1 August 2003: Days-52, Total-56; Miles-22, Total-1886 – Chuck

It was a peaceful morning. The waves were no longer crashing on the shore, the sun was shining, and birds were expressing their discomfort with our presence. I made coffee and a big breakfast of spanish rice, salmon and onions. Later, Bill arrived and worked on his journal. We were on our way about 12:15pm.

We paddled into the wind, then towed, then paddled. We were bucking 20 knot headwinds and making very slow progress. It is frustrating to be so close to the end and go so slowly.

Likely campsites are few and far between so we decided to start looking by 8pm. About 8:30pm we skimmed over a few inches of water covering a sandbar to a little, mostly sand, beachette. The top of the low bank above the shore was covered with horsetails and suitable for our tents. It was home for the night.

The dry driftwood logs against the bank became my kitchen. With only a few days of camping remaining, I have been trying to use already opened items. This sometimes makes for unusual but, so-far, always good meals. Tonight it was: dried egg mix, dehydrated potatoes, precooked ham slices, onions, garlic, olive oil and some leftover dry milk powder, butter buds, bacon bits, etc. It was great!

After dinner, I broke out a 5-liter box of wine that I got in Tanana. We each filled a coffee mug and talked of the trip and how we would adjust back to the "other world". We turned in about 9pm in anticipation of an early start. We hope to make it to Emmonak tomorrow.