September 3, 2021
Friday
From Island point to Knutson Dam
In 2015 work began on the replacement of Knutson Dam. The previous structure needed extensive repairs and it was decided to replace it with a spillway of rapids made of large rocks. This has returned the river to a more natural stream flow.
We started the day with some wading and leading our boats through some shallow places. Then we had to walk some more through some class 1 rapids. We crossed four lakes, the largest being Cass Lake. The wind was mild but Cass lake is so large that the waves were large enough to make the paddling difficult. In river miles we covered 18 miles, but since we stayed close to shore and paddled the shoreline on Cass lake we actually paddled about 20 miles. This was our best day so far in miles.
Knutson Dam has a campsite with water and an outhouse. There were four rolls of toilet paper in the men’s side, they were all “under”. Score four for Mary Ann. The campground is mostly for RV’s but there there are two tent sites and both were unoccupied. We put on our portage wheel and pulled our boats to the campsite without having to unload our gear. Then in the morning it wI’ll be easy to load our gear at the campsite and complete the portage around Knutson Dam.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources provides ten maps of the river from the source at Itasca to Minneapolis St. Paul. We have now completed map1. Tomorrow we start on map 2.
Janet Rith contacted me again today with encouraging words and information about the resources available after Knutson Dam. Terry and I will never forget our first angel.
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