Day 8 on the Mississippi River

August 29, 2021

Sunday

We left Fox Trap campsite at 9:30 am. We arrived at Iron Bridge campsite at 2:00 pm. In 4 1/2 hours we covered over 6 river miles. The impassable takes a little longer.

It was difficult, but not as difficult as our first two days coming out of Itasca. There it took us 3 hours to go 1/2 mile.

Today we had to pull ourselves along over floating bogs by grabbing rice stalks in both hands. Terry said I looked like Eddie Murthy on the skateboard in Trading Places. Once I was chest deep in water and I pushed my kayak over a bog, and then I crawled over and got back in. It’s not easy for an old man to get in a kayak in chest deep water. Side note: I didn’t get any leeches today. I did get stung once.

Several times we had to backtrack and take a different opening. Terry got real good at reading the grass and current to decide which way to go. Five times he took the lesser route (according to the maps) and it turned out to be the one that was open, while the routes shown on the maps were blocked.

When we got to Iron Bridge campsite we were really excited and relieved to have made it.

We decided to stay here tonight and enjoy our success.