Mississippi River – Day 1

SPECIAL NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

December 23, 2021 – I have been re-reading the posts from my time on the Mississippi River and I have been both appalled and a bit surprised to find so many typographical errors.

Please understand that I wrote almost all of these posts on my phone while I was laying in my hammock out on the river after a long day of paddling.

I suppose I should be surprised that these posts are even readable at all. I will correct the errors in the posts as time allows, but I have decided that I will not edit the posts, as far as content goes, unless otherwise noted.

January 29, 2022 – I am adding my starting and ending location to the beginning of each post. I was recently going through photos of my trip and searching for certain events, and that experience made me realize that having my starting and ending location listed at the beginning of each post would be very helpful. I hope this helps other people too.

Lake Itasca to Bear Den Campsite

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Wow! What can I say? Sometimes I didn’t think this day would ever come. It doesn’t feel real. Well, not until I actually put my kayak in the river.

My day begins around 4 am. I want to be on the water by 6. It’s a half hour drive to the Headwaters from our hotel in Bemidji.

My sister Melody, her husband Ric, my wife Carol and I are on the road a little before 5 am.

We are met, at the Visitors Center parking lot at Lake Itasca, by Dan and Ann Ogg. It is an unexpected, but much appreciated honor. Ann completed this trip last year and has generously shared her experiences and given me advice to help me with my trip.

I pack my boat as quickly as I can and wheel it the 800 feet from the Visitor Center to the Headwaters. I’ve taken a bit too long to get everything organized and make sure that I haven’t forgotten any thing ( I almost started down to the headwaters without my paddles ).

I put in to the river around 6:30 am and then float a few feet to the first log bridge. My boat won’t fit under the bridge because of my compass and camera mount on the deck, so I drag the boat up and over the log. That was good practice for what was to come.

Very quickly I encounter a small beaver dam, but I am able to scoot over it without getting out of my boat. The next obstacle I encounter is low water. I didn’t get far before I was forced to get out of my boat and walk it down the stream. This continues, on and off, for quite some time.

I start to re-evaluate my goals for the day. I wanted to get well past Coffee Pot Landing, which is where most people seem to stop on Day 1, but at this rate I might not even make it that far.

Luckily for me the stream gets better the further I go. I only have to get out of my boat about three times to get over beaver dams. I probably encountered a dozen or more beaver dams today, but most of them I could just scoot around or over.

I arrive at Vekin’s Dam around 9:30 am. It has taken me 3 hours to go 7.5 miles. This is not the pace that I had hoped for, but everything else is going well otherwise.

Below Vekin’s Dam looking back upstream.

I make the easy portage at Vekin’s Dam and take a break. It’s 10:30 when I leave Vekin’s.

There is a long stretch of “rapids” marked on the map just downstream of Vekin’s Dam. Today this part of the river is just rocky shallow riffles. I don’t bother attaching my spray skirt to the cockpit rim because I have to get in and out of the boat so often to float over the shallow spots where there isn’t enough water.

Once I get past the Vekin’s Rapids the river continues to get better and better all day. My progress downstream is much easier.

I encounter one or two more beaver dams and low water riffle sections where I have to get out of my boat before I reach Coffee Pot Landing. It’s about 2:45 pm. The landing at Coffee Pot is muddy and it is way too early to stop yet, so I press on.

My new goal becomes the Bear Den camp site. I question my own judgment on this decision. Bear Den seems like a long way from where I am now, but I keep a steady pace and the river continues to improve the farther past Coffee Pot I go.

I eventually reach Bear Den around 7:45 pm. There is just enough time to set up my hammock and tarp and get something to eat.

A father and his two sons are tent camping at Bear Den when I get there. They have a roaring fire going in the fire ring. As I am changing into my dry clothes, I notice that they are packing up to leave. The father asks if I would like for them to leave the campfire burning for me. I respond “ Yes Sir”. They even leave me some extra wood. What a blessing! I hope my presence didn’t ruin their camping trip, but that fire was just what I needed.

I can’t even begin to express what a beautiful river this is. The water is very clear and everything seems virtually untouched and natural.

I saw beaver ( lots of them ), river otter ( just one ), turtles, musk rats, bald eagles, swans, sandhill cranes, snow geese, fish, and other wildlife that I can’t recall right now.

It was a good day on the river.

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