Monday, August 3, 2015

July 29, 2015. Cassville, WI to Mud Lake, IA. 17 Miles.

School buses carried us to breakfast this morning. We got on the first bus, leaving our tent up until after eating.


It was quite a breakfast--chicken and ham, scalloped potatoes, manicotti, eggs, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls and dessert! Better than most dinners.


Rex introduced Jane, who is going to write about the Great River Rumble in the local paper.


We started out on the Mississippi River, and quickly went into a slough. There were a lot of paddlers in the lead boat today--it's going to be hard to keep up!



When we came out of the slough to go back into the main channel of the river there was a tow pushing many barges right in front of us, so we had a short break to let it pass. Julie ended up in the water, and there I was with no pump--it was on our boat. Of course another rumbler helped pump her boat out and she was back on the river in no time.



Now that we're on the Mississippi river the safety boats are out there to guide and protect us.


We stopped at a sand dune for lunch. There was a nice sandy beach there, and Julie took a nap.

 

We were in and out of sloughs today, more interesting than paddling solely on the Mississippi.


I paddled Jane's boat for the second day in a row (not the Jane in the photo at the beginning of this post!). She had to leave for a couple of days and left her boat for others to use at Larry's discretion.


We had a lovely tailwind today, and covered the 17 miles in short order. When we arrived at Mud Lake Park Bill had already retrieved our stuff and set up the tent in the shade. There were volleyball games and a naturalist who spoke about birds of the Mississippi river. Dinner was catered. The train track was very close but thankfully there were not as many trains as last night!

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