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We got a ride from a man who responded to our craigslist add several months prior to the warehouse of Wenonah Canoe Company to pick up our Libra XT.

From there the warehouse workers were kind enough to give Tommy and I a ride to the river where they dropped us off to start our adventure. We paddled 13 miles, coming across our first lock (#6) and camped on an island for our first night.

The next day we paddled in the rain to La Crosse and went to the store to buy some food and slept on the park benches for awhile after eating.

From there we continued further until we found a nice island to camp on.

We stopped on a few islands the next day to see some wildlife; our turtle count was 61 so far.

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Eventually we came to the small unincorporated town of Victory, hiked to a little English bar which was the only place to eat in town with six bar stools and two picnic tables outside, but had over 100 types of beer. 

We camped outside of the town on the river’s edge that night under the protection of trees to shelter ourselves from more rain.

The water was calm the next day and it was easy paddling to Lansing.  The docks were covered with flies and we made a quick stop to get some food from the local gas station.

We stopped and followed deer tracks on an island for an hour or so, then the stretch to Lock # 9 was miserable with wind.

From there Tommy and I made our way to Prairie Du Chien.  We hiked into town to grab some food and camped on a beach on the river.

It was an easy morning with great weather, we ate our lunch (cheerios and trail mix with some granola bars) outside of a little community that we could not find on the map after paddling about 20 miles.

We knew we wanted to make it to Dubuque for the night so we stayed on the water most of the day.  What turned out to be perfect weather turned out to be our most miserable night of the trip.  The final stretch to Lock # 11 was dark, rainy, and cold.  I screamed Simple Man at the top of my lungs during the hour of paddling it took us to cross it, only to wait for a barge to go through once reaching the lock.

From there we illegally parked our kayak at a marina and headed to a bar where we could hear live music.  Unfortunately I was not 21 at the time and even though we explained to the guard that we had just paddled 54 miles to reach Dubuque, he would not let us in. 

So we hiked to the nearest gas station for some food, but as soon as we got inside it started raining.  After running back to our kayaking (which was slowly filling with water) we paddled in the dark across the river because we heard there was a campground.  Eventually we found it and set up camp quicker than we ever had. It was the hardest day.

The next morning we decided we would stay in Dubuque for the day.  We got a ride into town to go grocery shopping and do our laundry. 

At night the family next to us in the campground treated us like family and fed us an amazing dinner.

Feeling guilty for not paddling the day before, we got an early start on the river after leaving a thank you note on the family’s truck.  We paddled to Belleview, laid in a field next to the Lock to dry off and had lunch at the local Subway. 

We paddled a few more miles in exhaustion and found a place to camp on the side of the river.

The coyotes howled in the field behind our tent the night before so I did not sleep well.  We slept in a little and paddled about two hours before stopping on an island to rest amd take photos of wildlife.

Eventually we came to Clinton Iowa and parked our kayak at another marina.  I watched a little league game across the street and Tommy hiked into town to grab Subway. 

We left the game and paddled to the other side of the river to camp on a sandy island. 

Tommy and I packed our gear up after a few hot showers and headed on our way saying farewell to our fellow travelers hoping we would meet them again, but knowing it would probably not be the case.

Once reaching Davenport we pulled over by a city park they had located on the river.  Tommy hiked to the store for food and I slept in the park. 

From there we paddled to Buffalo and found a nice beach to sleep on after crossing the railroad tracks and road to the nearest gas station for food.