17April2012 near Academy, SD - I awoke at 0745, straightened out my sleeping bags and greeted the owner of the Dock 44 store as she began her work day. For the first time in my life I am paying to get internet access ... may all you readers appreciate that. Coffee is good and the house special hamburger is in my future ... and proved well worth it. At about 1230 I pushed off into only a slight headwind, not a meaningful problem at all.
Basically all I did was paddle around one left bend, or actually a kink, in the river. This is one of the straightest stretches one encounters in the entire Missouri River; I am sure Lewis and Cleark appreciated the distance that they could cover rather bthan the more tedious progress of other areas. After anbout seven miles I rounded the kink and put the bridge out of sight. Some fishe3rmen advised me to camp beyond the Platte Creek Campground since last year's flood had changed things and the PCCampground had not been fully reconstructed. As I went by I could esee what they meant ... plus the paddle inward was not something I desired to do. A mile or so past there I went past a pretty bay that features a LOT OF CEDAR TREES - very picturesque. I stopped at the next meaningful bay and set up on the point, high and in the trees and level. It is also well gravelled, something thyat assures good drainage as well as ease in dirt configuration. well before sundown I was set up enjoying thye sunset. I popped the btop on some sparkling grape juice, waTCHED THE SUNSET AND expressed appreciation to nature's creator.
Today I travelled from river mile 921 to river mile 910, a distance of 11 miles.