Silver Bay Marina, MN to Temperance River, MN: Daily miles 31.1 , Total miles 326.6
Planned to take a short day on account of my burns and the relentless paddling we have been doing. We planned 4 miles into Tettegouche State Park where we could relax and shower. The day started fine. My legs felt better and with the exception of 3 or 4 big blisters looked pretty good. We got out early before the marina opened in order to avoid being hassled for staying in the No Camping area. The lake was glass calm with no wind and the 4 miles to the park must have flown by. We paddled into some sea caves and arches and took it easy because we were only going 4 miles. I had to stop and go to the bathroom on what I thought was a remote beach. I didn’t see anyone when I landed and there were no houses but unfortunately for both me and the people who walked up on me, the beach was not as remote as I thought. As we paddled on we quickly realized we must have missed the park and that we were now in an area marked on the map as “No Public Landing”. Great. There goes my short day because the no landing zone extended about 15 miles and we had already gone 8 miles. We decided to commit to it because the weather was good, so we paddled on. We found a beach with no development and landed for lunch. Lunch went without incident today which is a vast improvement over yesterday. After lunch we met a very excited woman who hailed us down from atop a 40 foot cliff waving her arms and shouting. We had a weird shouting conversation about our trip and moved on. There was a huge waterfall pouring into the lake at one point which was very cool to see. We were hoping to stop after 30 miles in Temperance State Park but when we got there we found the park full of the RV crowd. I was pretty irritated after paddling 30 miles,they couldn’t find me a place to camp. I asked about the shore up ahead and the woman told me she didn’t really know much about the park. We ate dinner in their picnic area and got back into our boats while the tourists gawked at us like we were part of the entertainment at the park. We paddled slow, exhausted, and agreed to stop at the first place that looked promising. A mile later, pulled up on a big rock slab that looked O.K. We should have moved on when we didn’t find a good tent site but we were to tired and stubborn. We ended up moving the tent 3 times because the places we picked were to sloped or too lumpy. The place we settled on isn’t exactly grade A but it will work. I am tired after our first 30 mile day but feel really good about it. It was easier than I would have guessed. The miles went by much easier than hiking 30 miles. It feels good to have covered a lot of ground today and I am happy we didn’t just go 4 miles. The weather is supposed to sour over the next few days so it felt good to get a lot done on a day that the lake was calm. Now for a lumpy, slightly sloped, well deserved nights rest.
