We had breakfast at my Grandparent's place and then put back in the water at Plymouth Avenue. My Grandpa stuck around and watched us pack. As we exited the small channel the boat ramp was in he yelled, "Turn left!" just to make sure we didn't start paddling upstream. He's a funny guy.
When we got to the dam at Upper St. Anthony Falls we learned some disheartening news. The lock, as well as the lower lock and lock #1, was closed to leisure boats when the water was above 30,000 CFS. The water was currently at 35,000 CFS. Worse news was that it wasn't going to be open for at least three days. Even worse news is that they closed it on Sunday. If we had continued on Saturday we could have paddled all three locks. With how it was we were going to have to skip seven miles of water or wait until the water went down. We chose the former.
We took all of our stuff out of the canoe at the dam, portaged it across the dam (which was actually pretty cool), and then loaded it in Dick's (an Army Corps. Employee) truck. Dick tried very hard to let us lock through. He asked the lockmaster three times just to make sure. We really appreciated it even though it didn't work out. He then went even further by offering to drive us to a landing just South of lock #1. As hard as it was to skip this water, there was really no other option. I definitely did not want to lose three or more days of paddling. Anders and I decided we'll have to meet there during the break for Shannon's wedding to paddle those seven miles. Like I said before, you can't say you paddled the entire river without actually paddling the ENTIRE river. Here's to hoping the water will be down enough to lock through in a couple weeks.
We thanked Dick and then continued on to an Island campsite. Anders saw his first snake. He was petrified.
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