I started my overnight solo in clearwater, mn and finished earlier today in champlin, mn. I paddled about 45 miles on the mississippi in two days. Weather was pretty good by my standards; I prefer cooler weather in comparison to the usual hot august days. Mother nature dropped some rain on me during day one, and the wind seemed to be in my face a lot, but temps were cool and comfortable, a sacrifice I would make any day. During day one I caught 3 smallies and a pike and saw 11 deer, multiple eagles and plenty of birds and fowl. I made camp on dimmick island, had a nice fire, made spaghetti and was in bed by 10:30pm. It was a pretty awesome day.

I woke up early day two and started breaking down camp. There was a fog over the mississippi that just seemed to hover over the moving water; it was a nice scene. After a breakfast of oatmeal, i decided to take my morning glory in the provided thunder box. Most people on here say, "dont look down," but today I am glad that I did. As I peaked into the hole in the big wooden box, I spotted a large muskrat scurrying around and entrapped in the pooper. I instantly lost my desire to defecate and found some large limbs to stuff down the hole in the box. It didnt take long for the muskrat to take advantage of my offer for him to escape. The dirty muakrat scurried up the wood and stared at me for a few moments before he ran off to the river. An eventful morning. I proceeded to paddle from dimmick island to champlin, mn where i had a buddy pick me up. I caught one pike on my way, and saw one deer and some eagles. Weather was excellent. All in all it was a good trip, and my first canoeing solo. Hoping to take my first bwca solo this fall, so this was good practice for me.

Excellent, thanks for sharing.

Great report. Glad to hear your first solo went well!

Another soloist is born. It just warms my heart.
JW

Good Report. Glad you got out solo. How did the new canoe work?

The autumn mist is still treating me well. I feel quite comfortable in it. Ive had it up in the bwca with my buddies in a tandem, plenty of day fishing, and now a solo overnight. Im very hppy with it.

the Mississippi has some really nice canoe routes. i really love it and it is close to my family's place. however, no matter how remote and shallow the river is there is always some guy in a bass boat with a 250 hp motor going full out on the loneliest stretches.
glad you had a good first solo. the spooky stuff in the bw is less spooky than the stuff you run into around small rural towns.

quote jwartman59: "the Mississippi has some really nice canoe routes. i really love it and it is close to my family's place. however, no matter how remote and shallow the river is there is always some guy in a bass boat with a 250 hp motor going full out on the loneliest stretches.
glad you had a good first solo. the spooky stuff in the bw is less spooky than the stuff you run into around small rural towns."

Im glad i only ran into a few motorists during my trip. The rain on day one, and the fact that it was on a wednesday probably helped with that. I saw more people on day two, but only had one guy really buzz me during the trip.

I was surprised that i felt really at ease during the entire trip. Never got uneasy at night, and slept soundly. Glad i felt that way.

I do lots of solo day trips on Mississippi by Kellogg and yes the motor boats can get out of control, from sunrise to about 11:00 am its not bad after that watch out.

Great report, thanks for sharing!

Can't wait to hear about your next solo in the BWCA. Make sure you do a trip report on it with pics!

Any idea what entry point and date you will go?

I am scheduling my solo for first or second week of October. Not sure the route yet, maybe somewhere in Quetico again (going to send in that paperwork tomorrow so its an option). Only problem with Quetico is its pretty expensive compared to the BWCA in October (BWCA is free).

Muskrat Love! Very nice, thanks for sharing.