Return of Eddie Spedder

Day 5 (7/6/11)

Day five is actually a composite of four and five together. We were able to go up the river a Mauthe both days. The first day we were again reminded how much we dislike the Eddie Spedders of the world. We were on our way over to the river when all of a sudden out of nowhere this T.S. comes over and starts putting on a clinic for us. He is spinning and paddling backwards and basically making a nuisance of himself. At that point we should have changed our course and he may have never noticed the opening into the river. Once he saw where we were heading he shot ahead and on up the river. As you can well imagine any wildlife was soon cowering well away from the river. It was a beautiful day though and as anticipated it didn’t take long before Eddie had grown bored and came shooting back the other direction leaving the rest of the river unmolested. There was another kayaker who also must have seen us go into the channel and followed us up the river but to his credit he never got very close and seemed to enjoy the slow leisurely pace we set. When we got to the turnaround point he drifted off before I had a chance to thank him for his patience. Next time we will have to be more careful about sneaking into the river.

The Day After

Day 4 (7/5/11)

Cozmik Debris

We had survived the Fourth of July weekend and for the most part had a good time. We decided that by now though the crowds should have cleared out from our favorite state park campground at Mauthe Lake so we packed up the Yak hauler with all the essentials and headed for the hills, moraines actually. As expected the crowds were gone and we were even able to get the tepee for a second year in a row. The girl at the office said that they had been turning people away the day before and even the beach had reached its capacity. What a difference a day can bring. Late in the day we had a slight rain which chased away the remaining beach people. It was eerie walking amongst the remnants of the weekend, like some apocalyptic movie where the people had just disappeared. It was also slightly appalling at what was left behind. It is perhaps a sad commentary on our affluent society that so much stuff is just left behind.

Hope for Tomorrow!