First Day

Wanagan Landing, 6 River Miles (hereafter RMs) from Headwaters--I simply cannot imagine why one would choose to stay at a State or National Park when wonders such as this are available. Never mind the fact that staying here is free while Itasca cost $20 per night, there is really nothing like being alone out here.

The first day of a trip plays an important role in that it sets the tone for the remainder. I feel as though I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said--not sure if this is just some sort of short-term adjustment, a calibration to disallow the possibility of saying really dumb things, or if it's just that I haven't been in the kayak yet. In that respect, my trip won't start until the day after tomorrow.

I've recently discovered that when I can't find anything interesting to say, I should start by merely observing, describing, and documenting--sometimes this leads to odd and wonderful places; but even when it doesn't, at least there's something on the paper.

The Mississippi in this area is barely a river--it's realy no more than a 3 ft deep, 10 ft wide channel through wetlands. There are many geographical terms I find ambiguous, even though there might be perfectly good technical distinctions--when does a pond become a lake? when a mesa a butte or plateau? a meadow a prairie? a strait an isthmus?--but I thought I had a pretty good grasp on a river. This is more of a stream.

I'd like to keep track of place names along the River. Lake Itasca, for example, is from Latin: “verITAS CAput” (“true head”, a little ungrammatically); but it's meant to sound Native, like Wanagam: a clerk told Richard that it derives from an early settler here, Wegmann (which fits the supermarket chain, of course, just fine).

From the road, you reach Wanagan Landing via a long (1.5+ miles), bumpy, muddy, sometimes sandy road. We scoped it out last night, which was prudent, because I doubt I would have made it down here under greater duress. As it was, Richard biked here in about 25 minutes and waited an hour or more for me to arrive, as I was waiting at a bridge to check up on Eve. She kayaked six miles in 2-2.5 hours at a very slow pace and arrived at Wanagan at 1:15, at which point Richard and I had unpacked the car and set up camp (which, for the time being, consists of a large screen tent for gathering and eating, a hammock with bug net and rain tarp for Eve, and a large tent for Richard and myself, to save the trouble of setting up my own tent).

Can't wait for Internet and phone service, which will probably have to wait until Bemidji in a few days. By that time I'll probably have close to seven or eight entries ready to go. From there on, for a little while at least, it looks a bit more civilized, though Internet still might be a little spotty.