I could see from the activity that a lot of the old buildings in the downtown area were being rehabbed. A block or so from the river I found the post office, the library, a grocery store and a bar. The waterfront park was terrific and the courtesy docks were very handy. It was a short walk from the campground to the Harbor Hut. Directly across from it was the Harbor Hut and a short ways downstream from it was the Island Campground, where I would stay for the night. All the marshes and backwaters were on the Wisconsin side. In the background is the river and the Red Wing shoreline (Photo by Jim Bogdan) The main river channel was pretty narrow and right up against the Red Wing shoreline. In the backyard dining area at the Harbor Bar.

A lot of local knowledge would be needed to figure out which of the side paths would be passable and I did not want to end up at a dead end and have to backtrack for miles. I had decided to always follow the channel markers. There were even a couple large lakes that were not part of the main channel that were I am sure created with the building of Lock and Dam No. There were enough side channels and the like today to make the map look like a spider web. And today also included a woodpecker banging against a hollow tree. I wondered if they understood each other. Later on, a crow and a kingfisher decided to get really mad at each other. Whatever the situation, it looked very comfortable. I don’t know if someone actually owned that small spit of land on the river side of the tracks or if it was simply a squatter who decided to eke out a riverside hideout. The site contained a small ramshackle cottage for sleeping and was complete with a fire pit, roughly-built tables, a dish drying rack and citronella candles. It was on the east side of the river, and on the low land between the water and the railroad tracks, which run right along the river in this section. Day 31 (12 miles) AugOn the way to Red Wing today I stopped briefly after a couple miles to take a look at a really pleasant, though primitive, weekend getaway spot.

That would leave me only 12 miles tomorrow to get to Red Wing, MN, where I’d arranged to meet Jim Bogdan and Bill Melby for dinner at the Harbor Hut on the Wisconsin side of the river. The first half was good as I was heading northeast, the last half was tougher, headed southeast.įreight trains line the river on both banks most of the way through the midwest (Photo by Ron Haines) I found a nice campsite near mile marker 804, about seven miles downstream from Prescott, to spend the night. Today, for example, it took me five hours to go the 14 miles to Lock and Dam No. And, unfortunately, I needed to go south to get to New Orleans. It all depended on the wind, and the wind always seemed to come from some southerly direction. Because I was in a low-flow, low-current, time of the year, the stretches could be either a nice paddle on a long, wide lake, or a lousy slog for miles. Upstream from every lock and dam stretching for ten to forty miles is a wide lake (called a ‘pool’ in Corps of Engineers parlance), formed because of the backed-up flow. The normal pattern was already setting in on this lock and dam controlled part of the river I was now on, and it would be the same until St. Day 30 (24 Miles) AugFrom my island campsite last night it took me from 7 am to noon to get to Lock and Dam No.

Next rest area 55 south missouri