Start 1289.8 - Silver Maple Campsite
End 1275.8 - Island Point Campsite
Today’s mileage - 14.0
Total mileage - 65.8
Started the day by paddling into Bemidji and stopping at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.
For those of you that are interested. I had Boston Cream and Bones had Bavarian Cream. I really need to work on Bones’s table manners.
Bones: DONUTS!!!! Best Day Ever!!!
Slobber slobber drool drool yum yum munch munch yum yum munch munch
Then we paddled the two and a half miles across Lake Bemidji with a tailwind. A good tailwind can do wonders for the soul.
From here it was an easy paddle to Stump Lake where I saw white pelicans. I didn’t know they came this far north.
The next stop was County Road 12 Dam. Now, isn't that an impressive name for the 1st dam on the mighty Mississippi River? This is the first real dam on the Mississippi River. There weren’t any beaver dams today, but I did have to portage around my first real man made dam.
It was just another 2 miles to my camp for the night, Island Point campsite. Unfortunately they put it on top of a bluff.
It’s a climb but well worth the view. And no mosquitoes!
Today was also the day that I officially passed the northernmost point of the Mississippi River. From here it heads east and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
Dang it! I found another tick. Luckily this one wasn’t on me. But it was crawling towards me. A lighter made quick work of her.
Wildlife Report :
White Tail Deer, Bald Eagles, Beavers, White Trumpeter Swans, White Pelicans, Sandhills Cranes, Canadian Geese, Loons, Sandpipers, Swallows, CowBirds, Blue Herons, Red Winged Blackbirds, Crows and several kinds of ducks. And lots of smaller birds that I couldn’t identify.
This is a GPS map of my progress today.
Map 1 - Lake Itasca to Casa Lake
River miles 1,341 to 1,258 (83 miles)
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Mississippi River State Water Trail maps
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/mississippiriver/index.html