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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

The Freemans arrive in Washington D.C. next week

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As we paddled away from Philadelphia’s skyscrapers, the Delaware River began to widen. Industry lined the river, and the chatter on the VHF radio kept us on the lookout for commercial traffic.The winds were calm and the temperature sky rocketed to 50 degrees.

After a few hours of fighting the tidal currents, the tide began to ebb and push us towards the ocean. We clipped along more than five miles an hour, and life was good.

We spotted a huge tanker heading north and moved a safe distance out of the channel. It was moving at a good clip and a minute or two after it passed we bobbed up in and down in the five-foot rollers created by its bow wake.

Everything calmed down for a minute, and then the tanker’s rear wake hit us just as the refracting waves from the bow wake that bounced off the shore hit us. Sig bucked and turned like a bull trying to fling a rider off its back. It only lasted a minute but it was a wild ride.

Sig didn’t ship a drop, and we paddled on as the sunset behind the steaming smoke stacks towering above the industrial landscape.

We paddled into the darkness for several hours before meeting up with Olivia and driving to our friends’ Jay and Lanie’s house. Jay paddled with Amy and me on the Amazon River for five weeks back in 2008 and we had not seen him since that trip.

It has been fun to reconnect with him and meet his wife Lanie. We have connected with so many wonderful people on this journey. It reaffirms the fact that 99.9 percent of people are kind and generous.

The media often focuses on the other part and it can be easy to forget about all the good in the world and the million acts of kindness happening all the time that to often go uncelebrated.

Dave Freeman
Paddle to D.C.

Dave and Amy Freeman are scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C. next week, ending their 100-day, 2,000-mile journey in a canoe that started in Ely in August.
Their schedule in Washington, D.C, includes:
Tuesday, Dec. 2 - Amy and Dave and the canoe arrive at the Washington Canoe Club where they will they will be joined by local paddlers to welcome them. That evening they will present “Paddle to DC: A Quest for Clean Water,” a film by Nate Ptacek, and hosted by Patagonia in Georgetown. Local bluegrass band, Hollertown, will provide entertainment.
Wednesday, Dec. 3 – Youth Outdoor Engagement Fair coordinated by Wilderness Inquiry.
Thursday, Dec. 4 - Save the Boundary Waters reception at The Wilderness Society, Ansel Adams Gallery, 1615 M Street NW, Washington, D.C.
To follow the entire journey, go to savetheboundarywaters.org.

DAve Freeman, Amy, Ely, Canoe, Savetheboundarywaters.org