We left John's and paddled a bit to what we thought was a boat landing with restrooms. Turns out it was an old Mormon settlement and now historical site. We were exactly where Brigham Young set up a camp of Mormons 11,000 strong. It was, surprisingly, very interesting and beautiful. There were vast open fields of pure, green grass with small houses and other buildings scattered throughout. Apparently it was rebuilt to look how it did when the settlement was actually occupied. Now it's a tourist destination with people dressed in old timey garb giving tours. It was very neat. We wandered around a bit, used the restroom (cleanest restroom I have ever seen), and made it back to the boat around 8:40. It made for a pretty slow morning, but it was a very interesting little break.
From Nauvoo we paddled to lock and dam 19 which was by far our biggest drop of the trip, about 20 feet. As we paddled out of the chamber it was like entering a whole new world. Everything was 20 feet lower. There was a park right after the lock that was only about 2-3 feet flooded, whereas parks above lock 19 were completely under water. It was almost as if the Army Corps wanted to punish all the towns above the lock and dam and save the ones below it. It was crazy to think how much power that dam had over the livelihood of all the towns around it. Let more water out and you relieve the flood stress to the North, but also begin the flood stress to the South. It seemed to me they could let more water out and even it up a little bit, but I'm no engineer.
We decided to paddle over to the park right after the lock to get a quick snack and stretch our legs. As we paddled, a large fish jumped out of the water pretty close to us; an Asian Carp. Then another one even closer. Then, even closer. Before I could get over from being startled by the last one, another one jumped and slammed into my arm, leaving me quite perplexed as to what just happened. After a brief second of shock and awe, I burst out laughing. Then I looked over to shore and there was a family, also chuckling quite heavily. They saw the whole thing so of course they got out of their car and came to chat with us when we pulled up to the park. I was glad somebody else saw it happen, because I wasn't sure myself it had even happened. We laughed and joked about it and they gave me grief for not catching it out of mid-air to eat for supper. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to eat any carp.
Later that day we arrived at lock and dam 20 and I realized why 19 was holding so much water back. 20 was completely under water. The lock walls that the engineers usually walk on 10 feet above us as we lock through had 10 inches of water rushing over them. It made for an easy portage though. We walked the canoe along the flooded walls past the lock chamber. From there the engineers helped us pick up the canoe and drop it over the rail back into the river. They asked us what the craziest part of the trip has been so I mentioned Sauk Rapids. Then I told them about the carp and they laughed and told us that wouldn't be the last we saw of them. They were right. We saw about five more that day.
A couple miles after the dam we saw a doe and a fawn swimming across the river. It was about a mile wide and the current was really fast, but they didn't seem to be drifting down river too much. Deer must be really good swimmers. We watched until they made it to shore and then continued on our way.
Right before Quincy, IL we saw a nice sandbar to camp on so we paddled over and pulled the canoe up. Before we set up camp though, we decided we better call lock and dam 21 to make sure they weren't closing soon. We didn't want to have to portage tomorrow if we could lock through tonight. Sure enough they were planning on closing at about 9:00 tonight. We tossed the boat back in the water and slogged on down the river. As soon as we locked through we rounded the corner of the lock walls and set up camp on the Army Corps lawn.
52 miles today. Finished Iowa. Lots of excitement. America's birthday tomorrow in Hannibal, MO.
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