The Great Mississippi River Adventure 

Day 11

The day mother natured Winnibigoshish'd me

Stats

27.61 miles traveled in 8:41 hours

River mile start:970

River mile end:942

River mile today:28

River mile total:399

% complete: 16.8

Averaged 3.2 mph (including lunch break, rest stop, and weatherdelays)

Burned 1900 calories

Kayak: Carolina 14

Temp at launch 65 degree, at recovery degree 72

Today turned out to be a weather day. First thing there was a 3.5 mile sprint to the Little Falls dam. Unfortunately the line of storms moved faster than me. Fortunately I made it to a bridge where I was able to wait out the weather. 

After a 2 hour wait I was able to paddle to Little Falls dam and portage. 

At that point the wind started getting serious.  After a 4 hour paddle I made it to Blanchard dam. That was a long portage.

From there it was a super hard paddle to the take out point. At times the wind was so fierce I was only making 1/2 kayak length progress for two strokes. Eventually the storms started again. Around 3:30 there was a suspicious cloud to my right. Lots of thinder emminating from that direction. Then at 3:45 a tornado warning was issued over the phones. Denean called me to get off the river. I explained I was keeping my eye on the storm clouds and paddling like crazy to get away from them. We hung up and after I put my phone away I  got 4 strokes in before white sheets of sideways rain started coming around the next bend in the river. I  paddled to the left bank, found a tree, and held on as the storm passed overhead. 

After the storm passed by the wind died down to a tolerable level. 4 miles later Denean was waiting on me.

So I guess it's good to get the tornado experience out of the way early on an adventure!