DAY 4 – BEAVER DAMS AND DAMN EVENTS

Felt Bridge to Coffee Pot Landing - approximately 4.5 miles [BTW: Most people seem to make it from the Headwaters to Coffee Pot in one day—it’s taken us three days… B1 noted that if we kept on this pace, we'd finish in 6-1/2 years instead of 2-1/2 months...]

The first half of the day’s journey was characterized by kayaking languidly through an area of butterflies, dragonflies, and flowers, punctuated by humping the boat across beaver dams. Beautiful, but (unfortunately for us today) NOT FUN.

The second half of the day consisted of twisting open-river boating, learning to paddle in actual currents (remember that we have practiced  in chop and wind, but always with pedals on open water), so steering together without a rudder and with short turning radii had us bouncing off the banks for a while). B1 is not feeling well, and I ended up often handling the boat by myself--I'm proud of this, but the effort is tremendous for both of us in our own way. The gorgeous weather—and a deer wading in front of us—is not enough to make any of this truly enjoyable. We spill gratefully out of the boat at Coffee Pot Landing. B1 naps all afternoon (after throwing up what little he'd eaten earlier, seemingly from exhaustion). STILL NOT FUN.

I have not seen b1 smile in two days; the exertion is hard on him. His condition is hard on me...

Traversing a dam

A beaver dam at Coffee Pot Landing (we didn't cross it; most portage it)

Shot over my shoulder mid-afternoon - Gorgeous day!