Day 22

Day 22
Having gone to sleep way to early last night I woke up early but full of energy. I showered again and hit the streets to buy my food resupply and hopefully add a chair to my gear list since I no longer had to portage all my gear. The morning quickly slipped by and at 11 the Uber dropped us off at the park were the boats were stored. We made short work of repacking the boats and shoving off. We were both glad to be leaving the busy, loud city behind us. Little did we know we wouldn't be seeing the wilds today. After 5 miles we came to Lock and Dam 1, I quickly contacted the lock master by radio requesting to lock south. After about 10 minutes the large steel doors opened and we paddled in. We grabbed hold of ropes hanging from the lock walls and soon the water level was dropping. It only took about 5 minutes to drop about 15 feet and the steel doors on the other end opened. We paddled out, proud to have completed the first of 26 locks and dams. After only a couple miles we were hit with a 10 to 15 mph head wind and progress slowed to a crawl. Ahead we could see the city of St. Cloud and first of many barges moored along the river bank. Quickly we had our first meeting with a barge, it was a large party type barge with a tug boat pushing it against the heavy current. After it passed we tossed in the large waves it made and continued south. We paddled under a dozen bridges and looked up at the many high rise buildings of downtown.
Past downtown we paddled along row after row of large steel barges. Many were empty and towered over us at 20 feet high, making us realize we were now small boats in quickly growing river. As we progressed the wind continued to build in strength and made controlling my canoe very difficult. After passing through town we agreed paddling at less than a mile an hour was a waste and began to look for a camp site. The river was now lined with industrially plants of all types. The air smelled of steel, dog food, fuel oil and other unpleasant things. The high water had everything flooded including the places we wanted to camp. Shawn spotted a marina on the map and we pulled into its protected waters. On the far end of the marina we found the Mississippi bar. We went inside and ordered burgers and enjoyed watching the happy hour crowd drinking away another Monday. After eating the best burgers of the trip we discovered a small town park next door. The city of Inver Groove had taken and old railroad bridge and created a pier and park. We set up camp under the pavilion and washed up in the rest rooms before settling in for the night. We are both very tired and I don't think the noise of the refinery across the river will keep us up. Despite a very late start and high winds we covered almost 25 miles.