent an hour and 15 minutes on an elliptical machine, 45 minutes on a treadmill, plus doing my weight lifting and sit-up routine. Good 3+ hours well spent in a very nice fitness center. (see picture)

I'm also working on what I will be doing next, whether to continue west from here or move west and work back. I hope to ride down to the Highway 85 bridge later to check out the water current for myself. I think it's 10 miles over to the bridge so it will make for another decent workout day, especially with the wind. Just wish it was on the river.

The key for me right now is to make this enjoyable.

June 6, 2007: Rest Day in Williston

2007-06-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite a rest day. I did get up early and bike 35 miles. I needed to redo the miles that I did not do when Lance picked me up yesterday.

It rained last night, but we did not get the severe weather that was forecast. Instead it is supposed to hit this area tonight and probably rain through Thursday morning. Anyway right now I feel good. My bike ride was a good workout with a bike climb out of Williston and the scenery was spectacular.

As I rode, my mind wandered from the low I experienced coming in to New Town to how great yesterday was, and that I need to make some decisions on how to tackle what lies ahead of me to Great Falls, MT.

This river has changed. It is not like what the guide books I'm following described when they did their trips. Since 2004 the river has dropped so far that the most of the resort bays have dried up, leaving no resort. David Miller who wrote the Complete Paddler Guide Book I'm following described Tobacco Bay Resort as one of the best places he visited. In fact he stayed two days. Now there's nothing.

Cecil, at Waterford Drilling, who's done alot of guiding on the river, says he's taken many canoers around this area.

Now it seems that the winter melt off (they got lots of snow this year in the Rockies) has caused some flooding ahead of me and raised the current to the point that it will be very difficult to paddle.

So I will ponder what to do. Most likely I will attempt to continue, but if it gets too tough and I have to start bike portaging, I will look for a way to get upriver and work backwards. I prefer the river to biking.

Well, my trailer is fixed. Tim and Jeremiah made me a whole new bracket for my wheels out of steel. What a job they did. (Need to see pictures when I get them posted) From a mess yesterday, I now know have a trailer I have complete confidence in and of course they would not take a nickel for their work. Thanks Tim, Lance, Cecil, Jeremiah and everyone else at Waterford.

I also got a new pedal at the local bike shop. The left pedal bearings were going on the one I had so I thought I better get that taken care of while I had the chance. Also, this is the same bike shop I stopped at in 2004 when I had some gear problems and I thought I'd say hi. Turns out the guy that worked on my bike no longers works there, but I did get a new pedal.

Well, it's time for dinner, Then maybe another good bike ride (it doesn't get dark here until amost 10:00). I'd like to get 75 miles in today. Need to get rid of this 20 extra pounds I seem to gain over the winter. Just can't stay away from the darn chocolate chip cookies LuAnn's mother, Glenys, makes!

Oh, also need to thank Jordan, Emily and Michelle for the Kool-Aid. I stopped at their stand as I was riding my bike to the Williston Library to update my journal.

June 5, 2007: New Town to Williston, ND

2007-06-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Williston ND! I will explain how I got that far in one day.

Last night I called home and told LuAnn what had happened and that I was not sure I could continue and would decide today if I could or not. Well, with her encouragement and a great email from my daughter Heidi, I'm going. At least to try and get to Williston and then see how it goes.

Here is how the day goes. ONE of the best I've had on this adventure. Because my back and knee were hurting and there was a threat of severe weather, after studying my maps I decided to hook everything up to my bike and portage over to Tobacco Bay Resort. This was about 40+ miles by road or maybe 30+ by river. The angle I sit while biking does not hurt my back that much. My reasoning for this is if a storm does hit I will be in a better situation than on the river. Plus I figured I could make it in half a day and then I would paddle back towards New Town, and back to the resort to make up some of the river miles. Then the next day I will paddle across to the other side where I can get on to Highway 1804 and pedal into Williston. From this point on I will be hitting big mud flats which are all but impossible to get though because the river is so low. Big thing is I need to work on my emotions and I was hoping the change might help. Instead the whole experience did!

This is what happened!

1st: I got to Tobacco Bay and the resort was a ghost town. The bay was dry! Now what, do I have to pedal all the way back? Well, I found a sandy trail that seemed to lead to the lake, which it eventually did after carrying everything on my back for a mile! Managed to get everything to the lake and felt good. At least now I can paddle, plus there's another resort (Lunds) on the other side of the lake that looks active. So I started to pull my canoe into the water and preceeded to go up to my knees in mud. Took awhile to pull loose, but I did and found a different spot that I was able to push off from. I had a good four hours now to waste before I headed over to the other resort so I paddled back towards New Town for a couple of hours and then swung back towards Lunds.

As I approached Lunds I saw 4 girls swimming in the river so I paddled over to see what info they could give me about the resort. They said I couldn't get to it. There's no water in the bay.

Now what. I know I cannot go much further and if the severe weather comes, I figured I needed to be somewhat protected, so I decided to proceed to the resort and figure a way to get up to the buildings I saw.

As I paddled I could see what appeared to be a boat landing. It was out of the water, but it looked like I could get to it and then carry everything up. For the last mile I was paddling in about 6 inches of water. My thoughts were that I was going to get within 100 yds of the landing, get stuck and be sitting there with no way to get out for fear of sinking in the mud I experienced on the other side. Did make it and was able to get everything hooked up to my bike. I started up the dirt road to Highway 1804 and then to Lunds. I was feeling good that everything was turning out well when all of a sudden there was a crash and my canoe is sitting on the road with the wheels above it!

I noticed when I got to Tobacco Bay that my wheels were a little at a slant but did not think much of it for it was like that last year. Besides, a good friend, Gene Cooper, who played football for me a few years had welded the problem before I left. Gene, "It did not work!"

Now what am I going to do? I'm in the middle of nowhere with a fold-up bike pulling a canoe that is laying on the road! Again, as luck has it, I see a red pickup sitting at the intersection of Lunds Landing looking at all this. I wave and he comes right down.

Lance works for the Weatherford Oil drilling company. Now this story is long, so you will need to look at my pictures when I'm able to post them. Anyway we get everything in the back of Lance's pickup and we head into Williston and to the Weatherford shop where he figures I can get my trailer repaired. On my way in Lance tells me every resort is closed because of the low water and that I was probably correct to get out where I did because of mud flats around Williston. That made me feel good, except for my trailer.

Once back at the shop, Lance introduces me to the guys and to Tim, who figures he can weld everything back together. After some time visiting with the crew at the shop (I know they thought I was crazy) Tim says he's finished and it should hold up now. Well I get everything back in the canoe, hook the trailer up to my bike, say goodbye and jump on my bike to head over to the motel across the street, when there's a thud and I look back and my canoe is sitting on the ground! Turns out the aluminum welding weakened everything and now the wheel portion of the trailer is completely broke in half.

To be continued tomorrow! Great day! Good hard bike ride plus 15 to 20 miles of paddling and everything ends in a mess! I feel a lot better, I'm back in my element I like best. Hopefully it continues.

Thanks LuAnn and Heidi and to everyone back in New Town for the encouragement.

June 4, 2007: South of Independence Pt. to New Town

2007-06-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

Up and at'em early. Everything was going well for the first hour and then all heck broke loose. The wind started to pick up, coming from the NE which is hitting me on the right side of my canoe. Waves keep getting bigger and bigger and then while I'm looking for my map, my canoe canoe is washed into a log that strikes the left side and rolls it up at a 45 degree angle. Now I'm in the water grabbing for the canoe to keep it from flipping which somehow I was able to do. Good news is I was only in knee deep water for I was hugging the shore. Bad news is that I wrenched my knee (yes, the one with the partial replacement) and also my back.

Well, I was able to get things under control although I now have a few inches of water in the canoe. Very lucky.

As I continued, my back was giving me a lot of trouble and conditions were only getting worse. I probably should have stopped, but didn't, figuring I was not that far from Independence Point. My thinking was that once I made the turn, the wind would be more at my back and if I could get to the right shore, I should be more protected.

Let's say I did make it to New Town, but as high as I've felt the first few days of this trip I'm really down now. My back was hurting, I knew I was lucky that things were not worse when I tipped, and all the emotions from the past were coming back.

It was late when I got to New Town. I feel terrible. Not sure what I want to do. Right now I want to quit. Not sure I can handle this. Not sure why I feel like this.

June 3, 2007: Dakota Waters Boat Ramp to somewhere on Lake Sakakawea

2007-06-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

My ride showed up! Al, Jim and I, plus my gear, were on our way to Lake Sakakawea at 6:00 AM. On the ride up I thought (anxiously) about what was in store for me going across this huge lake. I remember the lakes coming into Bismarck and how lucky I was with having light winds and waves to deal with. Would I be so lucky crossing this one and the last big one, Fort Peck? I will find out soon.

We arrived at the boat ramp around 8:00. Dakota Bay is about 10 to 15 miles further upstream from where I originally planned to enter, but this was where Jim and Al were going, plus they said they'd keep an eye on me as I paddled west.

I was on the water by 8:30, paddled the mile or so out of the bay and I was on the massive lake. The lake is about 5 miles wide. I turned to the west and started to follow the left shoreline. Again, luck was on my side. Little wind and what there was, was at my back and the seas were calm. As I proceeded I found that the shoreline on the left was about the same distance as the shoreline on the right. In other words, I was in the middle of the lake once again taking the shortest route! Well, as luck would have it, the entire day was gorgeous, seas were calm and I was making great time. With these conditions I figured I'd paddle as long as could and get as many miles as possible, not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

I made camp somewhere along the left side of the lake at 9:30. I believe I'm not that far from Independence Point which is where the lake makes a left turn (now going NW) and then swings back north to New Town, ND. With the conditions being so good I am sure it was 40+ mile day.

The hope is to make New Town tomorrow. Great Day!

June 2, 2007: Washburn, ND to Bismarck, ND

2007-06-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

I had a very pleasant and relaxing evening last night without the rain. Just me and my thoughts.
I have about 40 miles to get to Bismarck. I took my time packing up, figuring if I left by 7:00 I'd easily be in Bismarck by late afternoon. It was a very nice morning, cool with a slight breeze behind my back. I took my time as I weaved my way though one sandbar after another. I had the same thing yesterday. Twice I was not paying attention and came to a sudden halt paddling up on a sandbar about an inch out of the water. The water is up right now and I bet in mid and late summer one would be zigzagging back and forth through a maze of sandbars and mud flats. Fortunately now the water is high enough I can skim over most of them.

At 12:00 I pulled into a boat landing for lunch and got real lucky. A couple of fishermen were just putting their boat in the water and after learning what I was doing offered to give me a ride back to Garrison Dam. There were going up there tomorrow to fish and said they'd pick me up in the morning in Bismarck at Keelboat Park where I was headed. Man, things are working out well so far, I was dreading the thought of biking back. Hopefully they show up.

As was the morning's paddle the afternoon's was just as pleasant, only seeing the occasional fisherman as I continued to Bismarck.

This is a very nice section of the Missouri all the way from Garrison. The river has numerous sandbars as I mentioned and is dotted with a number of islands. The shoreline offers lots of great campsites. Wildlife is mainly ducks and geese. There are a few cabins and numerous nice homes near Washburn and especially Bismarck.

I arrived at Keelboat Park at around 4:00 PM back to the spot where I left off last year. Lots of memories flashed though my head of last year's trip as I paddled into the landing. Especially the memories of all the great people I met. Can I be so lucky this year? So far so good.

Time to get something to eat, find a place to camp and pray for calm weather the next few days as begin my journey across Lake Sakakawea.

Oh, do I hope my ride shows tomorrow!

I also need to say that it might be awhile before I get to a computer again. I am thinking I will probably need to get to Williston before I will have access, so it might be a few days before I have the chance to update this journal.

June 1, 2007: Garrison Dam to just south of Washburn, ND

2007-06-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it took about 8 hours for us to get to Sheyenne, ND which is just south of Devils Lake, ND. My cousin, Gary Hoff, bought a small house in Sheyenne a few years back because he and his brother love fishing Devils Lake summer and winter. Gary brought along his neighbor boy, Chaz Dayton who just graduated from high school and his dog, Rambo. Just a little crowded in his pickup, but we managed!

We were up at 6:00 AM and on the road by 7:00 with a good 3 hour drive to Garrison Dam. I decided to go from Garrison to Bismarck because of my concern for the current and it was easier for Gary to get me to Garrison.

At about 10:30 AM and after saying my goodbyes to Gary and Chaz, I was on my way. It felt good to be back. The day's paddle was fairly easy for the first day. There was a good current, but I believe I could have made it going upstream, but that's hindsight and now it's time to focus on the present.

By 2:00 PM I stopped for lunch and figured I'd gone about 15 miles. My goal was to get as close to Washburn, ND as possible, but at this point I wasn't sure, for the sky was darkening and it looked like thunderstorms were approaching. So, I figured I'd go as at least as far as I could and pull out if I saw any lightning. As it turned out it only rained and I was at Washburn around 5;30 PM soaked and wet and was not looking forward to setting up camp in the rain.

Well, as luck has it, the sky started to lighten and within a half hour the sun was out. By 7:00 PM I was dry and decided to set up camp before another storm came. Setting up camp at 7:00 PM, with over 2 hours of daylight! I must be getting old! All in all, a very good day.

Note: Just want to thank my cousin Gary for all that he did in getting me out here and seeing that I got off to a good start. I hope you caught lots of fish and I will see you at Ryan's golf tournament. A very special man.

May 31, 2007 Starting Off for Bismarck

2007-05-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

It’s 5:30 in the morning on the day I’m leaving. My cousin, Gary Hoff, is picking me up at 7:00 AM to drive me to Bismarck. Plans were to write this journal entry yesterday, but I had not packed yet so the day was spent rounding my gear up and running to town to get various items I needed. Then our daughter’s twin boys, Devin and Drake, had their very first baseball game and there was no way I was going to miss that. They both got hits and they won! Also, our friends Charlie and JoAnn Wright, Jim and Sandy Waletzko and Dean and Teri Neumann came over to wish me good luck. Very nice of them. Then I still needed to finish packing so this entry had to wait until now.

Over Memorial Day Weekend my sons Dean and Eric took our annual trip to the Boundary Waters along with nine others, including my good friend Charlie Wright and his son Scott. Others included David Edquist, Don Polkinghorne, Pat Boyle, Pete Willcoxon, Jason Waletzko and Nick Milroy. They were all friends of our son, Ryan. Charlie Wright and I have been doing this trip since Dean (soon to be 39) was 7 years old. Ryan was only 5 on his first trip.

The area we usually go to had a forest fire, so we had to camp one lake short of our normal camping spot. We did portage into the burnt area to visit the area Ryan loved so much. I was concerned his favorite little island and the tree we made a cross on in his memory had burnt, but fortunately it was okay. I spent a couple of hours on the island while the others fished. Only thing I was disappointed in was the two loons that always were at the island every year were not around. When we had our little ceremony on the island 5 years ago, these two loons showed up when we finished. They have always been there every time I have gone back, but this time they were nowhere in sight. Then when it was time to leave and we were paddling back to the portage, out of nowhere off to my right this loon showed up and followed us all the way to the portage.

All in all it was a great trip. Fishing was tough but lots of good times were had by all. Although, I did lose my glasses, headlamp and hat. Some things never seem to change!

Trip plans:

Gary will be here in an hour and the two of us along with my gear will take off for Bismarck. Gary is a year younger than I. Along with his brothers Randy and Dan and my brother Don, we spent most of our summers in our pre-school and grade school years together. Actually my brother and Gary were very close until Don was killed in a car accident at age 16 in 1963.

I hope to start paddling tomorrow and will need to make a decision as to whether I start in Bismarck and paddle up to the Garrison Dam or go in reverse, starting at the Garrison Dam and paddle to Bismarck and then bike back to the dam. The reason for this is the possible heavy current in this section because of water being released by the dam.

Then of concern will be paddling across the last two dammed up lakes of the Missouri, Lake Sakakawea and Fort Peck. I think Sakakawea is close to two hundred miles long and up to four or five miles wide in places. Fort Peck is about 80.

The guide I’m following, The Complete Paddler, written by David Miller, describes this area as almost impossible to get through. ( I’ve noticed before that David seems to err on the side of caution, which is almost 180 degrees, maybe 160 degrees from my thinking.) Lake Sakakawea is supposed to have the possibility of strong winds coming up at a moment’s notice, causing sea-like waves. He suggests staying on one side of the lake and not crossing over because of this. Then in the Fort Peck Lake Indian Reservation area he talks about having bullets flying by him from a few youths fooling around with a pistol on shore. I remember this area when I did my bike ride back in 2004. Three days before I got to Poplar, Montana, a paddler (actually in the same model of canoe I’m using) was retracing the Lewis and Clark route and was attacked in this area. They took everything he had and left him severely injured. My experience at the time was very pleasant. I had bike problems and needed to get to Williston, ND to get it fixed and an elderly couple from the area was nice enough to give me a lift into Williston, ND some 40 miles away. They even bought me lunch. Very nice people and it’s my hope the same will be true this time.

Well, my cousin will be here soon and I need to say goodbye to the best person in the world, my wife LuAnn.

April 2, 2007 FROM FROZEN LYMAN LAKE

2007-04-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's been raining for four days and tomorrow there's a chance of 4 to 7 inches of snow! Just a little bored so I figured it's a good time to write a journal entry while I look out over frozen Lyman Lake wishing for spring. We've had little snow all winter and it's the first time that I can remember I've not been able to cross country ski. Strange winter as I guess it's been all over. (As a full blooded Norwegian I blame it on the Swedes!)

Sad News/Good News
First the sad news. On March 2nd my mother, Ellen Mary Nordby Hoff, passed away peacefully at the age of 94. She was a very caring, warm-hearted, loving person. One could not ask for a better mother. Always more concerned for others than herself. Even when such things are expected it leaves a deep void in one's life. She follows my father, Clarence; brother, Donald; and her grandson Ryan home.

Now for the good news. The void left by the passing of my mother has partly been filled with the news that LuAnn and I will be grandparents again in November! Our oldest son, Dean and wife Erin phoned this weekend to let us know. This will be their third child and our 7th grandchild. (Dean is already getting heat about how he's going to handle November deer hunting season.)

I will continue my journey as soon as I can after Memorial Day. Everything will depend on river conditions at that time. I'm really looking forward to getting back. As much as I enjoyed last year, I'm anticipating this part will be even better, for now I will be in more wilderness and as I approach the Rockies, the scenery will be more picturesque.

Plans as of now are to continue up the Missouri to Great Falls, Montana and somewhere southwest of Great Falls I will need to bike portage across the Rockies to the North Fork of the Clearwater River. From what I have read this is a beautiful river which works it way to the Snake River around Lewiston, Idaho. There I will continue on the Snake to the Columbia and if all goes well get to the Pacific Ocean sometime in mid July. My biggest goal for this year is to slow down and enjoy the trip. This has always been hard for me to do, so we'll see how it works. Part of the plan is to take some side hiking trips when I hit the Rockies and the Cascades.

Enough for one journal entry. Besides, I need to get outside and continue to try and see if I can get one of our two septic systems working. Because of the lack of snow the septic to the main bathroom has been frozen up since early February. (Probably more info than one needs to hear)
Fortunately we have two systems and the other two bathrooms work. Hazards of living in northern Wisconsin!

More in a week or so.

August 29 - Keel Park Landing to Hazelton Boat Landing and then -- HOME

2006-08-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful morning. Very little wind and the current is quick. I hope to make it to Hazelton before noon. Yesterday I got some good information from a local fisherman about how to navigate this section without taking a wrong channel and ending up in a dead end.

It's amazing how low the water is around here. On my bike ride yesterday I took a couple of pictures which I hope gives you an idea. In many areas the river is less than 100 yds wide. Back in 1996 this area was over 1 or 2 miles wide. I think I've mentioned before that the water table is down 35 to 40 feet. Hard to imagine that amount of missing water. I'm sure it's made a huge impact on the economy. Many recreational areas no longer exist because the water is maybe over a mile away now.

Trip was quick as expected and I made it even faster than expected, a little after 11:00 AM. Should easily make it back to Bismarck by 3:00. My buddy Jim will be there between 3:30 and 5:00 so it should work out perfect. We will head up to Sheyenne, ND to see my cousin, Gary Hoff and his son, Troy. They are fishing Devils Lake and said they'd have a nice walleye dinner ready for us.

Lots of thoughts today. It seems just like yesterday I started this adventure. So many neat memories. So many nice people. My first thought was about how people kept doing a double take as I pedaled the C&O Canal Trail along the Potomac. I really had a great time meeting so many great people along that trail.

Then there was the bike ride across the mountains. Cars flying by and looking back through their mirror. Always wondered what they thought seeing an old man riding such a little bike. Visitors to the area probably thought that these hill people really are nuts!

On the Ohio I remember worrying about going through my first lock, just to find out it would be a piece of cake. The same was true about the barge traffic. Again, so many great people. So helpful.

The lower Missouri was more fun than I expected. In fact this and the Potomac were my favorite parts of the trip.

Least favorite is what I just completed. I did not enjoy this lake area as much as the others. I was very grateful I got to this point without much trouble, but it just got boring as time went on. You paddle forever feeling like you are going nowhere and if you noticed, I talked about few people in this area. That's because I met very few. Most boaters were a long ways off when they passed and I'm sure had no idea of what I was doing.
I still have two big lakes in front of me. Lake Sakakawea is next and then Fort Peck Lake in Montana. Hopefully by stopping now I will be re-energized next spring and ready to tackle them.

As I ride back to Bismarck I think of what really made this trip - the people. Everyone I met was wonderful. I plan to get in touch with all of you who sent an email or signed my guestbook when I get home. Your comments and encouragement help more than you know.

I think how wonderful it is to have friends like Bob and Marcia Maxwell that put up with me for a couple of days and my old friend Jim McIntyre, shuttling me back and forth along the lower Missouri and even now coming to pick me up, traveling over 1,000 miles to do so. How does one repay?

No way I could of done this without Jeff Foster Trucking of Superior shipping all my gear out to Washington, DC. I was amazed at how many people throughout my travel knew about or knew someone associated with Jeff Foster Trucking. A special thanks to you Jon Foster for making this possible. Then there was Bass Pro in St. Charles, MO. So willing in helping me out by storing my canoe and gear when I went home for a break over the 4th of July. Thanks, Bob Brownlee, Matt Prost, Wendy Jennings, Rich Dalton and all the rest of you at Bass Pro. Someday I will be back to see all of you again.

Then there's my major sponsor, Balance Bar. No way I could have even attempted this without their grant. If you haven't as of yet, go to: www.balance.com/grants/default.aspx and check out this great program.

Thanks too to Coz Rich of Rich Designs in Superior for my Atlantic to Pacific Decal. Also, ZRE for my 7 ounce paddle, PaddleBoy for my boat trailer, Dahon Bicycle for my folding bike and Kruger Canoe for probably the best canoe/kayak out there for doing such adventures.

Right now I'm really thankful for the tailwinds behind me, for I'm struggling to get back to the landing, about a mile to go.

Plans are to start shortly after Memorial Day next year. Check by every once in awhile. I'll post the rest of my pictures soon and give you an update at least once a month.

Man, this boat is getting hard to pull. Another 6 or so miles to go and I feel like I'm dragging a huge lead weight.

Oh, that is the problem. Seems I have a flat tire on my trailer!

Next year I'm going to slow down!

When I've looked at a map of the USA, even I am a little amazed at how far I've come. Even though I'm glad to be going home, I do look forward to next year. I will need to do some research between now and then, especially on the best way to navigate these next two lakes and what route to take over the Rockies. In any case, I hope everyone has enjoyed following along this year and will join me next year as we work our way to Astoria, OR.

Coach

August 28th - Hazelton to Beaver Creek and then to Bismarck

2006-08-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Great day today. Up early after a great night's sleep. Got on the water and headed back downstream to Beaver Creek. Current was fast - as fast or even faster than the lower Missouri. In fact the 18 or so miles I had to paddle I was able to do in about an hour and a half, and I could have been done quicker if it were not for moving in and around sandbars.

I did have one bad thought: what if Chuck and Randy are not there? The road out of Beaver Creek Landing on bike would be tough, in fact almost impossible. But what little worry I had was quickly answered as I neared the landing. Chuck and Randy were there. They were as excited to see me as I was to see them. Heck, they'd even caught a few walleyes while waiting.

We loaded everything up and headed back to Hazelton. On my way back I told them of my new plan. Because of the current, (and it was going to be like this all the way to Bismarck), I was going to pedal to Bismarck and in the morning do the same thing as we did today.

They said they'd give me a ride to Bismarck if I wanted, but I said no, I had the day to get there and it give me something to do rather than sit around twiddling my thumbs all day. They said, "But it's about 30 miles!" I said, " I know!"

I know they could not understand this, as most people probably can't. How anyone would want to bike 30 miles, dragging a canoe after just paddling 18. Not sure I understand.

Said goodbye to Chuck and Randy and started towards Bismarck. Ride went well and quicker than I figured. Hills were easy to negotiate and I bet I did not have a dozen cars pass me. About 14 miles from Bismarck a lady came out of her house and took my picture and with about seven miles to go the most amazing thing happened. The Mayor of Bismarck and his wife were waiting to greet me! Well, maybe that is not quite true. As I was pedaling by Mary College, two bikers were stopped along side the road. I stopped to say hello and found out it was the Mayor of Bismarck and his wife. (It makes for a better story the other way)

Both were very interesting people. Mayor John Warford was from Bemidji, MN and Jenny, his wife, was from Delano, MN. Both have done many similar adventures as I'm doing. They've run marathons, climbed a number of mountains and have done a number of bike tours. Great people, and without knowing the political climate of Bismarck, am sure John and Jenny are well respected. I sure hope upon my return I get to see them again.

Once I got to Bismarck I headed down to the marina to check it out for tomorrow's paddle back to Hazelton. I even put into the water and had a few pictures taken of me as I paddled around. Current was even swifter here, for I found that in a matter of minutes while taking pictures I'd floated a good distance downstream and it was a struggle to get back to the landing.

All but done now. Tomorrow's paddle should go quick and then I will pedal back to this marina and meet my friend Jim for my ride back to Superior.

It will be good to get home. Wonder if anyone has split and cut my 10 cord of wood!

August 27th - Shaw Landing to Beaver Creek Low Water Landing

2006-08-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Good weather again today but a real tough day. Current kept getting stronger the more Lake Oahe narrowed. By the time I reached the Beaver Creek area it was very strong with lots of debris and even logs floating past me. In order to make headway I had to stay close to the shoreline. Next to the shore the current dies and even seems to turn and go upstream. I experienced this on the Mississippi which allowed me to paddle against the current.

Problem now is going to be that this river has really narrowed and most of the shoreline is marshland with lots of sandbars and little grassy islands. Staying in the open channel and using the shoreline to one's advantage is going to be difficult.

At day's end I pulled into Beaver Creek's low water landing and met Chuck and Randy (did not get last names). They were from the Billings, Montana area and for the last couple of years have come down to this area to fish walleyes. The last two years they've had great success, but so far this trip they have not. They told me that a few days ago they're releasing more water from the Garrison Dam because of the extreme low water levels on Lake Oahe. Supposedly the plan is to keep releasing water until the middle of next week. Both guys felt it was going to be tough and even dangerous to get from Beaver Creek to Hazelton because of the sandbars and mud flats.

They were camped north of here near the Hazelton Boat Ramp about 18 or so miles upstream and offered to take me around this area. Couldn't do that, but did ask if they could take me up to the ramp and then I'd do this section backwards and bike back up. They said they would but didn't think I'd want to bike back. For one reason they said it's a tough 3 or 4 mile dirt road out to the highway from this landing. So said they would gladly give me a ride back in the morning. They would plan to come down and fish here in the morning until I got here.

So, we packed my gear into their pickup and tied the canoe in with about two thirds of it sticking out over the tailgate and off we went.

Once again, just when I needed help it was there. Many times I've been asked, "Aren't you worried about running into trouble?" My answer is, "No, but I do wonder how I can pay back all the great people that have help me." Chuck and Randy are two of so many great people I've met and I'm indebted to so, so many.

Time to find the Big Dipper and count my blessings.

August 26th - Mobridge to Shaws Landing

2006-08-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Lake Oahe has been very gentle. Nothing like what I was told to expect. Today there's been hardly a ripple on the water. Only obstacles have been the hundreds of dead trees standing in the water. As I cut the corners of the lake, one must be a little careful as I work my way through the maze of trees. It would really be a danger if I had to fight waves, but I've been lucky all along this stretch.

Tomorrow I will leave South Dakota and enter North Dakota and should reach Bismarck/Mandan sometime on Monday. It's funny, as I near the end the more anxious I seem to get. Sort of wishing it was over, yet knowing in a week or two after I've finished I will be missing the river. I'm also noticing more river current as I near the end of the this lake which doesn't help the arm and shoulder fatigue I've been feeling the last few days. Hopefully a good night's rest will help. Think I have about 80 some miles to go, but again, who's counting!

August 25 - Walth Bay to Mobridge and beyond

2006-08-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable! Water is like glass this morning and not a breath of wind. I paddled into Mobridge and at 9:00 I was doing the last 3 days of journals. After breakfast, I was back on the water by 11:00.
The hope is to get to Bismarck/Mandan by Monday. My good buddy, Jim McIntyre, who helped me in the lower part of the Missouri, will again be there to meet me on Monday. Takes quite a friend to drive from Milwaukee to to pick up this old codger. Like my buddy Bob Maxwell back in Paducah, who helped me so much, I guess Jim understands if the roles were reversed, I'd do the same for him.
Also while eating breakfast, I was chatting with a guy who had some experience on the river in this area. He told me I will find alot of deadheads between here and Beaver Creek and within 30 miles Lake Oahe becomes a river again. Because the water is so low between Beaver Creek and Bismarck, there will be sections of mud flats and sandbars, making it tough to find the correct channel to paddle. On top of that, he said the current gets swifter as Lake Oahe narrows. He wasn't sure it could be paddled.
Well, we'll find out in the next few days. We will see how the arms and shoulders hold up. Time to get back to the river - see you in Bismarck/Mandan.

August 24 - Hwy 212 bridge to Walth Bay

2006-08-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Great night's sleep and I'm down to the boat landing by 6:30. Still a little dark and quite foggy, but enough visibility to start. Water looks good, again just a slight walleye chop and what wind there is is coming from the southeast. My buddies John Nielsen, Jim Waletzko, and Charlie Wright would love to be fishing these waters today. Unfortunately, I do not have time to catch them a stringer of walleyes.
The goal is to try to make it about 30 miles today, which hopefully gets me to the Walth Bay campground. That means I'll have about 10 miles to get to Mobridge the next day.
Paddling went well all day long, although I can see why others have gotten discouraged with these lakes.
For me, it's become boring for a number of reasons. One is the scenery is the same all day long. As you travel you look straight ahead and it seems like it takes forever to get to the point you are looking at. Then when you are away from the shore, you look over and it looks like you are standing still. Whereas on a river, you can judge your speed by looking at the shoreline. In Keith Drury's guidebook, as I read between the lines, I got the feeling he too got discouraged paddling this section. But it must be done, so we keep going. Also I still remember the look on the face of the guy with the rubber raft and his comment: "I hate these lakes".
I probably should not complain because I am fortunate to have the tailwinds and calm water. Of course, I will complain once more - it's to be 100 degrees plus again today.
The day went well until about 3:00. Then I could see black clouds both in front of me and behind me. Around me it was dead still, and the water was calm but you could feel something was about to happen. Sure enough, it did. At about 4:00 to the west coming off the hills was a big dust storm. Even this old guy knew he'd better get to shore fast - which I did.
Within about 15 minutes the winds were just a howling and you could hardly see in front of your face because of the sand. This lasted for about a good half hour. Fortunately, I was able to take cover behind some brush until it subsided.
I got no rain out of this, although it took another good 40 minutes or more before the waves subsided so I could start paddling again. Skies were still really black and eerie in front of me and behind, but it seemed like it was moving away from me, so I didn't feel threatened. I decided to continue on.
Made it to the Walth Bay campground at about 8:00 and set up camp. Found out that there had been tornadoes both behind me and around me. Right where I had started that day there were tornadoes that destroyed some cattle and there were tornado warnings just north of Mobridge which was 10 miles away.
Again, like so many times, I feel very fortunate - must be somebody looking out for this old codger!
Time for bed, arms and shoulders are aching. Goal for tomorrow is to get to Mobridge, update my journal and continue on to Bismarck, which is about 100 miles away. But who's counting!

August 23 - Pierre to 212 Bridge

2006-08-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

Ready to go at 6:00 AM and it's still dark out. I'm real close to the mountain time zone and it stays darker longer in the morning, but on the other end I have more light later in the day.

Decided to go across the street and have breakfast at Hardees before I start pedaling to my entry point above the Lake Oahe Dam.

Well, it's 6:30 and still a little dark, but I'm off. I have some hill climbing to do so I might as well get that done before the morning traffic starts, plus it is cool right now. Pulling a loaded-down canoe on this little bike takes a little out of you, so might as well do it now before the heat starts. Temperature is supposed to get to 106 today.

Got my first view of Lake Oahe about 7:30. What an awesome sight. Not sure my pictures from here will do it justice. Very intimidating from the road. We'll find out soon how the paddling goes.
Because the lake is so low, in fact the lowest it's ever been since the dams have been put in, I had to pedal a little further than where I planned to put in. The boat ramp was closed, according to the sign at the turnoff. Ended up entering the lake at the Bush Boat Landing. Luck is on my side again. This huge lake is very calm - hardly a good walleye chop, which is just fine with me.

Man, this is a big body of water! Glad it is calm and it also helps that the water is low. It is easy to determine a bay from the main river.

I believe I made it a little over 25 miles today on the water to the Highway 212 bridge which is out in the middle of nowhere. A very easy paddle. At least for one day all my worries of rough water did not materialize.

At the 212 bridge I asked a local if it was okay to camp here. He didn't know, but he said if you look up on top of the hill there's a campground and a motel about a mile and half away. Let's see, it's been over 100 all day, do I want to camp on these rocks or do I want to check out the motel campground? Even this cheap "Coach" decided on the checking out the campground and motel.

Motel is only 50 bucks including tax, plus it has a nice restaurant. Hotel it is! I'm getting soft.

Great meal, great view, excellent first day on Lake Oahe. Although at the restaurant I heard there's a chance of severe weather tomorrow. I'll worry about that tomorrow, time for bed.

August 22nd Cedar Creek to Pierre, SD

2006-08-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Man, was I tired last night. One of the biggest differences I've noticed in paddling these lakes than on the rivers is you need to put so much more effort into each stroke and by day's end I find my arms and shoulders about ready to fall off. It's going to take a little to get used to it. What's helped is that when I was on the river, every hour or so I'd paddle as hard as I could for about 5 minutes and I believe this has helped me keep up a pretty good pace the last few days. Hopefully I can keep it up.

I was up early and paddling at 6:00. Pierre was in my reach and I felt I could easily make it by late afternoon if conditions stayed as good as they were yesterday. As I started out they were, just a light wind out of the east and at my back.

The wind stayed down until about 9:30, then it began to pick up and by 12:oo I was riding waves again! I was able to make it to the Fort George Landing and decided I better get off the water, which I did. I figured I had about 15 miles to Pierre so I decided to get the bike out and pedal the rest of the way.

Ride went well and I was in Pierre by 3:00 and better yet, in a Super 8 Motel that I got for $36.05! Time for a shower and a good rest. I'm beat and my arms feel like rubber.

NOTE:

Plans for tomorrow are to get up at 5:00 and be on the road at 6:00. I have about a 15 mile portage to the spot I want to enter Oahe Lake. This is the large lake (over a mile wide) everyone has been talking about. Supposedly it can get real rough and I will need to play close attention to my maps so not to go into a wide - deadend channel. I hate having to turn around!

Back a ways I was told this lake is as low as it has ever been. Probably 40 feet low. Not sure this will help me with navigation and wave action or not, we'll see. Also saw in the paper that for the next 5 days the wind is supposed to be out of the south at 5 to 15 miles an hour. If that is true I should be okay for I'm heading straight north now until I get to Mandan. On the down side, it is supposed to be in the high 90's the next couple of days. Oh well, can't have everything!

August 21st Chamberlain to West of Cedar Creek Landing on Lake Sharpe

2006-08-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

I must admit I was a little down last night. After bouncing around on the lake and meeting the guy in the rubberized canoe I got to thinking about what is ahead. Two things: First, I will go nuts if I have to stay ashore windbound or make less than 25 miles a day. Second, the look on face of the guy I met was not good. I've been there, maybe for other reasons, while on my perimeter bike ride, and it is no place I want to go back to. I've been feeling pretty good the last few months and this adventure has been great so far. I do not need to fall backwards. So I hope for good weather and if need be, I will bike some.

Heck, my worry of last night turned into a great day - at least for today. The wind was supposed to be out of the north, which would be right in my face, but instead it is mostly out of the east which helps a lot for I'm going northeast and many times east. Also the water has been relatively calm all day.

I made it to Fort Thompson at around 12:30. As I ate lunch, I met a number of American Natives who were really interested in what I was doing. We chatted about a number of things for the next half hour. As I was getting ready for the ride around Big Bend Dam one of the guys said I could cut off the big bend in the river by riding about 15 miles and then taking a back road to where Medicine Creek flows into the Missouri. Sounded good to me. Except the gentlemen for got to mention the 2 plus mile hill I had to push my bike and canoe up! Finally did make it to the river and now the wind was straight from the east and I'm heading west!

The rest of the day was very good. I just got lost in my thoughts (mad at myself for getting down last night) and hoped the rest of this journey to Mandan is as good as today.

Finally stopped paddling at around 9:00. Because of the good conditions I wanted to get as many miles as I could in. Made camp near Cedar Creek, ate and fell right to sleep.

Good day and I feel good!

August 20 - Platte Creek to Chamberlain

2006-08-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

Very good morning but not so good afternoon.

Morning paddle was great with light winds at my back and I was making very good time. Then at around 2:00 the winds picked up and I started to bounce like a cork. Much like when I was in heavy barge traffic on the Ohio. Only relief I would get was when I rounded a corner that blocked the south wind.

Late in the afternoon I spotted a canoe on the east side of the shore so I pulled over. There was a young man in a rubber raft-like canoe, loaded with more gear than I thought possible to still keep the craft afloat. He was just beat. I'd seen the look before on the PCT trail when a hiker just had had enough. Turns out this guy (never got his name) was from Florida and started two months ago in Glasgow and plans to quit when he got to Sioux City. He said he was making about 20 miles a day. I asked how he was doing and his response was, "I hate these lakes!"

I did not stay long. He was really down and there was no way I could cheer him up. I just told him things are going to get better once you reach the Randall Dam.

As I left I just thought to myself - what would I do if I only made 20 miles a day? I'd go nuts!

Well, as I continued so did the winds. They continued to pick up and by 3:00 I was riding 4 to 5 foot surfs! I felt like I was body surfing on the ocean. Still felt safe, but knew I needed to get off the water soon because it looked like storms in the west, and if the wind got any stronger I'd be swimming.

At about 4:30 I found a little bay with what looked like an abandoned boat ramp. I pulled in and proceeded to make camp , but as I did a car came down the road. Turns out it was a game warden just checking the area. He said he hadn't been to this ramp in over two weeks because it was rarely used any more and he was surprised to see me.

He told me to hunker down good because severe weather was headed this way. Also said if I wanted to throw my gear in the back of his truck he'd take me to Chamberlain. I said I couldn't do that but asked how far away Chamberlain was. He said, "about 6 or 7 miles!" That was that. I hooked up my bike (warden watched in amazement) and pedaled to Chamberlain.

I found a motel just off I-90 and went in to see what it would cost. The guy said, "$99.00!" I told him I could not afford that because I was on a very tight budget and started to leave. He saw that I was on a bike and had this canoe and asked what I was doing. When I told him, he said, "How about $60.00 and a jacuzzi suite!"

Things turned out well again. Storm hit with very high winds and old Coach is bathing in his Jacuzzi!

August 19 - West of Verdel Landing to Platte Creek

2006-08-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

Great Day! What wind I have is from the south and I'm moving northwest.

First part of the day was paddling the last river section I will have for this section. Very nice morning paddle with high bluffs on the Neb. side of the river. Even though I've been on only one lake I can tell you I like the rivers a whole lot better than lakes.

I reached the Randall Dam around 2:00 and then hooked up my bike and trailer and pedaled around the dam to the North Wheeler Recreation Area.

Francis Case Lake is a BIG lake! Good thing is there is little wind and the lake is relatively calm.

For the rest of the day I just paddled along the northeast shore wondering what this would be like if I had wind.

As the day wound down so did what wind I had and now the lake was almost like glass. Just a beautiful sight with the sun starting to set in the west.

Made camp near Platte Creek as the sun was setting. Ate dinner and lay in my tent enjoying the evening and wondering what tomorrow would bring. Hopefully no wind.

August 18th - Gavins Dam Marina to North of Verdel

2006-08-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Up at 6:00 and out the door around 7:30. Darrin and his two sons, Jimmie and Jacob, took me down to the the Marina at around 8:00 after a quick stop at WalMart for some groceries.

Jimmie and Jacob helped me get my gear into my canoe and after pictures I was off. Paddling lake waters was going to be a new experience and I was wondering what kind of miles I would make in a day and how I'd handle the waves when the wind picks up. Today it is relatively calm and what wind I have is coming from the southwest and not much of a factor.

All was going well until around 11:00. I was making good time, but I could see that a storm was nearing from the west. As I continued to paddle I also saw that I was approaching high cliffs on my side of the lake and it could be hard to find a place to pull over in case things got real bad. Smart thing would be to pull over, but of course I kept going!

I rounded a corner and realized this was going to be a bad storm. Very dark in the west and lightning off in the distance. I saw a place I could pull over, but again I figured I may find something better around the next bend. Sure enough, just when things were going to get real nasty, I came upon a boat landing. I quickly pulled my canoe out of the water, turned it over and headed up the boat ramp to see if I could find some protection. As luck has it, there was an outhouse at the top of the ramp, so the next hour I spent in the outhouse out of the rain. Not the best place to have a late morning snack!

Once back on the water, nice and dry, I paddled to the end of Lewis and Clark Lake and started to weave my way through sandbars with tall grass, which made it hard to see which way was the right way. Finally got through most of the tough stuff near Running Water. Now the current was getting faster, but I was still, with a little effort, able keep up good speed.

I ended the day just past the Verdel Landing and the mile or two of cottages and trailers west of the ramp.

Very pleased with the first day. Lake paddle was good although I knew if I had any wind it would be a tough go. Once on the river by Springfield, the current picked up but was manageable. Tomorrow will be river until the Randall Dam and then more lake paddle on Francis Case Lake.

August 17th - SUPERIOR TO YANKTON

2006-08-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

I did not mentioned that I lucked out again in storing my gear when I got to Yankton. Turns out a good friend, Dean Neumann, had a niece that lived in Yankton. Dean and his wife Teri have been friends for years. Teri is a retired elementary teacher in Superior and Dean a retired middle school principal. Dean's niece, Lara Cunningham and husband Darrin were nice enough not only to care for my gear, but even offered to pick me up at the airport in Sioux Falls upon my return, which he did.

Turns out Darrin and his boss, Jim Vlahakis, had a golf tournament today just north of Sioux Falls so they said they would pick me up when they were done at around 5:30. That was great, although my plane arrived at 10:20 in the morning which meant a few hours of waiting, which was okay. What I did was walk over to the mall about 7 miles from the airport and hung around until they arrived.

Darrin and Jim picked me up a little after five and we were in Yankton around 6:30. It was a long day so after supper I excused myself and I was off to bed by 8:00.

Plan for tomorrow is Darrin taking me down to the marina around 8:00 and I will be off heading to Mandan wondering how it will be, canoeing four large lakes between Yankton and Mandan. I start with the Lewis and Clark Lake here at Mandan.

Guess I'll find out real soon.

August 16th HOME - BACK TO YANKTON TOMORROW

2006-08-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

I will be flying back to Yankton tomorrow, Thursday, August 17th and plan to start paddling to Mandan, ND on Friday.

The time off has been good for me. I'm well rested and anxious to get back. Even got a few chores done around the house!

Ryan Hoff Memorial Golf Tournament was a great success. We raised over $12,000.00, which is down a little from the last two years, but still very good considering the economy. We are excited about the direction the foundation is going. This fall the foundation will be awarding the incoming 9th grade class at Superior High School $5000.00 and given the chance to manage the money under the direction of their class advisors and administration for their 4 year high school careers. Then upon graduation they will vote as a class how they want their proceeds to be used in our community. The original $5000.00 will then transfer to the next incoming 9th grade class. The foundation over the next 4 year will give each incoming 9th grade class $5000.00 upon which time the project will be self supporting.

We also are exploring ways to use the school district's school forest in creating a type of "out- reach" learning center. The hope is to give our youth the opportunity to experience a variety of lifelong learning activities.

Thanks to all who sponsored and or participated in the tournament. Superior is a great community. LuAnn and I cherish the support and love you've given our family and we hope the foundation is one that all can be proud of.

I will have about 500 river miles to get to Mandan and hope to do it in two or less weeks. The key will be wind, for now I will be paddling the first three lakes of the Missouri starting with the Lewis and Clark Lake in Yankton. Lake Oahe looks like it will be the most challenging. Sounds like waves can get 5 feet and higher on this lake and can come up very quickly. From reading about other canoe and kayakers doing this section you could be windbound for days. Just have to play it by ear and hope my luck is good.

Depending on when I get to Mandan, I may decide to go a few more miles to the Garrison Dam. My goal is to be done by Labor Day so if my luck is good and I can get through Lake Oahe, that will be my stopping point for this year. Then in the spring of 2007 I continue to the Pacific. I did play with the thought of continuing and trying to go all the way to the Pacific this year (I believe I could make it) but it's time to go home and spend some quality time with family before winter sets in.

August 4 -Sandbar by Leavenworth to Kansas City

2006-08-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Interesting evening last night. Very relaxing. I did take that swim in the Missouri and even completed all six of my Sudoku puzzles without mistakes. Went to bed at sundown watching the stars and waiting for the Big Dipper to appear. Then at about 10 I heard a loud siren that lasted for about 5 minutes. After that a couple of helicopters came over. Things settled down, only to hear off in the distance what sounded like race cars which lasted for another hour. At about 12 the first of two large cargo planes came over my head with the intention of landing close by.

In the morning I quickly found out the answers. The Kansas airport is within a couple of miles as the crow flies and for some reason these two planes came from a different direction than the other planes that flew over earlier in the evening. Also by looking at my map there seems to be a race track close by. The siren, well I found out the answer to that when I started paddling. Just, and I mean JUST around the corner from my campsite, the river borders one of the many prisons in the area. Wonder if anyone escaped last night!

Paddled into Kansas City at Kaw Point Landing just after noon. Kaw Point is just around the corner on the Kansas River which joins the Missouri in the heart of Kansas. I did not leave from this landing when I went to St. Louis. I left from a landing about 10 miles to the east of here so I was unfamiliar with Kaw Point. My impression was that it would be a beautiful landing being in the heart of Kansas City and at the spot where the Kansas and Missouri Rivers joined. It was not. Kaw Point is located in the heart of Kansas City's industrial district. River factories and warehouses all over. Even at the landing there was a lot of garbage in the river. Disappointing but it does look like they are making an effort to clean it up and make a nice park. It has the potential of being a great place. The view of Kansas City is spectacular from here. I suspect funding is the reason for it being a work in progress.

Well, the lower Missouri River section is history. Again I met many nice people and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of this section. I'm also now happy with my decision to paddle it downstream. Atlhough I had the heat and headwinds to battle I still made great time. It would have taken maybe a month or probably more to do it upstream. However, I do believe it is possible if one wanted to spend the amount of time it would take to do it. To do it one would be paddling at a hiking pace of about 2 and a half miles an hour or less. Maybe sometime in the future I will attempt it!

Anyway, now I must pedal the 8 to 10 miles to my motel and get ready to drive my gear back to Yankton, SD.

I weaved my way through this industrial area and over the highway 69 bridge crossing the Missouri without incident. I have my transportation all set for tomorrow to take my gear to Yankton, SD and will fly home on Sunday the 7th of August in time to help prepare for The Ryan Hoff Memorial Youth Foundation Golf Scramble which will be held August 12th.

I will be back in Yankton on August 17th and start paddling to Mandan, ND on the 18th. Mandan is about 500 miles away and it will be my stopping point for this year. So far the trip has been more enjoyable than I figured. Best part has been everyone I've met. So many nice people and everyone always willing to help when needed. Thanks to all!

I will give an update next week before I head back to Yankton.

.

August 3rd - Atchison to east of Leavenworth

2006-08-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Awake at 4:30, again realizing I did not need to leave early, so I went back to sleep. This motel stuff can make one lazy! Finally got up and out the door at 9:30. Pedaled down to McDonald's for breakfast and made a stop at the library to check e-mails before going to the boat ramp.

I got everything packed up into the canoe and was on my way again at around 11:30. It was good to be back on the water again. Very delightful morning. Now that I have only two short days of paddling left I have good conditions! Temperature is only supposed to get into the 80's today and the humidity is way down. I also have a nice breeze at my back for the first time since I left Yankton.

Just a nice lazy day of paddling. Did not see another watercraft on the river. Although I did meet Dennis, who calls himself the "River Rat". He was working along the shore at his cabin when I paddled by. He's a carpenter by trade but hopes to retire soon to this river place and start seeking his life's dream of catching a 100lb Blue Catfish. He's had a couple in the 70lb range but knows there's a 100 pounder out there waiting for him. Nice guy and saw him later on the water scouting the shoreline for places to fish.

So I am making camp early today. It's only 7:00PM and I'm on a nice sandbar just south of Leavenworth, KS and I believe within 20 to 25 miles of Kansas City. I even have a baseball to play catch with. From somewhere a baseball has washed up on this sandbar.

Well, you all (I've been in the south too long) have a nice evening. I'm going to relax with a nice bath in the muddy Missouri and do a Sudoku puzzle or two, read a little and get lost in my thoughts!

August 2nd, Day off in Atchison

2006-08-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 4:30 ready to start paddling and realized I was in a motel! Went back to sleep and woke up at 8:30! Did a few sets of pushups and situps and then washed clothes before I headed to the library to do my journal entries.

Atchison is a neat town. They really have a nice riverfront dedicated to our military veterans. I was disappointed in St. Joseph's waterfront, but Atchison's is very impressive for a town of 17,000. They also have a nice museum with collections of railroad, Old West and many personal effects of Amelia Earhart's.

Basically trying to get through the day. Tough for me to just sit around so I took my bike and rode around for most of the afternoon. (For anyone coming this way, I'd recommend Paolucci's Restaurant and Lounge. Great Italian food.)

Tomorrow I will work my way to Kansas City. It's only 6o miles so I will,,, must,,, go slow and do only about 30 miles tomorrow and arrive the following day, Friday in K.C., giving me time to get a motel and prepare for my ride back to Yankton on Saturday and fly home on Sunday from Sioux City.

Only 5:30PM, guess I'll go back to the motel and do another set of pushups and situps!

August 1st - Sandbar north of St. Joseph to Atchison, Kansas

2006-08-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

Plans were to go to St. Joseph today and find a motel. I'm way ahead of schedule (as usual). If I keep going at this 60 to 70 mile pace I will be in Kansas City on Wednesday and my rental car ride back up to Yankton is scheduled for Saturday. So, I'm planning on spending a day in St. Joesph and visiting some of the historical sites. There are a number of neat museums in St. Joseph, including the Pony Express Museum and the Jesse James Home Museum.

As I approached St. Joseph I was surprised at what I saw. I was expecting this neat riverfront much like I saw in Sioux City. Instead all I saw was another casino and high freeway bridge that pretty much ran the length of the town.

I pulled over to what I thought was a boat ramp but turned out to be just an overlook. Up above were Robert and Kim Duncan and their little boy Dalton. They were from the Kansas City area and had spotted me paddling and wondered what I was doing. They were excited about my adventure and gave me their telephone number and said if I needed any help when I got to Kansas City to please not hesitate to call. Again, I'm just amazed at the willingness of people I meet to lend a helping hand.

I asked Robert if he could see a boat ramp and he said no, so I figured it must be ahead a little ways. I said goodbye to the Duncans, telling them I'd call when I reach Kansas City.

Couldn't find the boat ramp. It must have been the one I passed on the north side of town. So, my next option is to paddle downstream a couple of miles to a campground, which I did.

Found out there was no tent camping - only RV camping at the campground. The lady said I'd need to go back about three miles and I could get out at the Sunset Grill Ramp. Other option would be to paddle to Atchison, Kansas 25 miles or so downstream. Well, as most know I do not go back, so I was on my way to Atchinson, Kansas, the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.

Never fails, my short day paddling plans have turned into another 45-50 mile day!

Got to Independence Park in Atchinson around 3:30 and met Jon and Charlotte Angell and their children Emily and Rebekah. They saw me paddling up to the ramp and figured I was doing something out of the ordinary! Jon writes for a paper (I believe this is correct) in a small town in Kansas. They took pictures and listened to my story as Emily and Rebekah helped me put my trailer together. Jon was going to write an article for his paper.

After our visit, and once Emily, Rebekah and I had the trailer and bike put together I worked my way to town to find a motel. I'd heard Atchinson was a very paddle-friendly town and what I heard was right. People waved as I rode by. Many honked and gave me a thumbs up as they read the side of my canoe! Even got my motel room at a very nice reduced rate!

July 31st North of Brownville to a sandbar north of St. Joesph

2006-08-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Great day today. I even stopped and visited with people! Just short of the Nebraska - Kansas border on the west side of the river, a boat came over to me. This is one of the few times a boat has actually stopped. Usually they just go by and wave and look back to see how I'm handling the wake they created. The person stopping worked for the Nebraska Dept. of Natural Resources and was surveying fishermen. We had a nice talk and just before I pushed off he asked where I was from. I told him Superior, WI. He said,"Is George Austreng still there?" I said, "How do you know George?" He said, "I taught school with George back in the early 70's." Well, it turns out it was Walt Belding who I also had taught with!

After recalling old times with Walt I was on my way. Walt is working two or three days for the Nebraska DNR and lives back upstream in Nebraska City. Nice man and he really enjoys being on the river and meeting folks. Back in 2004 he met the person I mentioned before who used the same canoe as I, while doing the Lewis and Clark journey. Small world!

Around 2:30 I came to the small town of White Cloud. White Cloud is right on the river so I pulled in with the hope of getting something to eat. No such luck. All that was left in the town was a plumbing business, post office and the White Cloud Grain Elevator.

I walked over to the office of the grain elevator with the hope of getting my phone charged and maybe getting out of the heat for awhile. Gary Ramey was in the office and has happy to let me charge my phone and relax for awhile. I also met Charliss Krothanke and Shirley Jones. Shirley grew up in the area and filled me on some of the history of White Clould. At one time White Cloud was going to be the St. Joseph of Nebraska because of its location to the Missouri, but politics and the dams upstream changed all that. If it weren't for this elevator and the casino about 7 miles away it would be a ghost town.

Also learned from Shirley that there are three endangered species along the river since the dams were built. They include the Pallica Sturgeon, Piping Plover and the Least Tern. It cannot be proven this happened because of the dams, but it all started at the same time they were built. Another interesting note is that on top of the high bluff north of town is the original survey marker for plotting the western states.

Very enjoyable and interesting visit and the melon was good too! I need to do this more often!

Continued down the river with the idea of finding a campsite within 30 miles of St. Joesph. I found a nice spot about 20 miles away at around 8:30 on a sandbar. Made camp, went for a swim and just lay in my tent looking up at the stars, just wrapped up in my own thoughts. One of my better days. Even though it was close to a 70 mile day I really enjoyed the visits I had today.

Time to look for the Big Dipper!

Note: For those who have not read my PCT journal, I always look for the Big Dipper before I fall asleep. Each star represents meaningful people in my life. If you are interested you can find that description in my PCT journal at http://www.pctlarry.com/trail_notes It is called "Seven Stars" and it was posted on 8/23/03.

July 30th - Bellevue to North of Brownville

2006-08-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

This was a long day, hot day! I stopped often. Well, I stopped a couple of times! I did have lots of water with me and drank often, so even with the heat I still felt strong. Nothing really exciting happened today. Being Sunday I figured I'd see a lot of boats again today. I did see a few, but nothing like yesterday around Omaha.

Maybe about 10 miles from my put-in point I passed the mouth of the Platte River where it empties into the Missouri. During spring and flood times this river supposedly really increases the flow of the Missouri, along with dumping a lot of debris like logs and other things that can cause problems for boaters. Today that is not the case. In fact, not far from the mouth of the Platte there's a bridge that crosses it and I was told there was very little water running under it. So what I saw was basically water from the Missouri backing up into the mouth for a ways.

Basically the Missouri is probably 100 yds wide. Maybe a little more and in some places less. It has numerous sandbars so camping is not a problem. There are lots of boat ramps. I figure I see one at least every 15 to 20 miles. Most have water and toilets and also make for good camping.

There also are a lot more homes, trailer parks and cabins than I've seen on either the Ohio or Mississippi. On those rivers homes are usually near towns. Here they seem to stretch all along the river both on the Iowa and Nebraska side. Also it seems homeowners can do almost whatever they want to the shoreline. Many times I've seen new homes (cabins) going up and sand being moved around right up to the banks of the Missouri. Not sure what the laws are here, but you could never do it back home on our lakes and rivers.

I've also been wondering why I have not seen any barge traffic. I was told today that barges do not come up this far any more. They only come as far as St. Joseph and they figured at this time of the year and as low as the water is, there are probably no barges running. I'm sure that is the case, because I did not see a barge on the river between Kansas City and St. Louis last week.

All in all this section of paddling has been enjoyable. Good scenery mixed in with nice city waterfronts and neat cabins and homes. Just wish the heat would let up and the wind switch direction. It's been in my face since I've started, with gusts over 20 miles an hour according to the reports on my radio. It sounds like it will be over 100 the next three days and with the same type of southerly winds!

I wonder if there's a better camp spot around the corner!

July 29 - Little Sioux to Bellevue

2006-07-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

Feeling good this morning! Last night I was not looking forward to today, but now I feel great.

I got on the water by 6:00 and had a great morning of paddling. The wind is not as bad as yesterday and the humidity is a lot better which made for a delightful morning's paddle. Plus I saw my first turkey this morning. I had a flock of about 8 turkeys walking along the river's edge. Also, saw a couple of deer and a number of geese.

At about noon I started to get a lot of speedboat traffic. I was getting close to the Dodge Park boat landing which is just outside of Omaha. The closer I got the more boats, jet skis and water skiers I met. Pretty much bobbing around like a cork. As I turned a corner in the river I could see the landing and quickly understood why there was so much traffic. Dodge Park has a huge boat landing area. In fact there is so much traffic they have three ramps. Boats everywhere.

I pulled into one of the ramps wondering what the best strategy would be to continue on.

As luck has it my question was quickly answered. Dodge Park also was the right on the Riverfront Bike trail that goes through Omaha. So, after a bite to eat I set up for the bike portage. Now this was some bike trail. It was all concrete and 10 feet wide. After a mile or two I came upon bike information sign that had bike trail maps. Turns out the trail is not totally finished but gave the route to take on roads where need be. It also should cut off the two big loops that I would have had to paddle! So, what would have taken probably six hours of paddling turned into two hours of bike portaging to a nice motel on the south side of Omaha. Oh life is good today! Nice shower, nice cool room, good meal. I wonder if I'll get so lucky that tomorrow brings less heat and less wind! Probably asking too much.
Oh well , I will deal with that tomorrow and enjoy the evening. (Wonder why I did not see anyone else biking today. Maybe it had something to do with the 101 degree heat posted on a bank I passed!)

Shucks,,, just saw on TV that it's going to be over 100 the next two days!

July 28 - Sioux City to Little Sioux

2006-07-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Woke up feeling great and was on the water by 6:00AM. By the way, I did have a great steak last night. Rob Gaston from Minneapolis is the Marina Inn resturant manager and said they serve the best steaks around. He was right.

The first part of the day went well. Miles were flying by until about noon. Then the wind picked up and the heat kicked in. The wind was coming straight from the south and along with the heat made for a miserable afternoon of paddling. Proabably the worst day I've had so far. By day's end I could hardly move and was feeling very lightheaded.

Tomorrow is supposed to be much of the same. Wind from the south and even hotter. I'll need to stop more and drink more water. I think that was my mistake today.

Need to get to bed.

July 27 - Below the Gavins Dam to Sioux City

2006-07-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Back on the water. Jim dropped me off at around 6:00AM at my entry point and I was on my way with mixed feelings - glad I was back on the water but sad I had to leave my friend. Like I said in my last entry, Jim is a very special friend and I can not thank him enough . Like my friend, Bob Maxwell back in Grand Rivers, KY, Jim also knows I will always be there for him. Thanks my friend!

What a surprise today. On our drive up here I thought this would be a boring stretch of paddling, but it is the opposite. It's beautiful. Lots of trees along the river banks mixed in with beautiful homes and numerous places to camp.

The river is wider than it was on the stretch from K.C. to St Charles. Especially from Vermillion to Sioux City with lots of sandbars which show evidence that they are used for camping. Most likely locals spending weekends on the river camping.

I got to Sioux City around 6:00PM and pulled in to the Marina Inn on the Nebraska side, which is a beautiful motel on the river. I was able to get a room for a reasonable rate and decided to take it. Real reason to stay here is that all I had to do was pull my canoe up on some rock, climb over a railing and I was at the motel. Which means in the morning I will be able to get back on the water quickly after a nice rest in an air conditioned room! It was in the 90's today!!!

Time for a shower and maybe a nice steak!

DAYS OFF: July 25th and 26th

2006-07-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

On our ride back yesterday it struck me how hard this must be for people who have not done long distance adventures to comprehend doing such mileage. Even for me it was difficult to imagine as we drove back the 300 miles from St. Charles that I just paddled this distance. Yet, while out doing the actual paddle it just did not seem that difficult. Tough to explain, I guess one just has to try it sometime! In fact for those back home, look up the Superior Hiking Trail. Tnis is one of the highest rated trails in the USA. It runs from Duluth to Grand Portage along Lake Superior. My PCT friend, Commodore did this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Heck, if you're interested, maybe this old guy would go with you someday, or at least I could give you some suggestions.

Got a little off track there!

Just a couple of notes on my two days off.

On the 25th I just lollygagged! Lay around all day resting my stiff neck, sore back and blistered hands. Never really noticed this while I was paddling. Must be the adrenline wearing off!

Also went to the Kansas City and Baltimore baseball game that evening.

On the 26th Jim and I drove up to the South Dakota spot where I will put in tomorrow below the Gavins Dam. As we drove two things were on my mind. First - this looks like this is going to be a very boring strectch of the river to paddle. Just not much scenery - everything is flat. Second is that tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to Jim. He is special for a number of reasons. He and Ken McGrath were my first two friends and we've been friends ever since that kindergarden experience! Who but a real friend would follow some crazy old guy paddling for a week! I just do not know how to thank him. I do know I will miss him. Good thing is I will see him in two weeks at our son Ryan's memorial golf tournament.

July 24 - Gasconade to St. Charles, MO

2006-07-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

Great night's sleep and I did not hear any snoring! Jim got me back to Gasconade and I pushed off at 6:00AM.

We made plans to meet in Washington, MO, which was about 30 miles for me to paddle.

Made it to Washington around 10:30 and had lunch with Jim at a very nice waterfront park. Everything along the Missouri has some reference to Lewis and Clark and here was no different except it also noted that Daniel Boone was buried close by. In fact, on Jim's way to Washington he stopped at the site. This was Daniel Boone's initial burial site, but later his remains were sent back to Kentucky for his final resting place. He was 85 when he died. Heck, and I thought I wasn't going to learn a thing today!

Well, the end is near! Plans were to go all the way back to the arch in St. Louis, but decided to end where I left my gear and had biked to in St. Charles. It would take another day to get to St. Louis and to have Jim get me back to Kansas City and up to the first dam in South Dakota was asking too much of him. Plus he would have had to spend another day by himself. Besides, I've connected the dots as to where I left off. My only reason to go back to the arch was seeing the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi. That I would have done if my journey was following the entire Lewis and Clark adventure. Mine is to get from one ocean to the other non- motorized by paddle and bike portaging.

So, I finished the day with an easy paddle to St. Charles and we loaded up and headed back to Kansas City.

This section went quick and was fun. I met many nice people and having Jim helping me made it special.

Now it's time for more stories as we head back to Kansas City. We will go to the Kansas City Baltimore game tomorrow and then head to Gavins Point Dam in SD on Wednesday.

July 23 - East of Boonville to Gasconade, MO

2006-07-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Off and paddling at about 6:00AM. Tough, tough morning. I started out thinking I will be making this a short day. The heated started early and by 9:00 I needed to pull over for a break. I stopped just short of Jefferson City and took about a 30 minute break. (Can not remember the name of the town that was a mile away, but a couple said it was the pumpkin capitol of MO)

Felt better after the break and continued on toward Jefferson only to stop again at the boat ramp in Jefferson for another break. Did not start up again until 1:00 after having something to eat and a lot of water I was feeling a whole lot better. I also called Jim and he was on his way to Columbia from Kansas City. We decided we would try and hook up downstream and spend the night at Herman, MO if I could make it at least somewhere close to it.

So off I went, still needing to make a good 40 to 50 miles if I had any chance to meet Jim.

At the mouth of the Osage river that entered into the Missouri I came upon a large group of people gathered on a huge sandbar. There must have been over 50 people all having a great time swimming, playing volleyball, barbequeing. I left with a huge hunk of homemade deer sausage and 4 beers! Dear sausage was great, beer will keep for another time! Water will be the key to keeping me going.

As I continued, finding Jim was going to be tough for my cell phone went dead. There were two boat landings that I was possibly going to meet him at but he was at neither. At the last one I pulled in to a little town called Portland. At the landing were two guys, one in a raft and the other in a canoe. They had started at the Osage River and were slowly working their way to St. Louis.
Just taking their time and enjoying each day. (Wish I could do that, but not in my make-up!)

I was able to get a bite to eat and charge my phone a little before I pushed off from Portland. About a mile down the river I was able get hold of Jim. He said he'd left Portland about an hour earlier and was now at a motel in Portland. Told me he'd come and get me, but I said no that I'd try and make it to Gasconade which was about 7 miles from Herman. (Real reason I had to continue to try and make Gasconade was it is tough for me to go backwards!)

Well, now I had to still make over 18 miles to get there and it was after 7:00PM. To make a long story shorter, I made it at 10:00, but only by luck. I almost went right by it because Gasconade was in a bay to the south and just before I was passing the bay I turned around for some reason and saw a light about a mile or so down the bay. This time I did turn around! Took forever to paddle back upstream to the bay but did find Jim waiting for me.

We stuffed my canoe and gear into the woods and headed for the motel in Herman.

Another long day was over, but a good one. Plus, a bed tonight, although I will have to put up with some snoring,,, it will not faze me tonight

July 22 - Waverly to Boonville

2006-07-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Last night was interesting. Just after I settled in for the night a boat came up next to my camp and shined a huge light over towards me. Then it continued downstream for about 100 yards and anchored. A few minutes later another boat anchored about 100 yards downstream of me. They had me surrounded! What they were doing was fishing for catfish. So, until about 1:00AM I had two beams of light coming towards me.

When I did finally got to sleep I was awakened about 2:00AM by dogs. Just above me someone was out coon hunting. Needless to say it was a short night of sleep.

Tough day today. It was very warm,, I mean hot! I did come out of the water at around 8:00AM and portage around a loop thinking I was saving a little time and distance. Turns out I'd been just as well served staying on the water. I think the time spent loading and unloading did not save me any time.

One thing for sure, the decision to go downstream back to St. Louis was a wise one. I experimented a couple of times to go upstream and found it almost impossible. If you do not have your paddle constantly moving you go nowhere and even backwards at times. At Waverly I met a pastor walking his dog by the boat ramp and he told me the current stays strong because to keep the water level up they continually release water from the dams upstream. Another gentleman who has spent a lot of time canoeing the Missouri said basically the only time you can go upstream is when they stop the release of water from the dams in the late fall and winter. So, it eases my mind that I'm doing this section in reverse and also will now go up to the first dam near Yankton, SD and back to Kansas City when I finish this section. Once that is done I will need to find a way to get back up to Yankton and continue on to the Pacific. (I will worry about that later)

To put things in perspective about going with the current, I made close to 100 miles today. Although that was starting at 6:00AM and paddling past 9:00PM. If I was going the other way it would have been an average speed of about 1 mile an hour.

The last few hours of paddling have been very enjoyable, not much heat and beautiful sandstone bluffs along the north side of the river, plus numerous sandbars that a number of people are camping along this weekend.

I made camp just on the east end of a long sandbar that a couple was camping on, making sure I was far enough away to give them privacy.

Just after setting up camp and taking a swim to clean up, the couple camping upstream came for a visit. Erik Feather and Deirdre Lester brought some drinks and food for me. We visited for over an hour. Very nice couple and I hope to stay in touch with them as I continue. By the way Erik, the food you cooked up was great!

July 21 - Kansas City to Waverly MO

2006-07-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Up at 5:00AM and down to the river at 6:00 and back to the motel by 6:30! It's raining and lightning.

Wasn't able to get started until noon today because of a front coming through.

Finally at around noon there was a break in the sky and Jim and I headed back to the river and I was able to push off a little before 12:30. The current was strong and I was feeling a whole lot better about going downstream. I said goodbye to Jim and off I was once more.

Jim plans to go to the Kansas City Royals game this evening and tomorrow and will meet me in St. Louis in 3 or 4 days. Sounded like he had good plans for that time, so off I went to do my thing.

Oh, was I moving! Along with the current and my paddling, I figure I was moving at 7 or 8 miles an hour. This current was different than what I experienced on the Mississippi. Not sure why but even along the shore there seemed to be much more current. I was able to go up the Mississippi because the current along the shore on it was not bad, but here it was different. Later on I will experiment with going the other direction, but right now because of the late start, I want to get in as many miles as I can. (Some things never change,,, push push push!)

Good first day. Did get a little rain, but by 2:00 the sun was out and only in the 70's which made for comfortable paddling. Plans were to take it easy today and set up camp around 7:00, but like most other days, at 9:00 and turning dark I was still looking for a place to camp! Of course between 7:00 and 9:00 there were many great sand bars I could have camped on, but I needed to go around the next bend and find a better one! Finally at about 9:15 (now getting dark) I found a small sand bar that had one flat spot about the size of my tent that would work.

First day is history and it felt good to be back on the river. Oh, and tomorrow I will set up camp earlier!

July 20 - Car Ride from St.Charles to Kansas City

2006-07-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Jim and I left for Kansas City at around 10:00 in the morning. Just an enjoyable time reminiscing about old times. As I said in yesterday's blog, we go way back to actually kindergarden. First story I reminded him of was the story my mother tells of our first day of kindergarden when Jim took my rug that we all had to have for our mid-morning nap. I wonder if they still do that in kindergarden. Anyway, when it was time for my nap I could not find my rug and spotted this other boy resting on it. I went over to get my rug and then next thing I knew, the teacher sent me home. Jim wouldn't give me my rug so I guess I punched him in the nose and out the door I went.

Mom says when she got back home from doing errands after walking me to school I was sitting on the steps. Needless to say she was not very proud of me. (Hopefully that has changed since. She's still going strong at age 94!) Not sure if I'm the only one ever to get expelled from kindergarden, but I think I'm the only one from Barron, WI! Anyway all turned out okay and from that day on Jim and I have been great friends. He along with Ken McGrath from grade school have been very close for all these years. Lots of memories!

During the drive to Kansas City I also was thinking about my decision to do this stretch of the river in reverse order. In researching the internet I could find only one other person that attempted canoeing the Lewis and Clark journey by starting in St. Louis and going upstream. He had to do the same - go up to Yankton, SD and return downstream to St. Louis. Then go back to Yankton where they first dam on the Missouri is and continue on westward where the river becomes lakes and one is able to navigate again.

In any case I will find out tomorrow.

Back to stories. "Jim, remember when you loaned me your brand new bike and I rode it into that big oak tree.............."

July 19 - St. Louis

2006-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Time to get going again. It's been great to take this break and spend time with family and friends. At first it was hard to adjust, but as time went by I was right back into my normal daily life activities. Even had a chance to play golf with high school friends, Chuck Dorn, Jim Umland and Bob Catron in Minneapolis yesterday. Now one would think good friends would give me strokes for not playing all summer. Instead they just took my money and wished me well on my journey! I guess I'd have done the same if the roles were reversed. (When you've got someone down, step on them!)

This morning my daughter, Heidi took me to the airport in Duluth. Tough to say goodbye to everyone, but at the same time I needed to get back paddling. Also, knowing it would not be long and I'd be back on the 7th of August for Ryan's golf tournment will help with missing family and home.

Heidi dropped me off at 5:30 in the morning and after a layover in Minneapolis, I arrived in St. Louis at 1:00 P.M. My friend, Jim McIntyre, from way back in grade school was there to pick me up. Jim loves baseball and each summer takes a trip to various ballparks around the country. So he offered to help me out on this part of trip which involves shuttling me to Kansas City and then to Yankton, S.D.

I've decided to do this Missouri River section downstream. I've talked to many people that have Missouri River experience and all said there's no way I can make it going upstream. Hate to do this, but for one of the few times I'll listen and follow the advice!

From the airport Jim and I headed over to Bass Pro to get my gear. Asst. Manager, Wendy Jennings was there to help me. I'd met Wendy when I dropped my gear off and she was the person in charge today. Bob Brownlee, the store manager, and Matt Prost who arranged for me to store my gear at Bass Pro were off today. Sorry I missed them, but I will stay in touch with all here at Bass Pro as I continue my journey. They have really been nice and gone out of their way to help me in any way they can. In fact, Jenny said she had a little care package that everyone put together for me. It included a dry bag with two top of the line hiking shirts and hiking pants in it. Nice surprise! I really needed the dry bag and also the long sleeve hiking shirt for I had nothing other than a light wind breaker for cool days. That is if we every get cool days again!

I said goodbye to Wendy and Jim and I went back to the motel to relax for awhile before we headed to the ball park and watched the St. Louis and Atlanta Braves game. What an evening we had at the ball game!

Just before game time we could see a severe storm aproaching, which turned out to be close to a tornado. Unbelievable wind and rain came down for about an hour. Everyone headed for the best shelter they could find in the stadium, which for us turned out to be under the stands above us which only provided some cover from the rain, but little from the wind. All I could think about was my canoe, which was locked to a tree back at the motel, wondering if it would be in one piece. The way this storm was I figured there's a good chance it could be damaged.

Long story short - the storm finally let up and they even played the game, which St. Louis won.

This storm, as I'm sure all know, made national news. Lots of damage in the St. Louis area and as I write this blog days later, over 200,000 people are still without power. Even found out there were a number of people injured at the game that evening. Good thing was when we got back to the motel my canoe was okay. It was sitting right in the same place I'd left it - only now filled with water. What a relief, sure didn't want to swim the rest of the way to the Pacific!

Off to bed and then Jim and I will head to Kansas City tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone at Bass Pro, not only for your help but more important, your friendship.

The Yellow Lab - July 10th

2006-07-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier journal entry that I would tell you about the picture I've posted of the yellow lab sitting next to my canoe.

The picture was taken at the campground I stayed at in Grand Tower, IL. I was having one of those days, wondering why I was doing this, doubting whether I could paddle upstream against the Mississippi current, etc. In short, just down in the dumps, which happens on these kind of adventures and one must work their way through them. Some of these times are tougher than others and this was one of the tougher. I'd said my goodbyes to my friend Bob Maxwell and now again I was by myself so that played a little into it. Also, I'd been thinking about our son Ryan a lot today. Not sure why, but I was just missing him a lot today.

Anyway, I went to bed that evening a little down, wondering if I could really do this, whether I should pedal the highway paralleling the Mississippi to St. Louis because of the current or even just quit and go home.

Well, that evening I was awakened by a dog wandering around next to my tent. In this camp ground I'm way off from the rest of the trailer campers all by myself so I just thought it was a dog that wandered over from one of the trailers and really did not pay much attention to it at first.

Then at about 1:00AM I was awakened again. This time the dog was lying down right next to my tent and sort of crowding towards me. It was doing no harm so I fell back asleep and when I awoke at first light the dog was still there. I noticed it was a yellow lab. I opened my tent and in came the lab like it had known me forever. I played and petted it for awhile and then started to get my gear together to prepare for the day's paddle. The yellow lab stayed right with me the whole time, following me everywhere.

As I was leaving the campgrounds to go down to the boat ramp the person in charge of the campgound stopped to wish me well. I thanked him and told him I'd found a new friend. He said others had talked about the dog last night and had wondered if it was mine. He'd told them he didn't think so because I was in a canoe. I asked him if he knew who the dog belonged to. He said no-one in the campground and that no one had ever seen it before. Strange! Anyway, I said goodbye to the campground host and I and my new friend started off for the boat ramp.

At the boat ramp I was thinking it sure would be nice to take the lab with me. He'd make the down times a lot more bearable, but knew it was impossible. So, we just played a little more before I pushed off. The yellow lab followed me along side the river bank until it was blocked by a bluff. I turned one more time and said, "Thanks, Scout. Thanks for letting me know you and Ryan are okay. Thanks for lifting my spirits, I'll make it now!"

Yellow Lab next to my canoe; Ryan & Scout. Sadly, we had to put Scout down about a year after we lost Ryan.

HOME - July 8th

2006-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I arrived at home on Monday, July 3rd. Good to see family and friends again. LuAnn and I spent the 4th of July with friends and family at a small lake outside Superior, WI. Our friends, Charlie and JoAnn Wright and Jim and Sandy Waletzko each have a lot on the lake and for the last 8 or so years have spent the 4th of July holiday camping out with friends and family. Lots of fun swimming, boating, fishing, water skiing, shooting off fireworks, etc.

Our daughter, Heidi Samarzia and her husband Nate and children, Devin, Drake and Ryah were there as were the families of both the Wrights and Waletzko and others. Everyone had a great time. The children had a blast. Norm, Charlie and JoAnn's son-in-law, took the twins, Devin and Drake fishing and they did well. They told their mom that they had to kiss each fish they caught before they released it so it would bite their hook again. Needless to say, Norm got a little dirty look from Heidi.

As much as I'm glad to be home it also is tough to adjust at first. Same thing was true when I came home for short breaks on my bike and hiking trips. Tough to explain but it takes a few days to get back into the swing of "one's normal daily life routine" so you don't feel like an outsider. It's getting better, but now I'm already anxious to get back to paddling. Before I do go back I hope to play some golf and I need to make sure everything is on track for the Ryan Hoff Memorial Golf Scramble. We had a meeting on Thursday with the committee and everything seems to be falling in place. They do a great job in making the tournament a success, and LuAnn and I are very thankful. The key for me before I leave is to know that LuAnn is comfortable that all is okay in the preparation for it. The tournament is August 12th and I will be returning on August 8th for it. Sometime in one of my later journal entries I will give more details.

Plans are to fly back to St. Louis on July 19th and continue my journey. I will need to make a big decision once I get back. I've been able to find very little information on people that have attempted such a journey as I'm doing. I know of only two that have attempted an Atlantic to Pacific journey and they were not able to complete it back in the 80's. As for doing the Lewis and Clark trip from St. Louis to the Pacific I've come across one such expedition by a young man, Norm Miller, who completed it in 2004. Norm had to go up river to Yankton, SD and come down stream because of river current and the danger of going around the wing dams. In fact he flipped his canoe at least once in his attempt to go upstream.

You can read about Norm's struggle with the lower Missouri River at: http://www.lewisandclark-2004.com At Yankton, SD the Missouri starts the first of I believe 5 lake reservoirs which continue through the Dakotas and Montana and make paddling upstream doable and safe. So when I get back the first day will be experimenting with my ability to continue upstream or do as Norm did and move up to Yankton and come back down.

On the Mississippi I did have a couple of challenging times dealing with wing dams, but nothing that I was not able to get around. What I hear is that the current is tougher on the Missouri and the water swirls a lot more around the wing dams. In any case, my decision will be based on safety, which I promised LuAnn and my family I would do. Another first for me!

Time for some golf.

Tomorrow I will write one more entry about the yellow lab that visited my campsite at Grand Tower.

To the ARCH and St. Charles, MO - July 2nd

2006-07-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Up at 5:00AM and down to the river. I wanted to get by the arch and out of the water as quick as possible.

Doing this today is going to work out for the best, for it is Sunday and I should have less traffic on my bike portage over to St. Charles.

Got in the water around 6:00 and worked my way towards the arch. Just a beautiful morning. What a sight when I first saw the arch glistening in the sun. Snapped a couple of pictures and continued to work my way to the front of the arch. This is something to see and hopefully my pictures do it some justice.

Well, the first chapter is history. It went a whole lot better than I expected. When I first started out, like I've said before, I was hoping to get as far as Paducah, but once I got a handle on what one could do in a day, the goal became St. Louis.

Now I must get over to St. Charles and find a place to store my gear before I leave for home tomorrow. I'm going to St. Charles because it's close to the airport and it gives me a chance to scout out the Missouri River. The plan is to take 180 through St. Louis to the 370 Missouri bridge and onto the KATY Bike Trail which is part of the Lewis and Clark Bike Trail and runs from St. Charles to Kansas City.

Got to St. Charles with little trouble. Again, being Sunday, there was little traffic. As I came down off the370 bridge, signs directed me to the KATY Trail. The trail had an excellent dirt hard pan surface and was very easy to ride on. A lot better than the C&O trail along the Potomac River. As I approached town I ran into Erv Ermeling who was part of what I assumed was a large 4th of July volunteer group preparing for the day's events along the waterfront.

Once Erv understood what I was doing he introduced me to Linda Roche, T.S. Slattery and Larry Muench. Larry was a City Council member and after pictures he took off in a golf cart and came back with a city pin, which I wore proudly all day and will on my way home to Superior.

St. Charles is a neat town. So far my favorite. The above people and I'm sure many others have done a fantastic job in organizing this 4th of July event which goes on for three days. It's easy to tell they are very proud of their community and rightly so. Along with the nice waterfront it has a neat historic district and for the gamblers, a huge riverboat casino.

It also has the perfect place for the storing of my gear! Bob Maxwell has been real concerned about what I was going to do and I'm sure wondering why I wasn't. Over the years I've learned not to bother worrying about such things. For some reason everything seems to work out. If not, back to re-adjusting! In this case it worked out again, for I found a motel right next door to a Bass Pro Store! Yep, they greeted me with open arms and said they'ed be honored to store my gear until I got back.

Over the years I've bought a lot of hunting gear from Bass Pro. My wife LuAnn and our good friends, Charlie and JoAnn Wright go to Branson, MO every spring and always make the stop in Springfield, MO at the orginal Bass Pro Store. Anyone who's a hunter or fisherman or just plain outdoors person must at least once go to Springfield and visit Bass Pro. If not Springfield then to St. Charles. This is an awfully nice store. (Good thing I'm traveling lite) Thanks to Matt Prost for making this possible, and also to Bret Donaldson, Brian Belter, Matt Beckman and Rich Dalton.

As much as I look forward to going home, I also look forward to my return to St. Charles. I plan on spending a day here before I start out and I hope I get to see Erv, Linda, T.S. Larry and the Bass Pro people again. Maybe even make a dollar or two at the casino!

Time to get to the motel and rest up, enjoy the evening and head home in the morning.

I will be at home for three weeks and returning to St. Charles on July 23. In the next day or so I will post some of my reflections about this first segment of the trip.

Again, thanks to all of you who I've met along the way. I will not forget you.

COACH

Sand bar campsite to St. Louis Arch (ALMOST) - July 1st

2006-07-03T04:34:00.001-07:00

Up and at 'em at 5:30. I will try not to push, but St. Louis is in my sights. Good day today. More wind is at my back and it seems like I'm moving faster. I should be in St. Louis around 6:00.

About three I saw some fishermen fishing from a wing dam and decided to go over to see if they could give me some information on getting out of the water in St. Louis. One of the guys said there was a good place just north of the arch next to a casino boat, except for one problem. It was 4th of July and St. Louis closes the waterfront down so I could not get out. NICE! My first thought was if I'd pushed I'd have been here yesterday and not have had a problem. Next thought was I must re-adjust and react according to the situation. (I do very little planning, but a whole lot of re-adjusting!)

Well, they told of a place I could get out just short of downtown so that was going to be the plan. Get out there and find a motel and go check out the fireworks.

I found the place to get out and got my bike and trailer set up and started out to find a motel. Which I figured couldn't be too far since I was pretty much in downtown St. Louis. I did find a few motels fairly soon, but even at my standards I passed on them and pedaled a few miles farther, until I found an area without iron bars on each business window!

Settled in for the evening and decided not to go out just to see fireworks since I'd have to retrace my steps through the iron bar district at night. Instead I spent a very relaxing evening thinking about all that's happened and looking forward to taking some time off after tomorrow.

One Sandbar to the next! - June 29th

2006-07-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

Slept in this morning (Working on this slower pace) until 7:00AM. River is calm except for the current moving in the wrong direction. Very peaceful setting as I ate my morning oatmeal breakfast. Good thoughts.

The Mississippi River water quality seems very much like the Ohio River to me. What is different is the Mississippi banks are not as steep, especially on the IL side. There are many sand bars, which work great for camping and there is little trash along the banks. On the Ohio it looked more like a city dumping site. Also, on the Mississippi there are many more fishermen and just as many barges as the Ohio.

The day was much like yesterday. Did not push hard and even took two breaks in the morning and a nap around 1:00PM. At day's end I figured I was about 25 or maybe less miles from St. Louis.

Chester, Il to a sandbar approx. 25 miles north

2006-07-03T03:57:00.000-07:00

Biked my way back to the river from my motel at about 6:30AM. The day before, after fighting the Mississippi River, I came out of the water at Chester thinking the day was over, but it wasn't. I had a 2 mile climb up to Chester on a road that seemed as steep as the Ohio River banks. Today I get to go down that hill, with the hope that I stop before I get to the river! Made it!

The "goal" now is to take 3 days to go approx. 7o some miles to St. Louis. I do not fly home until July 3rd so there is no reason to get there before then. So, I'm looking to go approx. 25 miles each of the next three days.

Today I did that. I took numerous breaks. Well, at least one in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, plus camping on a sandbar at about 6:30PM.

The current is tough at times, especially going around the wing dams. Close to shore away from the wing dams I can make pretty good time. I figure on the average I'm doing maybe 3 or probably less miles per hour upstream.

By the way, that is how I figure a day's work. Up until now I've averaged over 50 miles a day not by my great super strength, paddling skill, etc., but just putting in the time to get it done. Whether that is good or bad, I figure a day is 15 hours and in that 15 hours I will be on the go for at least 12 or 13 hours. (Sometimes all 15). So, even at a 4 mile pace fast walking pace I can get 50 miles in.

Maybe in these three days I will be able to break that will of always having to push forward. It worked today, although it seems I'm just twiddling my thumbs on this sandbar when I see the sun still high in the sky!