With mixed feelings, I got back in the pool after a long layoff. At about lap 5, I felt like a fat slug who couldn't go on. Then, after a few more laps, I was pleased that I could finish a mile. Still, I'm chagrined that it had been so long.

I've moved onto the U.S. Corps of Engineers' map page 14:
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map014-802-808.pdf

February 18, 2010, 1 mile, mile 808: Truedale Slough
The Vermillion River joins the Mississippi by way of series of lakes and sloughs, extending from Hastings down to the confluence with the Cannon River just upstream of Red Wing.


February 22, 2010, 1.25 miles, mile 807, Pierce County, Wisconsin
http://www.wrf.edu/library/arc/piercehistory.php


February 23, 2010, 1 mile, mile 806, Goodhue County, Minnesota
http://www.co.goodhue.mn.us/visitors/ghc_history.aspx

Catching Up

July 21, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 813: Lake Isabel, Hastings, MN
http://www.ci.hastings.mn.us/ParksAndRecreation/PKBoatFishing.htm

July 27, 2009: 1.25 miles, mile 812: Prescott, Wisconsin, and the confluence of the St. Croix River with the Mississippi:
http://www.prescottwi.org/history.html

July 29, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 811, Prescott Island
http://www.ipicture.mobi/?d=649725&s=MN&f=island

August 3, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 809, Gores Pool No. 3 Wildlife Management Area

Langston Hughes' The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of
human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,
and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Rivertown Days in Hastings!

July 15, 1.5 miles, Mile 814.5: Hastings, MN, just in time for Rivertown Days:
http://www.hastingsmn.org/

Hastings and its surrounding townships have longstanding issues from agricultural fertilizer and herbicides in the groundwater. Dakota County and other agencies are working with area farmers to reduce the agricultural chemicals leaching into the groundwater:
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/EnvironmentRoads/Reports/Water/HANS.htm

Catching Up

May 5, 1 mile, below Mile 821, "Mississippi Makeover" at Spring Lake:
http://www.dakotaswcd.org/wshd_missmak.html

May 12, 1 mile, below Mile 820, Lee Grist Mill:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=374

May 19, 1 mile, Mile 817, Nininger Townsite:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=378

July 13, 1.14 miles, Mile 816: Streckfus Daymark:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=379

March 30, 1.25 miles, below Mile 822:

http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/LeisureRecreation/CountyParks/Locations/SpringLake/default.htm

Shipping Season Begins

WINONA, Minn. (AP) -- The first commercial towboat of the spring is on its way through Lake Pepin on its way to St. Paul to officially open up the Mississippi River shipping season. The Deana Ann passed through Lock and Dam Number Four at Alma, Wisconsin, at 2:50 a.m. Monday. It was pushing 15 barges. The tow has encountered ice that was at least a foot thick in some areas of the lake. Once the Deana Ann makes it to St. Paul, it will mark a much earlier opening this year compared to a year ago. In 2008, the first tow did not reach St. Paul until April 11. The average opening in the last 10 years has been March 20.

March 23, 1.5 miles, Mile 824, SAC B-52 Crash Site:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=362

March 24, 1.25 miles, below Mile 823, Spring Lake:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=370