OVERALL ROUTE PROGRESS MAP 050731            050929 NEARING THREE FORKS            JIM'S TRIP PIX

Update for September 29, almost to Three Forks, about 32 hard miles to go. Jim needs to be there by October 5th. His friend Mike Su from North Carolina is flying in and renting a car to meet Jim. They will then travel to visit Glacier Park and Yellowstone, and then Mike will take Jim to Colorado for the Elk hunt.

After the hunt, Jon's friend Dave will take Jim to Denver where Mike will have left the rental car for him. He will then drive to Cody, Wyoming to pick up Nate on October 22nd. They will visit Yellowstone Park, then drive to Bozeman. A friend of Jon's (Jon has a lot of friends, thank God) will take them with boat(s) over the hump to the Yellowstone River.

They will canoe to Billings, then down the Yellowstone to the Missouri in North Dakota, thence to South Dakota to Mobridge. Nate's job here is to shoot birds of all description to keep them fat and sassy.

Nate will head for the airport from there, and Jim's friend Kevin will meet Jim at Mobridge for pheasant hunting out of Eureka. After the hunt, Kevin will haul Jim, Daisy and hear back home, hopefully in time for some of the deer season. Whew, I get tired just thinking about it.

Update to September 18, just past Great Falls Montana. Jim got a long portage in a truck around the falls. He talked about going to Livingston, and doing some of the Yellowstone river with Nathan. From October 10 to October 25 he will be with Jon and Joe doing the Elk hunt thing. After that, home somehow, I guess.

Update for August 17, 2005. Jim has progressed well into Montana in the month of August. When we spoke on the 17th, he was at Ft. Peck Dam. He said that he may call the trip to an end at Ft. Benton, rather than Three Forks. He had picture postcards made in some town, and has begun sending them out.

Update of Jim's progress through July, written 8/11. We have had problems getting the data through the last ten days or so. Jim called from the Border of Montana and N. Dakota, glad to be in his destination state, his very, very long destination state.

Polly has set up some of the pictures Jim has taken on his trip. Click on the link above right, "JIM'S TRIP PIX". The pictures are in groups by time period. Click on the link to see the page of thumbnail pictures, and click on a thumbnail to see the larger picture.

I have been gone for a couple weeks, so here are two maps to cover the last half of June and the first week of July. Jim has had some 40 mile days, and some frustrating days. Chasing a lost canoe to h*** and back was not one of the better ones. He is upbeat and healthy, and keeps on paddlin'.

Several more updates from Jim. He has made his portage into the Missouri system, and has crossed into S. Dakota. He is headed South, DOWNSTREAM for a change, soon to hit Sioux Falls.

Last update was Thursday May 26, 3 text messages. About that time my cell phone up and died. There is a new one on the way, so may get fresh updates in a couple days. Looks like steady progress, see map above.

Tuesday, 05/15/05: Reached Redwood Falls, Minn., and was treated to dinner and dry clothes by Jim Doering, of the Minnesota DNR, and his wife Shelly. The day was filled with lugging the canoe up the Redwood River in waist-deep water due to many big rapids. Lots of rain in the area recently resulting in high water levels. Will spend Wednesday in this area too.

Saturday, 05/07/05: Jim reached Mankato, Minn. tonight after a rough day of thunderstorms, rain and wind. According to GPS he made 8 miles in about 9 hours today and is now at the junction of the Blue Earth and Minnesota Rivers. A busy couple days... yesterday he met up with 3 guys in a jet boat, who offered him a beer then came back and left him with a quart of milk and a bratwurst (and the beer) a short while later. Thanks to those fellas! Today however, he managed to be in the right place at the right time to grab a father and his young daughter out of the water after the daughter went overboard from the family fishing outing. Jim is now outfitted with a solar charger for the cell phone and a shake-up flashlight. Tuesday he expects to be with The Dannenbergs in New Ulm, Minn. as he approaches the Cottonwood and Redwood Rivers.

Tuesday, 4/26/05: On a cold and rainy day, made about 8 miles in 8 hours, in the cold spitting rain.

Monday, 4/25/05: Reached Boettcher's in Stillwater, Minn.
Notes from Jim:
Had wind and current on Chippewa River from Eau Claire to Mississippi River, good tail wind up Lake Pepin, strong current and then 25 mph wind against me after going through lock #3. Sat out Saturday for most of day, made 8 miles against current and still strong wind on Sunday, and about 5 miles through Prescott, Wisc., and to Hastings, Minn., today against less current and much less wind. Spending night at Bob and Margaret Boettcher's house after long shower and great meal. Back on river towards St. Paul tomorrow morning. Hope to see Bergers Wednesday night maybe near Fort Snelling.

Daisy is fine, still hasn't learned to paddle, but good at keeping beavers, coons, bears and hippos away from tent at night. Seeing lots of eagles inculding 2 with fish, both of which were dropped. Sending off first 155 files of pictures and short videos Tuesday. Camera has good resolution. Ate all my canned goods except 2 cans of beans. Had chocolate tapioca pudding 4 times, 3 eggs left, might have to rob a goose nest to make more pudding eventually. Left hand miserable with drying cracks, will keep adding cream, maybe with plastic gloves. Bob promises me bacon and eggs tomorrow.

Have to keep to edge of river always, swinging out as little as possible to get around trees and logs. Poling difficult to steer in the winds we have had until today, so usually paddling. sail useless against current and wind. Even with tail wind current will be too strong away from shore. I can now paddle long and hard. Two places the river narrowed so much that almost couldn't make it up. Lightened canoe by portaging some stuff one place, cut a log out of way through flooded woods other. Never know what river might throw at me. Went above junction with St. Croix River today. Lock and dam #2 tomorrow, then 23 miles of river to junction with Minnesota River, which was also in flood last week.

Tuesday, 4/18/05: Reached Ella, Wisconsin. Traveled in the rain the better part of the day. Went shopping in Durand, Wisc. for food treats- did someone forget to pack chocolate?

Wednesday, 4/13/05: Launch Day
With seven 5-gallon buckets, a sail, a tent, a couple of backpacks, his trusty dog Daisy and some sun screen, Jim left the familiar surrounds of the backyard of Sisters Farm for his cross-country water journey. Stopping for the night at Flater's Resort, he set up camp for the first time. The untested canoe carrier broke under the estimated 180 pound load. Luckily, Joe Flater had a replacement and the trip will continue on as scheduled.

Saturday, 4/9/05: Jim tested the sail on the Flambeau River near Memorial Park in Ladysmith, Wisc. View pics: Picture 1 and Picture 2

How he will travel
The canoe is a 17 foot aluminum Grumman Eagle with a Grumman built sail rig. The sail is 45 sq. feet, with 2 lee boards, a rudder and a 6.5 foot mast which fits through a wooden (replaced) thwart with a large rubber grommet into a mast step which bolted to the flange that comes with most old Grumman canoes. The grommet and mast step came from Chicagoland canoe base. The rig came from new friends in St. Louis Park, Minn. When testing without a load, he was able to tack at a reasonable angle upwind, and could move along well crosswind and zip to scary speeds downwind!


A map of the route west

More about the trip
I have a starting date (April 13, 2005) and a possible return date (Wisconsin deer season start, November 19, 2005) for a probably exciting canoe trip from my back yard to the border of Yellowstone National Park. Daisy dog and I plan to canoe with lots of food, sail rig, digital camera, gazeteers for 6 states and other stuff down the Flambeau, the Chippewa, up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling, up the Minnesota to Redwood Falls, up the Redwood River through Marshall to Russell, up Coon Creek through Dead Coon Lake to Lake Benton (lake and town), over the hump and down 5 miles with canoe on canoe cart, down Flandrau Creek to the Big Sioux River through Sioux Falls to Sioux City and right, upstream on the Missouri all the way to Three Forks Montana. There is no prize for thinking small.

I am hoping some of you may be able to visit with me along the way, and the rest of you may be interested in my progress during the journey. To this end I have made or will make certain arrangements. Son Nate is sending me a Pentax 3 megapixel waterproof camera with large capacity for picture storage and a Verizon cell phone. Reception will be limited in parts of ND and Montana; battery power will be a problem so I won't have it on usually; I will have voice mail at this number and will attempt to return calls at free times like weekends and after 9pm. Daughter Polly is sending me a video camera which unfortunately seems to be lost between St. Louis and Ladysmith; Polly might also post some of my journal-like notes on sistersfarm.com. Tony Ziesler is going to give me some disposable cameras which I will send back so he can share them with the Ladysmith News and post some on the internet either at sistersfarm.com or ladysmithtrails.org. I will keep my home phone and answering machine and try to update my greeting message (up to 30 seconds) as to my whereabouts and plans whenever my cell phone works or I have access to a land phone. I will of course read my messages to find if someone is going to try to meet me somewhere (remember I have a very flexible schedule) and I may also leave a longer message which anyone can access by pressing #66 during the greeting, hereby making the machine quite unprivate.

The gazeteers (atlases) have coordinates in latitude and longitude and the GPS thingamabob I have reads my position similarly. I anticipate that the Missouri Breaks and the White Cliffs downstream from Great Falls, Montana might be the highlights of the trip and good places to canoe and hike with me. I have sailed a little on the narrow river here and practiced Saturday at Memorial Park. The rig works pretty well in general and very well down wind.

I just bought a wind-up radio with light that may be nice.

I hope to be near enough to brother Jon that he can pick me up to horse-tend again while he, Jay, and friends elk hunt in Colorado and if possible have him set me down on the Yellowstone River which I will canoe back to North Dakota and the Missouri River again during October. I hope to pheasant hunt while I canoe the Missouri in South Dakota. Getting home from there is up in the air with options of canoing all the way to St. Louis and Polly, canoeing back the way I came, and yelling help loudly, possibly while on a telephone.

I hope to see Marlene and Jay in Eau Claire, Richard and Cindy Berger at Fort Snelling and St. Paul, possibly Boettchers and Hansens, Dawn and Jerry there also, Dick Dannenberg in New Ulm, Jim Doering and Glen and Sara Madsen in Redwood Falls.