24APRIL2011 near Twin Buttes, ND - This is my first day on the water. Due to the necessity of packing my gear in dry bags and all the associated launch items, I pushed off somewhere near noon. Make that noon central time, 1100 mountain time ... I slipped back into mountain time yesterday.

Hugging the bank I found easy canoeing in a 100 foot wide ice-free zone. While that's good, it means I must paddle deep into the bays to keep away from the ice. Despite that, it is good to be underway - hard to believe it has been 11 months since I was last here. After several small bays I had paddled easily and had to break/push through ice only at one easy spot. Then I got to Bear Bay ... and got lucky as a break in the ice allowed me to go straight across - no long paddle south followed an equally long paddle back north. Luck ended there, however, as I still had to proceed a fair distance north before turning east again. This west facing bank caught the ice pushed by yesterday's stiff NW wind and it was a mess. I paddled up to a solid ice jam that was even pushed up a ways onto the shore. So there is a conundrum - what to do? Sitting and waiting seems silly but proceeding is difficult at best and maybe impossible. By backing my canoe to the ice jam I found I could move/push small ice blocks past the canoe, giving me a foot or so of water to paddle into. By doing this repeatedly I got through the first ice jam. In a similar manner I got through a second ice jam and found myself in a fairly ice-free bay. It was protected by an island so the ice had not moved in at all. But at the end of this ice-free zone was the biggest jam yet seen. By climbing a bluff I found I could go back and out to the island and paddle through a break in the ice and avoid the whole problem. So I did. A complication of the break being blocked by a large floe had a strange solution. I noted that the ice on both sides was 12" thick - that's thick enough to hold a horse. So I stepped off onto the ice, pulled the canoe out of the lake and slid it over the ice - easy though spooky. Back at the shore I past two more ice jams by pulling the canoe over the ice while walking (well, proceeding anyway) along the bank. It is so easy to say it. Upon finishing this I rounded a point and put Charging Eagle Bay out of sight. On this half day I worked my butt off and logged 4 river miles - that's all. I am still on the Little Missouri, still in mountain time and 49 miles from the dam. Crossing the setting sun is a ribbon of geese, 200 at least. It is trophy calm - I count four small clouds - a fish just broke the mirrored surface - and 1980 years ago Jesus arose. Good Night.