Day 29: 9/28/06

Ben packs up camp in the background as someone else's trash litters the sandbar. We do our best to do minimal impact camping and have left our campsites as clean or cleaner than when we found them. This campsite was too much of a mess for us to clean up. Leave No Trace is an organization that specializes in minimal impact practices and education.
This morning, leaving LaCrosse, we passed a bunch of boathouses lining the shore. These floating homes dot the river in MN, WI, and IA.
We stop for a break on "Treasure Island". This campsite had a paddle with a skull and crossbones and a still-smoldering fire...YAAAARRRRRR!
Later in the afternoon, Ben and Joe pass a series of exposed wingdams near the main channel of the Mississippi. Wingdams are (usually) submerged lines of rock used to change the flow of the river to provide a 9-foot deep navigation channel. We also see large flocks of pelicans, gulls, double-crested cormorants, and geese in this pool. We later learn that this pool, behind Lock and Dam 8, was drawn down 1.5 feet in an attempt to increase natural vegetation and with it, waterfowl use. We'd say it's working!