Adventures, Page Seven

2018 - End Cap for FCT

Picking up where we had been chased off of the water because of Hurricane Erma last year we finished the 200 miles of Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddle Trail. Established in 2006, we were the 26th and 27th people to complete the trail. #25 finished one day before us - he took a mere 59 days do what we had done in 131 days. We had attended the annual FCT Reunion before returning to Cocoa earlier. This was rather straight forward section of 200 miles, finishing in two weeks.

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2018 - The Ladiaga & Silver Comet

There was some drudgery but that was entirely because of the heat. Good daily Plan B-ing and a bit of laziness allowed us to out-and-back each mile. The Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga trails join to form one continuous 94-mile trail from Smyrna, Georgia to Anniston, Alabama, which together form the SECOND LONGEST rails-2-trail in the U.S. This trail is all paved and is fairly enjoyable. After six months of farm work in Connecticu, here we were in much better shape than the 2016 ride on Misssouri's Rails-2-Trail Katy. There/then, we had been sitting in our kayaks for 122 days before taking on Katy's hilly, all gravel path in Walmar-tainment bikes. It was May, summer in the south, but we managed a good bit of riding in the shade.

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2018 - Upper Mississippi River

Upper Mississippi River... WHAT DA HELL!? I will never forgive Diane for tricking me into paddling this stream - barely a stream for the hundred miles. Nothing pretty, no current flow, no places to camp, no places to grab s burger, and no place that I'd want to return too. Okay... just the upper, upper sucks. At some point it does get better, and it got almost enjoyable. Then the flooding began. Then the flooding got worse. Then the flooding got worse. Then the flooding got worse. [Whats that musical sign that I was taught in the the 3rd grade - the one for 'repeat the last verse'? I could use it here. We actually escaped the rains, but it must have been upriver, downriver, and in between too cause there was plenty of water and no place to camp. Oh, did I menition the LEACHES? Did you know that Minnesota is the land of a thousand lakes - lakes full of leaches! A thousand lakes full of thousands upon thousands of BLOOD SUCKIN LEACHES! Do you remember the movie the African Queen? I found out that they didn't have to go to Afraca to film that seen where Borgort got covered in leaches - they came here to upper Minnisota! Saved a ton of money too.

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