Day 1: R 9/13- What have we done?!

We got up bright and early and we packed and leaving by 7 am, headed for the start of the river. It comes out of Itasca to the north over a string of large rocks. We all walked out and took the obligate pics of us on at the start (see below), then set off.
Since water was so low, we decided that dad would drop the stuff at a launch 2 mi down and Aaron and I would walk and meetup there. After scrambling through the brush for the first mi, the river headed into a marsh and it was just too cold and mushy to continue on foot. We called dad and he came and drove us to the landing (Gulsvig landing, 1336.2).
From there the river entered 4 mi of class 1 rapids, usually not daunting, but with the river so low and approx. 500 o' stuff, we decided to bite the bullet and put in at the next landing. So, we cut off another 13 mi, 15 total from Itasca, and put in at Coffee Pot (1322.8).
We had one last beer and cheers with dad, got things loaded and set off around 10:30 am.
The first mi was wooded and thre were several spots we had jump out and walk the canoe, but nothing to traumatizing, just slow. Then we put the brakes on. Next was four miles of marsh wetland with sharp turns every fifty yards and just a couple of inches of water between each. We did a or a walking our canoes, in really tall grass. It was tedious to say the least and we were excited to get to the woods.
Until the first tree across the river, roughly 40' in. We all got super muddy, but we got over it. The we did it a half a dozen more times. If there weren't trees down there was 'rapids'. With the water down this mainly consisted of a pinball machine for two miles.
We finally got through and to the start of the next leg, a large wetland area. We made camp just down from the Forest road bri
dge (~1316) at the edge of the water, ate some ramen and crashed. Even though it was rough, and we only made about 7 mi, we were very happy with our first day, and very proud of ourselves too!
These pics refuse to stay in order, so now it's a fun matching game!
Dad, Aaron and i at the headwaters the headwaters, us in the canoe, water level down, me pulling canoe, Aaron smiling, rocks across river, trees across river, forest road bridge across river, pretty flowers, i think I got them all