Alyssum Pohl: Writing & Professional Training Portfolio
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Day 30: One month!

8/5/2015

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Happy to have gotten help around this bear of a portage. Even from the car park to the put-in, it wasn't a pic-nic!
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I got a ride from Little Falls with John of Shirley Mae's Outfitters to the base of the Blanchard Dam portage, because I had heard of someone getting their backpack stolen there, and also because it was an epically long portage involving stairs and crossing railroad tracks, and walking past fields.  I skipped 9 miles in total, but I've paddled at least that while I've been lost in various places along the way, so I'm not worried about not mileage, haha.  At the put-in, a young man named Daniel was making a boat, which he named the S.S. Timothy and sent with me to take a journey!
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Putting in below Blanchard Dam
No deer seen.  No trash today either, just big shells that looked like trash because they shimmer in the sunlight the way plastic does. I did see 6 yellow labs, 2 black labs, a collie and a Boston terrier.  It's the weekend, so there's lots of traffic.  At one point, I dozed off on my kayak.  Napping, I was woken up by Tony and Sherri Sykora who offered help in any way they could.  I was embarrassed to be caught napping, but also grateful for the offer!  Didn’t need anything, and passed their place shortly thereafter.  Later, a few miles from the spot where I had planned to stealth camp near Sartell, a couple on a pontoon boat pulled up and asked what I was doing, where I was headed.  They offered their backyard to camp in, and gave a description of their place, so when I saw it a few miles down the river, I pulled over.  Mary and Jim Michaud twisted my arm and got me to stay inside and take a shower and enjoy a meal and a real bed.  Their house reminded me of my dad's place and their backyard reminded me of my mom's backyard.  Over crackers and cheese and a veggie burger, we enjoyed great conversation; they were really my kinds of people. 
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Sometimes I see flocks of geese with as many as 60 geese, but they're difficult to photograph without a zoom lens.
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Busy weekend! Lots of recreation traffic.
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Another beautiful day on the water.
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Wonderful time with Mary and Jim Michaud (Jim had already left for volunteer work by the time I remembered to take a photo).
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    Alyssum Pohl is paddling the Mississippi River and documenting water quality and plastic waste along the way.

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