Day 17: About 85 miles today from Prairie du Chien to Dubuque, Iowa with sidetrips. Overcast and light rain in the morning but not enough to affect us. We visited Effigy Mounds National Monument with many interesting mounds on ridges high above the Mississippi River. We climbed up through beautiful forest to see a mound the length of a football field. Apparently all tribes in the area considered the place neutral and a place of prayer even though the people who built the mounds were unknown to them.
We drove through quaint river towns and stopped in Guttenberg to see the only remaining lock keepers house on the river. Lucky for us a tug was pushing a long barge through the lock. The river is so high the drop through the lock was only one foot.
We have one more day on the river road tomorrow as we head to Le Claire.
We hiked 4.5 miles today.