Sep 1 - locks and tows

Great day. Turns out the holiday louts drink so much on Sunday night they are too hungover to rev up the boats until mid-afternoon on Monday. So we had very peaceful river traffic excepting for a couple hours late in the afternoon. 

Rain in the night and early morning, so we stayed in the tent an extra hour or so until it stopped. Then it gradually cleared and we got nearly full sun late in the day - first time in quite a while. And the winds today were polite, which makes an enormous difference. 

Before I forget - two books by John McPhee are fabulous and highly relevant to this river trip. The Control of Nature, and Uncommon Carriers. 

Prior to the trip I (Amy) was nervous about many aspects of the trip, all if it being new and unknown. One of the intimidating things was the 30 locks we pass through. Most are 600' x 110', with 1200 foot long approach walls. In the last few days before leaving home I decided to buy a marine radio so we could talk to the lock master: "Lock 7, this is down-bound recreational canoe. We are 10 minutes out requesting passage.  Over."

Then they tell us if there will be a delay. Or they prepare the lock chamber so it's ready when we get there. It takes them 90-120 minutes to process a tow, and worst case you could get stuck while they process more than one tow.  We have now passed through ten locks, and our wait times have been zero to 45 minutes, average wait has probably been only 10 minutes. We're lucky. 

You don't need a radio (you can just pull a little cord on the 1200 foot wall) but it's fun to talk to them, and it's nice to get the status. Also, if we do get to a lock that has a long delay we can ask advice about portage options. We're very glad we brought the radio. 

So far the lock staff have all been super friendly. At most of them one or two guys come out to chat, and they always give us encouraging words. So I have come to really enjoy the locks. 

I was also very nervous about the tows. Turns out they are giant slow moving creatures that are not intimidating (although in the lower river there will be 48-barge tows compared to the 15-barge tows up here, and I reserve the right to be intimidated by the big ones). (Technical note: the barge trains are actually pushed by a specialized powered craft called a tow boat; they are not towed. Long ago the barges really were towed and the name tow boat stuck even after they changed to pushing.  Go figure.) It's the jerks in speed boats that rattle my brain, but I'm confident that problem peaked on Labor Day weekend. The fishing skiffs are not always cheerful or outgoing, but they don't drive aggressively, and many offer a short friendly wave before returning focus to their fishing lines. 

Camped on a sand dune in an island across the channel from Brownsville MN. 

River mile 688.3 (almost half-way through the upper river (above junction with the Ohio River). 

Flow at nearest lock 41,100 CFS; water temp at nearest lock 72. 

All is well and we are enjoying the rhythm. Especially now that the forecast shows a few days of dry weather. The rain is not a problem (it's warm and everything's in dry bags anyway) but I start to feel moldy without a little sun.