Day 19: Learning to read the river

Charging my phone with my solar panels. Works great!

Getting over the mosquito boundary and out onto the water was a struggle this morning.  I slept in extra simply because I didn’t want to leave the safety of my tent.  But once I did, the mosquitos weren’t biting as badly as they were swarming.  The river was even free of deer flies today.  I spent the first half of the day just reconnecting with the river, listening to the birds, looking at the trees I was passing.  I tried to learn to read the river—the eddies sometimes indicate fast moving water, and sometimes indicate stand-stills.  I think the best way to find the sweet spot in the channel is to look for the cotton wood fluff floating on the surface that’s moving the most quickly.  This mostly works, but sometimes you have to zig-zag all over the river to stay in the fastest moving water. Is it worth it? Not sure yet.

Today I saw a deer swimming to the shore, and later on I thought I saw another one, so I started my GoPro as I paddled closer.  I realized that it wasn’t a deer at all, but a (very large) red fox!  Such a fluffy tail!  Very cool.  I also saw a young raccoon chilling as it hugged a tree trunk, and later 3 young raccoons going to the riverside to wash their hands and look for snails. Lots of large turtles, some as big as 2 feet in diameter.  And I saw a bald eagle with a white spot on its chest, like a cravat.

I was happy that tonight’s campsite had a rocky bank instead of the usual mud.  Much easier to unpack and repack the boat from solid ground rather than sinking sludge.