2 July: Day-25, Total-26; Miles-40, Total-948
- Chuck
On the water before 7am, it is overcast with very light
wind, a good day to paddle. Around each bend I looked for Bill, no luck.
One time when searching with the binos, an arctic tern swooped at me
and grazed the top of my hat. Both the terns and the seagulls often
dive at us, probably trying to protect nearby nests.
About 11am it started raining. The rain and the wind increased as the
day went on. At about 3pm a squall blew through with winds at 30 kts,
white caps and rain blowing sideways. Fortunately, I was only a few
hundred feet from shore. I made a dash for a gravel bar and held in
an eddy for about 30 minutes when the wind eased up a bit. Since the
water was too rough to travel, I found a spot and put my tent up in
the rain, tossed in my gear, some cold food and crawled in behind it.
The rain came down even harder as I ate the miscellaneous items that
were grabbed from the pantry box in a flash. Either Betty or my sister,
Mae, had given me a couple packs of precooked bacon slices. This was
the first time I tried them, they are great! Two other items rounded
out the meal; a bottle of cheddar squeeze cheese and two small packs
of crackers & peanut butter. What great go-togethers. There were
about 15 slices of bacon, when all the crackers were gone, I squeezed
the cheese directly on the bacon. Sure tasted good on a cold rainy night
after being wet for hours.
No sign of Bill all day. I must have gone by him when passing an island
or we could have selected different channels at times. Or, he may be
pushing trying to catch up with me but probably not because I told him
on the radio that I would wait until I was sure he was in front of me
then catch up to him. Also, he should know I'm behind him because he
saw the buildings in Beaver before I did. Anyway, we should link up
tomorrow in Stevens Village, about 30 miles downstream.