28APRIL2011 near Zap, ND - The sun was drying my tarp before I squeezed myself out of my bedding. The fishermen had left and I was alone and looking at an ice clogged but manageable arm of this bay. Ice mats had drifted in over night but they were reconstituted tinkle ice and not a concern. Indeed it was no problem to paddle out to ice free water and across to the opposite shore. There I encountered ice among the trees and my progress was slowed considerably. As the time went by I quit thinking about a Dakota Waters Resort breakfast and shifted to thoughts of lunch. Eventually I paddled into what I thought was the Dakota Waters area, fought my way through still reconstituted ice and across the bay, landed, discovered I had landed on an island, got back in and landed again and walked over to some homes to inquire. Bill and Sharon Harmsen were there and passed on the bad news that the Dakota Waters Resort was the next bay east. As gracious as they were, bad news is bad news and I had miles to go, so I was off fairly quickly and did not arrive at the Dakota Waters Resort until 1400. So from daybreak until 2 PM I had logged only three miles ... arrgh!

Amazingly enough by the end of the day I had logged nine additional river miles and bedded down only 13 miles from ther dam. In addition, my campsite was ideal. I found a sand beach (no gravel mind you) that had one small tree. I tied the tarp to the tree waist high. made a puo tent and slept devinely.

So how did I log 9 miles after about 3 PM? To start with, I wanted to go as far as possible since I knew Friday the weather was to deteriorate. So I paddled into the dark and of course, set up camp in the dark, meaning I probably was on the water until 10PM. I was able to do this because in no small part, after leaving Dakota Waters behind, I encountered very little problem ice; most of the ice I did encounter was mushy, it being the later hours of a calm, sunny day. Another is that the big bays, Beulah and Expansion, were easy. These highways were not as Godly as the one across Beaver Creek Bay, but easy nonetheless.

I lingered an hour at Dakota Waters because I wanted lunch, but alas, the resort and restaurant was not open. On my way back out I knocked and asked and sure enough, was provided a nice sandwich for lunch, topped off by cake with ice cream. Aren't people wonderfyul? Being a bit tired, I failed to ask the lady who prepared the lunch if it would be acceptable to put her name in this blog. Perhaps she will read this and let me know.