hello beautiful community!
We made it past Lake Pepin, and got lucky with some really lovely weather for crossing the big water! Pepin is the last official lake on the river, and is a huge milestone in our journey. We were joined from the twin cities by Claire, a dear friend, and since have been graciously hosted and helped by river angels Jim, Amelie and Andy Lindberg-Livingston, Broken Paddle Guiding Co. And Dancing Gnome Farm. BIG Thanks to our river angels and friends!!
The river since leaving the twin cities has gotten bigger and more full of other boats, barges and people! We are leaving Wabsha today and looking forward to paddling through more of the Driftless region (a region that missed getting flattened from passing glaciers, from my basic understanding).
Entering Lake Pepin, even passing Red Wing, the bluffs, fall colors and topography of hills and ridges that surround the water here is magical and mesmerizing. At the top of Lake Pepin from the Wisconsin channel we hit some silty, sandy, muddy, muck and walked the boats until we could find deeper water. Dredging piles are becoming more and more common as we move south too, because the Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with maintaining an 8ft deep channel on the river at all times for barges, and rivers naturally carry silt, sand and debris downstream, there's a lot of dredging they do.
We are paddling on and propelled to keep living our values on this journey.
All photos of Cory and I were taken by Claire, and the rest taken by Cory or I.
Big river love,
Espoir