24APRIL2012 @ Springfield, SD - What a wonderful day this has been!  I paddled the entire length of the Lewis and Clark Lake, I experienced the end of the awesome wetlands, I watched mile after mile of beautiful scenery go by, I was completed at 1530 and was doing all this with perfect weather.  Weather is so good that I will not even seek a motel room tonight ... camping will do fine. 
I was up and ready to go well before sunrise.  With no wind it was easy to secure the gear and push off into the coming daylight.  For six miles I was still paddling past the wetlands ... that's a lot of wetlands.  Locating the channel was yesterday's problem, though ... today I simply stayed on the left.  Geese were out early as were ducks.  By the time I had finished the six miles bald eagles, pelicans, whitetail deer, osprey, kingfisher and a beaver were also seen.  The beauty of the wetlands is based equally upon a combination of scenery and size ... a size that underscores the reality that some areas of it will NEVER be encroached upon by any human ... never ... ever.  Once past the wetlands one finds it easier to focus on the banks, a continual cream over gray bluff broken by rivulets filled with oak and cedar.  Going ashore at two such spots I was struck by the verdent grasses speckled among the oak ... just an explosion of beauty.  The gray part of the bluffs is subject to wear by water and ice, but last year's flood caused minimal such wear.  Even so, regular rockfall deposits of cream colored stone are seen.  Rocks as big as horses are common.  Also common is writing on the gray stone walls.  The day will surely come when the name of the person lying dead under a fresh deposit of cliffstone will be read on the wall.
I paddled along the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area for two , maybe more, miles and came ashore at that State Park's easternmost campground space.  Securing the canoe and placing some gear on an appropriate picnic table I made for the Cottonwood Inn and some liquid.  Wonderful place that Cottonwood; I had a Big Ass Salad for only $3.00.  Wonderful place.  Many of the locals frequent this cafe/bar and I strongly recommend it.  They offered to open their hotel units early (for the season) for me in a paddler-friendly gesture.  While I did not obligate myself to accept their offer, later - when a local flooring contractor was paying my tab (for real) - he informed me that they considered that indeed I would be at the Cottonwood for Wednesday night.  I met Jeff and Judy Wahl at the bar and their establishment is where I KNOW I obligated myself and where I will stay.  I hope the Cottonwood folks will be understanding.
Back at the campground I threw my tarp over the picnic table and settled in.  I was almost asleep - maybe barely asleep - when I realized that a vehicle had their headlights trained on my "tent".  After several minutes of a well lighted tent and of hearing absolutely nothing, I concluded it was not another camper and that it probably was a park ranger, so I emeerged, approached the vehicle and asked why it was considered necessary to light up my bedroom.  The ranger was asking what I thought I was doing.  After that exchange I understood he is a ranger and he understood I was not a danger.  I offered my credit card and he began processing my payment ... and I learned that he was billing me $20.  I will not go through the entire discussion, but after his supervisor arrived the fee was reduced to $10 ... which I paid and then the two of them went in peace.  It was to me too strange.  I have concluded from this and two other state park contacts that I will recommend to any paddler and all paddlers that they choose to NOT stay in any South Dakota State Park unless they arrive before 1500 or unless they see and hail a ranger as they paddle by (and therefore paddle in) or unless they arrive on the date of their reservation.  The last item is basically assured since no paddler knows where they will be on any specific day, weather being such a vital factor to progress, and are therefore not likely to have even made a reservation.  South Dakota's state parks are basically not paddler friendly ... there is that expression again.  If any reader wants to know more I will field an individual discussion, but for now I choose not to dwell further on the disappointing end to what had been a wonderful day.                   
Today I paddled from river mile 832 to river mile 812, a distance of 20 miles.