Paddle: Kettle River - Matilda's First Boat Ride

This afternoon we put in on the Kettle River. The Kettle crosses MN 48 only 3 miles from our camp. Since it was Matilda's first ride in the canoe and we wanted to keep it short, we decided to paddle upstream for a while, then turn around and come back to the bridge. A contributing factor to this plan was that we had no easy way to set a shuttle for a more conventional downstream run. The current was slow in both directions as far as we could see from the bridge. The river was very scenic, in fact the river is designated as a "Wild and Scenic River". The water was clear, but stained, much like the blackwater rivers in eastern NC. When we started out the river was deep and still, but as we went upstream, it became shallow and slightly more swift, revealing a sandy bottom.

I expected that Matilda would jump out of the boat at least once. Both PD and Izaak jumped out on their first canoe ride. I was not disappointed. We had just cleared the bridge when in she went. She came up swimming, but since we had been paddling upstream against some current, she could not swim fast enough to catch up. I had her on a long leash, and we slowed down and led her back to the boat. I lifted her back into the boat, and of course she was soaking wet and looked pitiful. She may have swallowed a little water, because she was coughing, but otherwise seemed to be fine. I think she learned that it was better to be in the boat than in the river, because she didn't jump out again. I knew she was a smart dog! We stopped on several sand bars along the way and she never showed any reluctance to get back into the boat. We paddled about 1 1/2 hours and about three miles before turning around. On the way back, we got a pretty good look at a bald eagle. The first time we saw him he flew from a tree beside our boat directly at us. When he was about 20 feet away he turned and flew downstream. From that point he hopscotched downstream with us before eventually turning and disappearing upstream.

This evening we attended the circus in Hinckley. It was a relatively small affair, apparently operated by a family of performers from Argentina. The performers all sold tickets, programs and snacks before and after their acts. The majority of the performers were children; one was only 5 years old. It was a little campy and amateurish. Kinda like what you might see in an old movie. But "Tiny" the elephant was good, as well as some performing stallions. There was also a young boy, perhaps about 13 years old, who performed as a clown. He was very talented.