Day 23

Day 23
After the storm from last night passed the day started with calm winds and smooth water. As I sat in the river waiting on Shawn the flame from the refineries gas flare created a mirror image on the smooth water. The first leg of the day was to make Lock and Dam 2 just above Hastings before the next round of storms. About an hour in the strong headwind moving with storm had us bent over and paddling a steady and determined course. The wide flood waters had worked to straighten the river for long sections allowing the wind to push up a steady progression of foot or larger waves. We would pick a point two miles away and paddling not directly into the wind but quartered into it. Taking the wind and row after row of waves against the front of the boat we moved constantly forward and to the side in the direction the wind was pushing. Reaching the far point and calm waters we would look at the map, pick our next point and head out for another two miles or so. After several slow hours we talked about how nice it was to be mentally and physically conditioned to travel in these conditions safely. The river was building our skills as it got larger.
As we approached Lock and Dam 2 I called the Lock Master on my handheld VHF, (Very High Frequency) radio to start the process. It played out something like this.
ME: Pleasure craft to Lock Master over
LOCK MASTER: Dam and Lock 2 go ahead Pleasure craft
ME: I have two southbound pleasure craft requesting to lock through
LOCK MASTER: I have some men working at the moment give us 20 minutes and we will have everything ready
ME: Roger we are going to shore to wait for instructions from you
15 min later
LOCK MASTER: Pleasure craft we are almost ready you can slowly make your way towards the lock, please wait for the green light to enter
ME: Roger moving that way
The large steel watertight doors slowly opened and the stop light ahead turned from red to green and we paddled into the lock. As soon as we entered a Corps of Engineers employee waved us towards the far end of the 600 foot lock. The water tight doors closed behind us and the required amount of water to match the river below was pumped out. The lock operator explained it was normally a 12 foot drop but because of high water it was on 18 inches today. After clearing the lock we paddled into Hastings just down stream as it started to sprinkle. We docked at the downtown waterfront park. We picked the Busted Nut as our lunch spot because it was already full. The beer and food was pleasant and we took our time waiting for the storm to move past. The strong storm we had been watching on radar all morning fell apart as it reached us, dropping only a few minutes of rain. Back on the water we paddled south past the extremely flooded St Croix river that had broken a dam upstream a week before. Shawn quickly voiced he was in favor of finding a spot to make camp and dry our wet gear. I readily agreed and soon found what remained of large flooded island on the Wisconsin side. We found a dry area on the very crest of the island and I spent 20 minutes with the machete hacking out a camp site just big enough for our tents. As I was setting up my tent I realized I had left my rain fly for my tent back at the last camp in my rush to get out. Luckily I had a spare tarp and it would do just fine as a rain fly.
We only covered 20 miles today but we only had one requirement for the day, get 15 miles south and out of Deputy Penny's county. Mission Accomplished!