25APRIL2011 near Twin Buttes, ND - I watched the sunburst and was on the water maybe 1 hour later. Things froze last night, so I often paddled through 1/4 inch ice. Quarter inch ice is a little tiring but as the day wore on it got thinner and thinner and was eventually a non-issue. On occasion I encountered a head wind (SE). It was intermittent but it was strong enough to move ice floes and made passage along the east facing banks of bays quite difficult. Often I avoided this problem by going across the bay in an ice crack ... but then sometimes the ice crack would close up. Fortunately the ice was tinkle ice and not the canoe crushing type, but difficult to paddle through nevertheless. The worst case was about 100 feet along an unavoidable east facing bank which required about an hour to get through. The ice floes are actually a bit mushy, particularly by the end of the day and I am optimistic that the mushy part will increase and tomorrow will be easier.

Today I entered back into the globular rock zone as described last year at a point more upstream. One noticeable globular rock was like a ten foot diameter target. Another profile formation - not among the globular rocks - looked like Bill Clinton. Picture Bubba Bill per the editorial cartoons and you will know the rock.

I've seen nobody today or yesterday. This is a well used lake, but with ice over most of it, the motorboats are still waiting. Keeping me company today were several deer, geese and horses, wild I suppose. I saw a moth sitting on the ice ... it flew away when I put my paddle toward it ... fascinating.

I am bedding down in the first bay east from an irrigation pumping station. I am over a ridge though probably only 300 feet from the station. My river mileage is 1432 - only 42 miles to the dam.