The sound of rain woke me up. It really poured. I rolled back over, unconcerned. As I tried to doze off back to sleep my hand happened to touch a wet spot in the tent. wtf!? I immediately started getting a few things picked up that should get wet, like a few electronics I had charging from my battery bank. I quickly realized it wasn’t a leak from above, my tent was in standing water. I could push the floor near my head and watch the waves ripple through a puddle outside my tent.

There wasn’t really anything I could do about it now. I rolled over and tried to sleep again. Today was going to be a lazy day anyway.

Given the rain and the possibility of more, I decided to hang out at the park by the dam instead of my campsite. I’d have a shelter there and it had power outlets too.

I spent a while reorganizing my canoe and getting my power bank charged up. I then set about getting some blog posts written that I was a little behind on. A whole group came up to the shelter for an event. They were just going to have to deal with a dirty canoeist. Most of them left after a while for a boat ride.

As noon approached, I figured I should head on down the river. Just as I was about to put in I started chatting with a couple on vacation. They were interested in the trip and we ended up talking for at least 45 mins. They watched me put in as I paddled on. I was starting to feel alive again, in a way I haven’t felt in quite some time.

The paddling was pleasant in a wide open river. After a while I noticed some dark clouds off to the side, followed by lightning. Time to get off the water. There wasn’t really a good spot to pull out, but I managed to find something after a little searching. In the end, the storm passed to the south of me.

I was really starting to notice the current. It really pushed me along. Most of the river has been pretty slow up until now. I kind of revelled in it. You could see the power of erosion that the river unleashed. It cut sand and mud from the outside banks and deposited it on the insides. This is how all those switchbacks get formed.

I paddled on for a few hours and did have to pull out one more time for storms, though really it was just the winds were making it too hard to paddle. I got a brief rain as the clouds passed by.

I stopped at the Leech Lake campsite. There was no shelter here and the swimming doesn’t sound great, haha. It did have a great flat and mowed space for tents though. As I sought the bathroom, I found the old accommodations and I was glad they had been replaced.

Mileage: 17.2

Total Mileage: 128 – over 5% now!

Today’s Audio: Apollo 13 flight director loop (the recordings of the headset of flight director Gene Kranz in the initial hours of working the Apollo 13 accident)

Day 9