Day 33: Rest day on an island

When I woke up, my sleeping bag was cozy.  My body heat dried it out over night! Today’s the first day I’ve taken a rest day without wifi, without people around.  I like it.  I had thought I’d go find wifi today, but the allure of not packing anything, and staying put and REALLY RESTING won.  I spent the morning gathering plastic trash and sparkler sticks from the beach around me. It’s been windy all day, and sunny.  Nice to look out at the river and not think, “I should be out there, making use of the flow,” but “look how pretty.  And I don’t even have to pack up my tent.”  I spent some time looking at the map, realizing I am only 25 miles from Minneapolis.  I made some plans to meet up with Alyce Louise, a woman who paddled down the Mississippi with a group last fall, tomorrow night, and to paddle from Coon Rapids Dam with her and Jon Clark (my 1st cousin once removed) on Friday, and then have dinner (THAI !!!!  I’ve been craving pad see ew) with them and some other paddlers in the area.  

There are goldfinches and monarch butterflies alighting and flitting down the edge of the water. I dug out all my food to see what I could reasonably eat for lunch, and was stoked to find one last dehydrated mashed potato packet.  I added some dehydrated leeks, mushrooms and carrots, water, and Ta-Da!  I real-ish meal. Better than the jellybeans and honey I thought I’d have to eat. For dinner, I had jellybeans and oatmeal. And chocolate.  I really don’t have much food left.

Goldfinches. Bright and beautiful!

After sleeping in a wet sleeping bag because my tent wasn't staked down well enough for a storm, I got smart: When camping in sand, always use backup on the stake webbing.

My own private island.

Spent some of the day collecting all the trash on the island--lots of fireworks, sparklers, some ammunition shells, etc.