After scouting out our take out options when we return to Minneapolis, we hit the road for a 4 hour drive to Lake Itasca. It’s hard to believe a 4 hour drive will take a planned 16 days return voyage.
After looking at the massive marsh with no discernible river in sight at Pine Point, I think we’ve decided to put in tomorrow at the highway 7 crossing downstream on Pine Point. We’ll miss the first ~40 miles of “river”, but it seems better than weed whacking through miles of cattails or dragging kayaks through mud.
We had a nice little visit at the Headwaters Visitors Center where I learned the flow rate here is 30-60 gallons per second; in New Orleans it’s 4.5-5.5 million gallons per second. I look forward to seeing the massive changes as we leave this sleepy little creek and move to the industrial waterway.
Starting the wildlife log: today we saw a sandhill crane, a peacock, a bald eagle, and a dead porcupine. I’m not sure whether to expect more interesting animals, but some live interesting mammals would be nice.
A minor celebration tonight at Bert’s Cabin in Itasca State Park. Tomorrow the anxious preparations end and the stories on the river begin.
Today’s Riverquest Rhythm playlist addition… I never really thought much of the Boss in my younger years, but he’s grown on me with age, and he’s playing for 42,500 people at Wrigley Field tonight (with support from Geeto and Chew Reilly), tomorrow we will finally go down to The River!
Matt’s Mississippi Manifest 
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