I slept horribly last night! The ground was weird and hard and the trains never stopped running! If it wasn’t a train, there was a barge passing by. Plus, I was fearing the water level reaching my tent. I kept checking to see where it has reached everytime a train woke me up.
The weather was nice and cool except for a wind from the north by northwest direction. It mostly blew me down the river but one area near Sturgeon Lake and a nuclear power plant caused me some serious concern!
I had a crosswind causing at least 3 ft swells which were bad but then a barge parked on the left bank was causing the waves to return to me and the effect was like popcorn. I was bouncing straight up in the air from the colliding waves. It was scary.
We safely locked through dam 3 and paddled towards Redwing, MN. A little ways down the river, a couple on a pontoon boat hailed is down and introduced themselves and gave us water and granola bars. Soon we were pulling up to downtown Redwing, MN. Well, I did anyway. Scott passed the marina and ended up meeting Brad Smith, the owner of the Harbor Bar. He gave us permission to come ashore since my canoe had a leak in it from an earlier incident. We were also able to camp there! They serve some of the best jerk chicken around!
The great thing about visiting Redwing MN was getting a nostalgic feeling. My dad’s favorite boot, the only thing he would wear besides socks, was Red Wing boots. I felt close to him again even though he passed away many years ago.
My Gypsy Road 