Upper Missouri NWSR Canoe Trip 2009

 

Day Ten

With a surprising lack of hangover, we ate a breakfast of sausage with real eggs and hash browns topped off with our cheese, with coffee from our French press and a shot of Bailey's from the guys and set off before them.
We had a lot of progress to make today, having only paddled seven miles the day before. We had 27 miles to go to reach Lower Woodhawk campground, but we got underway early and made good progress. We stopped at two homesteads, the first one of which had some cool old farm implements, and the second one of which had belonged to James Kipp, grandson of the James Kipp that opened Upper Montana to trade at Fort Piegan.
This second homestead had been in use until much more recently than all the others, had been wired for electricity, and even contained an old refrigerator with rotting bottles of milk. There was an old bicycle out front which made for some good pictures.
The rest of the day consisted of paddling, paddling, paddling, and we arrived at Lower Woodhawk late, about 19:30. When we arrived, we saw that John & Paul had set up on the riverbank rather than the campsite proper; a large group had rudely taken over the entire site, using much more space than necessary and leaving no room for other campers. They apologized for this, but they could have saved their breath and moved a few tents instead.
Earlier in the day dad had lost an inflatable pillow in the river, and we asked if anyone had seen it float by. Nobody had, but a few hours later I spotted something blue in the water. It turned out to be dad's pillow, back from who knows where. I swam out and grabbed it and we all had a good laugh.
We ate some of John & Paul's leftover biscuits and mac & cheese, had a few drinks - cold lemonade using their ice and our Crystal Light, and later Jack on the rocks - sitting by the river, went for a little walk, set up our tents on the muddy riverbank after flattening a bunch of vegetation, and turned in early.




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Jacob Saunders