Spawning Salmon - Day 18

Day 18

Great day! We hit a new record - 81 total miles (64 riding and 17 walking). We are now ahead of our pace enough that we may finish a day early, we’ll see. Today the weather was great even though it was sprinkling while Mike and I were riding this morning, however it never turned into a downpour. Thank God!

We went thru Velamount and you can see the sign that states the Salmon are running. I’ve heard about this but have never seen it. I hope you can see the fish in the pictures. These were salmon in a rushing stream that were easily 20+ lbs. They were dying after they had "done their duty" fertilizing the eggs. They had come from the ocean (a 10 week journey) and about 15% of them made it this far. What a sight. They say it lasts about a week. We were really fortunate to be here when it happened.

We are continually surprised by the number of people we meet from Wisconsin. Today, when Mike and I were at the salmon stream, there were two other guys there also (no one else). We started conversing and asked where they were from; the one was from down by Milwaukee and the other from Houston. Last night in the campground there was a couple in a pickup camper next to us. He walked over and said hi and asked where we were from. I told him, "you’ve never heard of it, but Luck Wisconsin". He said; “I’ve been there many times.” Had a best friend that had the Standard station on the Highway in Grantsburg. He also mentioned Webster (but didn’t know Scott Leveen). Anyhow, they were headed home as his wife’s brother is dying and it may be his last week. They had to scoot home. Pray for Neal and his family. He just beat cancer himself two years earlier. To show you how rare this is (all the Wisconsin folks) we don’t see any license plates up here but the province we are in and maybe a few other provinces. I saw a California plate the other day but that’s IT! So here the guy next to us in the campground, and the only two other guys at the salmon run, were from Wisconsin. What are the chances?

PS: Tim walked to town today and was scared to death when he was crossing a bridge and a semi passed him kicking up a big rock that zinged right past Tim. Tim says he feels he’s lucky to be with us right now, and that’s important because he’s making dinner right now!!

PSS: Yesterday I mentioned we saw an Elk on the highway. Mike said it was a Cow Elk? Now, I don’t know how he couldn’t clearly see (as Tim and I did) that it was an elk and not a COW! We won’t ask him anymore for identification of wildlife.

~Chuck