A day of rest

Bobbing heads and wide open mouths and a very tired driver, after 23 hours on the road, we watched the sun come beaming into our windshield. We had finally arrived at Lake Itasca State Park. After milling around, settling the confusions that come with a unique adventure we sat up all of our gear and eagerly slipped our canoes into the pristine but very windy waters of of the lake. After a short paddle it was time to find "The Headwaters" of the The Mississippi River. We took a short two and a half walk beautiful and awesomely maintained Lake Itasca State Park along the bike trail that would lead us to the headwaters. A few walkers and bikers passed us by, all with looks of curiosity on their faces. Our walk would lead us to the growingvoices of small children playing and splashing loudly. As we turned the corner, there it was, the three and a half to four foot wide Mississippi River.
We walked it a bit to gauge water depths to decide if we were going to be able to take off from these headwaters. We're now approaching what we know as "hiker midnight" (dark) and the last forecast we heard was possible severe thunderstorms that produce hail. With that combination, that means it's time to bring this session of our daily progress to an end and climb in my into my tent and get re-acquainted with my tent and sleeping bag that I have been missing for so long. Tomorrow will be our first day of paddling in THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI!

Down River

"I wonder if anyone has ever canoed the entire Mississippi River?", I thought to myself as I crossed the the first bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Minnesota just below the headwaters in Lake Itasca. After sixteen months of research, team building, writing and submitting sponsorship proposals with the help of teammates that are in the background but key players, gathering of gear and the logistics of the whole trip, today we piled into our van and headed northeast from Knoxville headed to Minnesota where we will be canoeing the 2,340 miles of the Mississippi River. After a short stop in Ohio, we picked up our fifth and final member and drove until time for dinner. We were just outside of Chicago so Chicago style pizza only seemed right. That was a real treat! Each piece felt like it weighed a pound a piece and was ridiculously good. Six grown men left stuffed on 2 twelve inch pies and even had almost a half of s pizza left! With about nine hours separating us from our put in point, we're eager to get this adventure started but sleep has to come at some point. It's 10:15 p.m. and the uneventful dark fields of wisconsin await us and the book on CD rambles on as sleep draws ever closer.
21 May 2012