The recreation of the long awaited Day 7! You may need to go back and reread Day 6 to get your mind back in that place…

Word for the day: GRATEFUL. I’m not sure how else to best convey my thoughts for the Bromenschenkels who gave us a surprising boost when we really needed it.

So last night before bed, Shootman came into the bunkhouse to have me look at what he thought may be a tick on his back. I noticed when we were having dinner he kept picking at his back until one time his fingers were bloody. Well sure enough, he had the destroyed remains of something stuck there on his lower back. Thankfully I had packed a tick remover in the first aid kit!

I got out an antiseptic wipe and cleaned up the blood from the area, then slid the tick remover downward until it caught the head still embedded. With a little pressure, ta-wing! It was off. But was that a spark that flew when it released? Did Shootman have some new gleam in his eye? His countenance seemed changed by the event more than should be expected. Is this the creation of Tickboy, to join Leechman in epic battles against supervillains? 🤔

When we got up in the morning we went into the Bromenschenkel house for coffee. They have a large window looking out towards the side yard where deer were coming to graze. This got us talking about what other animals have been seen from this vantage point, which included a few bear that Jeff shared photos of. I told of things I’ve seen (beaver, otter, ermine…) but unfortunately have no photos of them worth sharing.

Then I wondered, how did guys like that Marlin Perkins from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom get all of their great photos and videos? I remember as a kid watching that show on Sunday nights on NBC. It seemed he could saddle a wild moose, and actually live in the den with the beavers. Me? “Oh, this photo of a grassy riverbank? Imagine a big beaver sitting right there. And this one of the clear blue sky, imagine it full of whooping cranes making their noises. And how about this one? See that speck there above the trees? That’s the eagle flying away with a fish in its talons.” Were animals less afraid of humans in Marlin’s day? Or maybe there were just more animals? Or maybe Marlon Perkins was just better than me. And he seemed to always have these wildlife encounters with pressed slacks and a sport coat!

After coffee, Sandy and Jeff made us a fantastic breakfast which included Jeff’s own maple syrup on blueberry pancakes. Over breakfast we talked about some of the people the Bromenschenkels have helped in their River Angel way. There was one guy who was traveling alone in two inflatable kayaks: one held all of his gear plus a giant stuffed Scooby Doo, he traveled in the other with an 1800’s style view camera (you know, the kind on a big stand with a black drape to cover your head when taking photos). I imagined he was the not so publicized love child of Ansel Adams and some carnival worker. I mean, how else do you put old time photography together with grand prize from a ring toss or ring the bell game? Apparently the guy capsized his tagalong kayak on Lake Winnibigoshish and lost all his gear to the lake bottom, I’m not sure if Scooby survived.

Another guy in an inflatable who hailed himself as some king of writer was traveling with little food and water, but he had a heavy old ribbon typewriter. He came across the Bromenschenkel haven and stayed for nearly a week before they finally had to drive him off. The guy was trying to provide all sorts of advice to their then teenage daughter, and Jeff didn’t think life lessons should be coming from someone toting around a 30 pound writing device where pen and paper would do. So I was glad that we were not even close to the top of the lunatic paddling scale according to our hosts.

After breakfast we packed up our gear and loaded it in Jeff’s truck, then we put the boats on his trailer to start our aid assisted portage around the two Grand Rapids dams. This got us discussing portages and the broken cart, for which I said a couple lengths of 3/4” pipe would be a perfect fix. Jeff took a piece of the broken aluminum pipe, disappeared to his shop, and moments later emerged with two pieces of steel pipe that were indeed the perfect fix. We were then on our way, fully fed, and in good spirits traveling past the dams. Jeff had a Grumpy dwarf hat in the truck that Shootman envied; it would be good for him and I made a mental note for his Christmas list.

Once on the water, we hoped to do about 27 miles to the MN DNR Swimming Bear campsite, but the first target was Sucher’s campsite for lunch. The day was hot and the water felt slow, and maybe we were over fed and lazy from breakfast. We intersected the Prairie River, which was the first significant confluence we’d seen, but it didn’t seem to make a noticeable difference in the downstream flow. We separated after some time and agreed to meet for lunch at Sucher’s. I passed by another beaver that I couldn’t catch on film and cursed Marlin Perkins.

After lunch we were greeted by Scott Erickson who lives nearby and takes care of the campsite. His property is adjacent to this and he explained to us that these sites are owned privately and the state provides them a tax break for making them available and maintaining them. Scott encouraged us the do some fishing there, saying it’s hard not to catch bass that are pretty tasty. He also had a story to relay of a guy in an inflatable kayak at the campsite. He was dressed in a black suit and traveled with about 50 bibles and not much else: no tent, sleeping bag, camp stove, etc. He told Scott that he was just trusting God to provide. Note to self: traveling far in an inflatable kayak is a sure path to lunacy.

After lunch Shootman got a head start and I figured I’d catch him sometime later. After an hour when he didn’t see any sign of me, he pulled up to wait and we traveled together for the rest of the day. We only made it about 10 more miles, not the additional 20 initially envisioned.

The Blackberry campsite we stayed was nice, as most of the DNR sites are, but I was frustrated not to make more progress. We discussed this over dinner and made plans to change some things for tomorrow and push for a big day. We needed to get back on track to the schedule if we were going to make it to the planned meeting location with Chad in a few days.

As I noted in the earlier abbreviated post when Day 7 disappeared, This would be the closest we would get to the birthplace of Bob Dylan. I wasn’t able to provide the link before to that Dylan song that captured the spirit of the day, so here it is: Pressing On