Alas! Our adventure begins! The first night on the boat has revealed that one among us is a very hearty snorer, but I shall refrain from naming names. . . (WADE) as a result, we did not start out as early as we hoped. Didn't get really going until 9 am across the beautiful Lake Pepin. My sister Jenny started in on breakfast as I sat at the tiller and steered, and Wade set up our mainsail. For most of the first part of the trip we knew we wouldn't be able to set up the sail due to the narrow channels that limited our manueverabily and wind, so we wanted to use the sail on Lake Pepin (where it was still considerably wide) while we still could.
It was here at I learned early on just how useful buoys really are. There was quite a bit of boat traffic on the lake, and I was trying to stay directly in the wind direction to maximize our speed but also stay out of the other boaters way when I set course on the left side of a red buoy. I was only about a 100 feet out from it, but evidentally that was enough because my tiller hit something. Thankfully, we weren't going fast enough to cause any damage to it as Wade immediately rushed back and unhooked the tiller and hauled it into the boat, but it WAS a hassel to have to change course to face the wind to take the sails down so that the current wasn't throwing off our ability to put the tiller back on. Meanwhile, the boat was being rocked every which way by 4 foot waves as Jenny was still below making scrambled eggs for breakfast. Needless to say, there was not as much for breakfast as originally planned. . . Moral of the story: red buoys are to be kept to the travellers left side when travelling downstream and, similarily, green buoys are to be kept to the right. The area between the buoys is dredged to maintain a minimum of 9 feet for the barges sake mostly, and anything outside of those buoys are to be traversed at your own risk. Among the other common fallen trees, shallow shorelines, and things you may run into outside of the buoys, I learned there are many, many wing-dams. These are underwater dams, put in place and are maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, extending from the shore a certain distance to divert the current of the river so the current between the buoys travels fastest.
I've always been a little bit of a history buff so I bought guide books (almost exclusively The Great River Road series by Pat Middleton) that follow the Mississippi River's history fairly closely and I'll be relaying fun facts or stories as we come upon them. Almost right after we left the wide channel of Lake Pepin, I found one of the places listed in my historical guide book - the Chippewa River. "As early as 1680, the Jesuit explorer Father Louis Hennepin was referring to the Chippewa River by its Indian name, the Buffalo River. He noted then that it was 'full of turtles.' Over 100 years later an account by Thomas G. Anderson, who spent 50 years in the area as a fur trader and Indian Agent, again refers to the Buffalo River.
Buffalo County was part of the winter grazing area for the huge herds of buffalo which scoured the northern plains. Anderson refers to seeing tens of thousands of buffalo within the Mississippi River valley. At times, he wrote, the earth seemed to quiver and shake, not with the pounding hooves, but from the 'angry bellowing of 10,000 bulls.' Another time, he mentions the nothern bay of Lake Pepin as being 'black with swimming buffalo.'
The Indians in the early 1800's were still desperately dependent on buffalo for food and shelter. Anderson notes that the unsually warm winter of 1807 meant that few buffalo moved as far south as Lake Pepin and the natives experienced wholesale starvation. 'This spring over 40 Indian bodies were found in the Buffalo (Chippewa) River and it was speculated that they died of starvation trying to find turtles hibernating in the mud." (Middleton)
Try as I might, I found no turtles, though. I have a feeling it's getting a little too late in the year for them. Absolutely beautiful countryside, though. There are tree covered bluffs and limestone cliffs on both sides of the river and the occassional riverside town with towering homes and some with tiny homes. All in all - very picturesque.
We also went through our first lock and dam (No. 4) in Alma, WI. It was really exciting! It basically looks like a box adjacent to the dam with monstrous doors on both ends. Wade called in on channel 14 that we needed a "ride down" and they said they'd be ready for us. We pulled up and there was a light, just like a regular stoplight at a city intersection, and when the doors of the lock opened the light turned green and we went in. The attendant dropped ropes for Jenny to hang onto at the front of the boat and one for Wade and the stern and we stayed close to the wall as the water levels continuously dropped. We went down a total of 10 or so feet and the opposite doors opened and we were now at the new water level and allowed to continue on our way!
We spent the night beached on an island near Winona, MN and Jenny and I were scared to death of a weird sounding bird that we were convinced was a large man-eating gorilla escaped from the zoo. =)
It was here at I learned early on just how useful buoys really are. There was quite a bit of boat traffic on the lake, and I was trying to stay directly in the wind direction to maximize our speed but also stay out of the other boaters way when I set course on the left side of a red buoy. I was only about a 100 feet out from it, but evidentally that was enough because my tiller hit something. Thankfully, we weren't going fast enough to cause any damage to it as Wade immediately rushed back and unhooked the tiller and hauled it into the boat, but it WAS a hassel to have to change course to face the wind to take the sails down so that the current wasn't throwing off our ability to put the tiller back on. Meanwhile, the boat was being rocked every which way by 4 foot waves as Jenny was still below making scrambled eggs for breakfast. Needless to say, there was not as much for breakfast as originally planned. . . Moral of the story: red buoys are to be kept to the travellers left side when travelling downstream and, similarily, green buoys are to be kept to the right. The area between the buoys is dredged to maintain a minimum of 9 feet for the barges sake mostly, and anything outside of those buoys are to be traversed at your own risk. Among the other common fallen trees, shallow shorelines, and things you may run into outside of the buoys, I learned there are many, many wing-dams. These are underwater dams, put in place and are maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, extending from the shore a certain distance to divert the current of the river so the current between the buoys travels fastest.
I've always been a little bit of a history buff so I bought guide books (almost exclusively The Great River Road series by Pat Middleton) that follow the Mississippi River's history fairly closely and I'll be relaying fun facts or stories as we come upon them. Almost right after we left the wide channel of Lake Pepin, I found one of the places listed in my historical guide book - the Chippewa River. "As early as 1680, the Jesuit explorer Father Louis Hennepin was referring to the Chippewa River by its Indian name, the Buffalo River. He noted then that it was 'full of turtles.' Over 100 years later an account by Thomas G. Anderson, who spent 50 years in the area as a fur trader and Indian Agent, again refers to the Buffalo River.
Buffalo County was part of the winter grazing area for the huge herds of buffalo which scoured the northern plains. Anderson refers to seeing tens of thousands of buffalo within the Mississippi River valley. At times, he wrote, the earth seemed to quiver and shake, not with the pounding hooves, but from the 'angry bellowing of 10,000 bulls.' Another time, he mentions the nothern bay of Lake Pepin as being 'black with swimming buffalo.'
The Indians in the early 1800's were still desperately dependent on buffalo for food and shelter. Anderson notes that the unsually warm winter of 1807 meant that few buffalo moved as far south as Lake Pepin and the natives experienced wholesale starvation. 'This spring over 40 Indian bodies were found in the Buffalo (Chippewa) River and it was speculated that they died of starvation trying to find turtles hibernating in the mud." (Middleton)
Try as I might, I found no turtles, though. I have a feeling it's getting a little too late in the year for them. Absolutely beautiful countryside, though. There are tree covered bluffs and limestone cliffs on both sides of the river and the occassional riverside town with towering homes and some with tiny homes. All in all - very picturesque.
We also went through our first lock and dam (No. 4) in Alma, WI. It was really exciting! It basically looks like a box adjacent to the dam with monstrous doors on both ends. Wade called in on channel 14 that we needed a "ride down" and they said they'd be ready for us. We pulled up and there was a light, just like a regular stoplight at a city intersection, and when the doors of the lock opened the light turned green and we went in. The attendant dropped ropes for Jenny to hang onto at the front of the boat and one for Wade and the stern and we stayed close to the wall as the water levels continuously dropped. We went down a total of 10 or so feet and the opposite doors opened and we were now at the new water level and allowed to continue on our way!
We spent the night beached on an island near Winona, MN and Jenny and I were scared to death of a weird sounding bird that we were convinced was a large man-eating gorilla escaped from the zoo. =)
By Karla
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