Canawanagetthere

2021-07-10 admin Comments 0 Comment

10-Jul-2021 Saturday DeSoto Bay WI (~UMR mile 662) to Wabasha City Marina (~UMR mile 759) (89.5 nautical miles 103.0 statute miles)

44°22’43.4″N 92°01’09.8″W
44.378725, -92.019401
Elevation: 666 feet feet Elevation change: 26 feet
States (3): Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Locks (6):
Lock 8 – mile 679, Genoa, WI
Lock 7 – mile 703, La Crescent, MN and Onalaska, WI
Lock 6 – mile 714, Trempealeau, WI
Lock 5A – mile 728, Fountain City, WI and Goodview, MN
Lock 5 – mile 738, Minnesota City, MN
Lock 4 – mile 753, Alma, WI

Destination Mississippi River Statute Mile 830
Remaining Statute Miles: 71
Remaining number of Locks: 2

Along the Way

We picked the world’s worst anchorage last night. We knew there would be trains. (Along the rivers there always are.) We hadn’t expected them blowing their horn for EVERY little road they crossed. We also hadn’t expected the factory whistles and other industrial noises all night. (For the record, we couldn’t see the factory from the river.)

We’d been feeling pretty smug about no bugs for the past couple of of days. Then this happened. Last night we were inundated again by mayflies. Our nice clean boat 🙁

At least we weren’t inundated with other pesky little bugs.

Sunrise was about 5:30am this morning. It was 61 degrees. Days are noticeably longer, earlier mornings later nights. We are further up north than we’ve been for a long time.

There must have been a bass fishing contest today. Bass boats were as plentiful as mayflies before we got underway.

Traveling too fast for my camera’s shuttle speed.

It started as another bleak day and was pretty much a bleak day all day. The scenery was phenomenal. It looks a whole lot like the upper Hudson River valley.

Lock 8 – mile 679, Genoa, WI

Sand dredge islands. The dredgers need someplace to put the sand. There are a fair amount of them and they are huge. This is the only area on our entire trip where we see this singular formation.

Some of the dredge islands have small coves for boats

Lock 7 – mile 703, La Crescent, MN and Onalaska, WI

I-90 Dresbach Bridge at La Crosse. Lock 7 behind it.

Lock 7 was another lock we got to sit and enjoy the view for an hour until the southbound barge pushed out. There were 6 rec boats waiting go up and another 7 at the top waiting to go down. We had to tie up, rather than float through, because there were other boats in the lock with us. Locks are a lot faster if you can float through.

It lightly rained off and on throughout the day.

Lock 6 – mile 714, Trempealeau, WI

Trempealeau was celebrating Catfish Days. The lock was open for visitors to explore. There were a lot of visitors exploring.

I’d have loved to have walked above the dam gates.

The day warmed up but it never got sunny. Leave it to Minnesotans to still get out and enjoy the water and sand.

Winona area eventing. A day on the water is an event for people in Minnesota, and I suppose Wisconsin too. It seems they have the ability to enjoyed more than anywhere else. Probably because they don’t take it for granted like the Florida people do.

I canawanagetthere. Lock 5A – mile 728, Fountain City, WI and Goodview, MN is the forth lock of the day.

Our timing has not been good today. We had another wait at Lock 5A for another tow.

Thankfully the Lockmaster lifted the rec vessels through the lock before he took the waiting tow. I suppose he just wanted us out of the way.

An enormous Corp of Engineers tow passed us headed down river lugging a little bit of everything. It included two large tow boats (on pushing, one being lugged), an extra large dredging barge, crew cabin/office barge, land equipment/earth movers, at least four small tow boats, and several crew runabout boats in tow.

A second Corp of Engineers tow followed it from a distance of the time it takes to raise and lower a lock. It carried dredging pipes and other pieces of equipment.

Oopsies. I hate oopsies. I accidently bumped a button on my camera.

Here’s the rest of the crew. Timing spaced one lock

I canawanagetthere. Lock 5 – mile 738, Minnesota City, MN is the fifth lock of the day. It sure is pretty around here even on cloudy days.

I really canawanagetthere. Lock 4 – mile 753, Alma, WI is the sixth lock of the day. Our personal best was 7 locks in on day. That happened twice while we were on the Erie Canal.