Day 21: W 10/3- Sketchy camping

We had a big day ahead of us. We were coming up on Minneapolis and had a post office run an a dam to portage before the day was done. We left early and it was fair weather coming into Elk River, 881. We pulled off and tied the boat by a small park at a rocky embankment. The town was surprisingly large and the post office was about a mile and a half walk. We picked up our package, which had the usace maps and another small dry bag and set back.
As we came up to the Coon Rapids dam, the water backed up an widened considerably. We paddled through some very ritzy areas, the houses would put Torch Lake to shame. We had planned to camp on an island just beyond the dam, but as we made our portage we realized the 'state land' we had seen on the map was a very nice park, filled with people.
We finished our last portage, hurray!, and decided to paddle down to another island, Banfill, a mile or so down, 861. The map showed it was owned by the University of Minnesota as a natural preserve and there was no camping allowed, but with day light almost gone, we had no choice. We were definitely in the suburbs by then and even baked into the island a ways we could see across the channel into a little subdivision. We didn't light a fire and ate a cold dinner. We were in bed early and nervous that some busy-body was gonna snitch on us for being out there. But, we got through a restless night and were gone the next morning at the first-ish light of day.