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2012-04-13 tl;dr: It is my second day on the Pecatonica River. I saw lots of critters, and I may never be clean again. Say one thing about the Pecatonica River, say it's muddy. Getting out of my kayak is a chore when I can't find a landing or dock, and those are few and far-between and mostly private. Either I have to climb into mud that goes up to my knees, or I try to find a tree hanging over the river and pull myself and kayak up onto the bank. Maybe if it was hot mud it wouldn't be so bad, but it was kind of cool today. All in all I don't take as many breaks as I would like.Today marked my first day without coffee in months. I was saved from total caffeine withdrawal by finding a soda machine at McNeil's Damascus Landing. As usual there were plenty of critters to see: deer, turkeys, geese, ducks and either a small otter or mink. As you can gather from the pictures I did not purchase a new camera. Freeport IL was a polluted mess I needed to paddle through. Downstream from Freeport there were significantly fewer ducks. Perhaps they aren't hardy enough for the pollution? Note to self: avoid the water. Of course those ducks may have been avoiding the river because the weather had turned cold, windy and rainy. I think I managed to accomplish another ten hours of paddling before I was too sore, tired, and bored to go on. That puts me a whole fifteen miles from where I started this morning. I calculate that I must have paddled thirty-plus miles at least. These numbers are sad. Though the forecast had called for absolutely miserable, nature actually only delivered highly unpleasant. Even so, by the time I decided to stop for the day, the wind was really kicking. I paddled up a small creek, climbed into the mud, and was lucky enough to find a campsite protected by the bank of an abandoned railroad bed. |
 good morning Pecatonica River  crane?  turkey  turkey  buck  owl  deer  antique cars  common residence   cows  rapids  more antiques |