Friday, August 24th, 2007. Missisquoi River, Vermont. Darrin awoke to the same steady rain that had lulled him to sleep the night before. When he emerged from his tent, he found it and his canoe covered with “eight billion” slugs. Slimy as they were, Darrin preferred them over the previous day’s skunk. After breakfast with the slugs, Darrin set out to navigate another upstream day, only this time with much more water. His route up the Missisquoi was lined by acre after acre of agricultural fields - fields that drain run-off into the river. After a night of steady rain, runoff swells and accelerates the river current, making upstream paddling, and the lining that comes with it, much more challenging. On Thursday, before the rain began, the river’s discharge was measured at 200 cubic feet per
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