When I started planning this journey, I intended to do it alone. But, I’m now excited to be sharing this epic adventures with some friends. To quote a tune from The Book of Mormon: “Every hero needs a sidekick, every captain needs a mate, every dinner needs a side dish on a slightly smaller plate”… here’s to my first Side Dish – brother Dave Schuette!

Dave is an eternal pessimist and master of impromptu heavy sighs. But he knows a good time when he sees one; and his attempts to knock me down a few notches usually strengthen my resolve. As a side dish, he’s like many green vegetables: they’re good for you and when well prepared can be really good. Dave’s a perfect side dish for this first leg.

On cue, pessimism seemed the right mood shortly into the day. I was less exhilarated than expected, and sad to see my wife go. It sank home that I’ve chosen to leave my most loved ones for some long stretches of time, and that feeling was strong as we shoved our kayaks into the water for the first time. Our load is much heavier than expected, due largely to my oversupply of food and water, which makes the paddling sluggish and seemingly slow. Then, probably 1/2 mile in, we started to hit walls of vegetation. It was hard to tell where the river went at times, and seemed there was no current, though the grasses had difficulty pushing back on our 350 (or more) pounds pushing ahead. Those conditions kept up for what seemed 30 minutes, then we hit a 4’ wall of cattails that offered enough resistance to stop us dead. With the stability of the kayak, I could easily stand and see over the cattails, and we picked a path that eventually led to some narrow open water that was clearly moving. My dad was worried about my personal safety on this trip and wanted to give me a machete for protection – I was wishing for that machete in the cattail forest!

The rest of the day brought occasional grassy conditions, but it was mostly clear and peaceful paddling. We did about 11 miles in 3 hours, though the second half was faster than the first. We stomped around waist high grasslands at what was supposedly a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources watercraft camp (Silver Maple), but after walking through stinging nettles and Dave stepping off into chest high water, we made our way in a light rain to a stealth camp on the right bank a few miles short of Bemidji.

I not sure exactly why, but I have a ring tone for Dave on my phone of a Rolling Stones song, though I suspect it’s because his cranium is chimpanzee sized. So, in honor of Dave, my playlist entry today is Monkey Man.

Lastly… sorry if these posts are somewhat delayed. So far mobile phone reception has been spotty – and there’s no Wi-Fi at the stealth camp! Tomorrow we’ll be at the Hampton in Bemidji where I’ll get caught up (though that now feels like cheating after only one night in the wild).