Missiquoi River

7-31-07 and i hate where i am going to camp. but i did not want to paddle upstream Cl II rapids or portage around them this evening.

so i am South of the East Highgate ledges on the Missiquoi river. Enosburg Falls is approximately 16 miles North by water. there i will resupply and mail another map home. once there i will be approximately 200 miles into this 740 mile paddle.

this evening a beaver walked down out of the grass down the bank and stopped. he stopped in his tracks and looked at me with that, uh oh, I just got caught look. without much more regard he walked into the river and started to swim off. perhaps, i made to much of a stir because he slapped his flat tail against the surface and headed under. i'm not sure but maybe this alerted his friend because as soon as that tail hit the water another came tearing through the grass and to the water like lightning. both were huge and were the biggest i have ever seen. i bet they were as big as my dog Lake.

around noontime i hit the town of Swanton, VT. another nice surprise! Swanton House of Pizza made one of the best meatball sub i have had. they sliced the meatballs so you could eat without spilling meatballs. haha. i still got a ton of marinara sauce in my beard. picked up some sunblock at the local pharmacy, some tobacco at the mini mart and filled water bottles. Swanton has a nice little park and some local kids took my picture next to the stone canoe sculpture. all in all i spent three hours there.

it was hot and humid today. i definitely sweat out some weight. towards 5pm it sprinkled a bit. enough that two rainbows appeared.

two portages today- 150 yards and half mile. more tomorrow.

today i tried to sing some Jimmy Buffet. this scared off many a blue heron.

while checking out a spot for a campsite my canoe slowly began to creep away from the shore. apparently, my securing of the canoe severely lacked because when I came back the canoe had drifted about 30 feet from shore. without thinking i jumped in the water, swam to the canoe and brought her back to shore. soaking wet not 30 minutes before the end of the day. bath time.

the Missiquoi river could use a cleanup project. especially, near the town of Swanton. trash is everywhere. the water smells horrid. i picked up trash in that park but could have spent a week there picking up broken beer bottles. its too bad because the kids hang out there in the park. no bare feet...unless you are carrying a suture kit.

there needs to be a hostel or two along this canoe paddle and more camping opps. since the Adirondacks I have stealth camped every night. which is fine occasionally.
macaroni and cheese, pringles chips, venison jerky and water for dinner.
cheers

Happy Trails,
Totally Different Subject