Monday, April 14, 2008

Mississippi River







Change in plans. Today, I was supposed to go to the health club and lift weights. I decided to get in a paddle tonight, since tomorrow the forecast is to have 25 to 30 mph winds and someone mentioned to me earlier that they heard gust of up to 40 mph.

Tonight, I went to Mississippi Point Park on the Mississippi River that is just downstream of the Champlin / Anoka Bridge in Champlin. This is my normal put in spot during the week when I go on the Mississippi.

I was on the water at 17:42 hours and the temperature was 53 degrees. There was a SW wind that was less than 10 mph. I paddled upstream to the “Horse Farm’ and then turned around. I got back to the landing at 20:09 hours. So what is that…took me about 2 and a half hours tonight. It was 50 degrees when I go back to the landing.

I didn’t see any one else on the river, but there were people out walking on the trails along the river and several children playing in the back yards.

The last two times I’ve been on the Mississippi I’ve seen the two eagles, but tonight I didn’t see them. They used to have their nest in a big old Cottonwood tree on an island near where I turned around tonight but sometime last summer the tree fell or it blew down. I don’t know where they are nesting this year.

I did see the two Ospreys’s flying around tonight. I was coming back downstream and I thought I was hearing things. I was hearing a loon call from a distance so I paddled more toward the middle of the river where the sound was coming from. Sure enough there it was and it looked liked two more along the far shore. I have never seen a loon in this area on the Mississippi and I don’t ever recall hearing one in this area, either.

Oh, of course the river is full of different ducks, and other birds and those Canadian Geese.

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These were taken of the eagle and the nest last year on 05-12-07.




Chuck

1 comment:

Norman's Notes said...

Cool Pictures. I tried to escape after school and put the Prism in but my wife and son caught me before I could leave and my wife had a meeting and I couldn't leave my 10 year old home alone and enjoy a paddle. He didn't want to go. So we had some quality father son time fixing a couple things, watching some hockey and working on some stick work. Hopefully the wind dies down later in the day.