27APRIL2011 near Twin Buttes, ND - I joined Bob and Ethel for breakfast and was on the water at 0800. I encountered the standard ice problems plus one new one, that being jams of medium sized floes, medium being between canoe size and house size. This new problem caused me to paddle very circuitously, yet at the end of the day I logged 12 river miles, bedding down only three miles from the Dakota Waters resort (breakfast tomorrow?).
Today I crossed two huge bays, Red Butte Bay and Beaver Creek Bay - and they were the two easiest bays to cross. The big surprise was Beaver Creek Bay, about a mile across. I crossed in an ice crack that never got narrower than 40 feet. In the distance south of Beaver Creek Bay are four smoke stacks. The smoke emanating therefrom was going straight up, and for the entire crossing. I have begun calling these cracks God's Highway; no doubt for me they are heaven sent. It was so calm today that with quick-dry paint one could paint a centerline on God's Highway that would have stayed until tomorrow. The other large bay, Red Butte Bay, also easy to cross, was not a surprise because I stayed at it last night and knew how it would be.
I got to this site late and it is now getting dark. The last two miles were very low banks and shallow water filled with small trees out fifty feet or so. Getting to the shore in that reach would have been unpleasant and once there any campsite would have been less than stellar ... so I kept paddling. I have tilted the canoe on it's side near two buildings. Several folks are fishing across this arm of this bay. Today's mileage puts me at river mile1415; only 25 miles to the dam.