The challenge of the day was a series of log jams. They weren’t kidding about the log jams.
These weren’t beaver dams. Instead, the meandering channel was shaded fully on both sides, dotted for miles with a down tree every few bends.
Shortly before that I travelled through a brief, but peaceful rain shower.
By mid day I had finally run out of drinking water and needed to make some more. I had started at Lake Itasca with a few gallons of water I bought at Menards. I have a couple 10L Watercells and a water bottle. They all strap nicely to my kayak.
Unfortunately it’s been a very long time since I had last seen fresh looking moving water on this river. So I needed to take the time to settle a batch of river water.
Settling would work best over night because it gives plenty of time for solids to drop to the bottom. But the water by my camp site last night looked particularly gross so I thought it was best to take my chances elsewhere.
To speed up the settling process I sprinkled a little bit of alum, which is a coagulant commonly used in water treatment plants to get dissolved solids to loosely combine and sink to the bottom.
In order for my water filters last a couple months I need to protect them because the Mississippi River is very turbid water. This is another way of saying there’s a ton of dirt in the water. And this dirt clogs water filters.
After about 30 minutes I had 1L of drinking water that tasted okay (not great), especially once I mixed in some iced tea powder. The water is filtered through my Grayl water filter which removes viruses, bacteria, and even pollutants like pesticides and heavy metals (allegedly).
A couple hours later I crossed a country road that was just 3.5 miles from the town of Bemidji. Being only 4 o’clock there was plenty of time to still rest and recharge my batteries figuratively and literally.
With cell service and thunderstorms on the way for the next couple days I decided to hide my canoe in the brush and walk to town.
