Sep 23 - wing dams aka dikes

Another perfect weather day. We are so lucky. Life is just a heck of a lot easier when it's calm and sunny with mild temperatures. 

No towns today, but we are just 10 miles from Memphis. Our favorite towns are the 5x5 or 10x10 size - that's the number of streets and it's how we identify them looking at a map. A 1x3 town rarely has a grocery store or cafe, but always has friendly people - so it's always a good rest stop. A 10x10 town is always big enough to buy groceries and eat in a restaurant, but is small enough to be friendly and to not care if you camp in the town park. Memphis is too big, so we'll just stop at the marina for water. If it works out that it's easy to buy groceries we might shop, but we've got food for 4-5 days in our larder, so groceries are not necessary. 

The river south of Saint Louis has such a huge floodplain that there are only a handful of towns that can be reached from the river - it's an entirely different experience than in MN, WI, IA, and most of IL. It's like we started a whole new trip when we left Saint Louis. 

If you don't know what wing dams are (a.k.a.dikes) then look at google satellite imagery of this river. Just go up and down the river until you see lines of rocks that stick out from the bank, up to several hundred yards long. You might have to look in different places, because if the satellite imagery was taken when the water is high you won't see them. The Army Corps of Engineers has built thousands of the damn things to improve the river channel for commercial shipping interests who don't pay a cent for their construction or maintenance (your tax dollars subsidizing free enterprise). The bad news for us is that today the water had dropped far enough that many wing dams were exposed. That means we can't paddle right over the top of them.  It's a bloody nuisance, and it will be worse again tomorrow, as it's still dropping at the rate of a foot a day. The Army Corps of Engineers has wreaked havoc with this magnificent river. I'll try to get an adequate photo tomorrow, but you should look at the Wikipedia entry for Wing Dam. 

We're camped on a narrow, sandy willow-lined shore with low bluffs backing the beach, at river mile 749.7, and there are wild pigs tramping in the woods next to us. 

Other than wing dam grief, everything is swell. 

The photo is a little dull, but it's what I see for about nine hours a day!

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.331685,-90.092512(I+Am+Here+Tuesday+September+23+2014+07:56+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 22 - who's on the river

Since we left Saint Louis, 7 days ago, we've seen about a dozen people fishing from the banks, a half dozen cabin cruisers, a half dozen john boats, no paddlers. Recreational use of this river is astonishingly absent. Big tows though; a 35 barge one passed us today heading upriver.

Today we saw a fabulous sight passing our camp while we were preparing dinner: a probably home made pontoon raft powered by an outboard motor carrying a VW van, and two people on board. It was on the far side of the river, so we could only study with binoculars. Jim is sure it has a hinged ramp (like a car ferry) so they can pull up to a boat ramp and drive the van off the boat and into town. Our internet access here is marginal so I can't google to try to find their blog or Facebook page. We'd love to know more.

Stunningly good weather today. And a five star campsite on a newly emergent sand island (river mile 782). The water level continues to fall a foot a day, so a week ago this island was probably under water.

We're lucky to have iPhone with river gauge apps that show actual and forecast water levels at every gauge on the river. Otherwise camping on a sandbar would be more problematic when you don't know whether you will still be on dry land come morning.

We saw no towns today, and probably none tomorrow. This is an isolated stretch of river.

All is well. We're feeling healthy and strong, but gritty and getting a bit stinky now.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.744116,-89.856616(I+Am+Here+Monday+September+22+2014+08:03+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 21 - a thousand to one

I typed a long beautiful brilliant message, but an iPhone bug devoured it. So I'm starting over. Rats. This version will be abbreviated :(

We stopped in Caruthersville, MO and met Ritchie at the boat ramp. He saw us and our canoe and pulled over to chat. He grew up here, loves the river, is interested in what our trip is like, drives Jim to the grocery store saving him a 45 minute walk each way, and waits while Jim shops, calls his friend the chief of police to ask if we can camp at the park next to the ramp, tells us about the nice beach 7 miles downstream below his cousin's soybean field where we are welcome to camp, offers to take us home for showers, and is an all-round fine and interesting person.

People like Ritchie can not imagine how important they are to us. The practical help is obvious, but the words of encouragement, friendly gestures, and good cheer really make a big difference to our morale. Thanks again to Ritchie and all the other fine people like him.

On the downside, Ritchie told us that last year a boat (kayak I think) was lost from this ramp - stolen, or pushed into the river by louts, or improperly secured by the owner - unclear. In any case, it reaffirms our plan to not leave Miss Tuffy unattended. It's too bad. For every lout there are a thousand Ritchies. But one lout can ruin a whole trip, so we're being conservative with tending our canoe in at town landings. The downside is that we don't go to museums or pizzerias as often as we'd like.

10 minutes of heavy rain, else the weather was fabulous. And the forecast is grand. The river continues to drop a foot a day (after going up 10 feet as a result of the upriver flood).

First photo courtesy of Ritchie.

Camped next to the bridge below the soybean fields. River mile 839. Elevation 267 feet.

My lost iteration of this message described the churn that 4 passing tows (2 northbound and 2 southbound) at the apex of a tight turn in the river with maximum current cause - I'll not retype the details, but suffice it to say it's best not experienced in a canoe.

We are healthy and all is well.

Good night papa, I love you.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.116984,-89.619600(I+Am+Here+Sunday+September+21+2014+08:36+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 20 - Rabbiting Can

The buoys are tethered to big concrete blocks. Occasionally the tether is just the right length, and the current is just the right strength, that the buoy can submerge for a period of time and then suddenly pop up, like a rabbit out of a hole. Never get in the way of a rabbiting buoy, if it pops up under your canoe it can cause serious grief.

We've read reports of rabbiting buoys. We've seen two of them this trip. They are not common. I saw a green can buoy today disappear before my eyes. It was off to the side, no threat to us. I wanted to show it to Jim, but it didn't pop up.

Wing dams are long stone dams which are generally submerged (except at low water) and are placed by the Army Corps to direct the flow of water into the navigation channel. There are thousands of them. At the water levels we've been paddling wing dams are a nuisance, but not a hazard. Because they reduce flow, they cause big slow moving eddies downstream, and a bit of turbulence right as you cross - boils and some tight little eddies. Not scary and nothing that's a problem for little Miss Tuffy.

Just after I saw the disappearing green can buoy we crossed a wing dam. While crossing perhaps 50 feet of boils and eddies below the wing dam - thump - the green can popped up out of the eddy and bumped Miss Tuffy. Popped up and hit the boat right in front of my paddle. Surprised the hell out of me, but did no damage.

There's a pretty crummy photo below of Jim with a wayward can, showing the scale.

The can that hit us was not in its proper place - as the navigation channel buoy markers are never at a wing dam. And it was not near the place where I first saw it. It is certainly a member of the Brotherhood of Untethered Cans.

Imagine the odds - this is a mighty big river, now half a mile wide, sometimes a mile. We've seen two rabbiting buoys all trip. And this joyriding untethered buoy gets caught in the wing dam eddy and pops exactly in our location. Frickin' unbelievable.

Warm and sunny all day. Some headwind, but not too bad. Very nice camp in the sand opposite the big industrial area south of New Madrid, MO. River mile 883. Unlike some recent industrial areas, this one is not spewing stinky smoke.

We stopped briefly in New Madrid for water and ice cream. Because we won't leave the canoe alone, we did not go to the riverfront Civil War Museum. And, true to our fears, the nice fellow who greeted us when we landed said that last year a kayaker had his boat stolen right in that very park while he was in town. What a way to ruin a trip and to destroy the trust and delight in human nature that a trip like this builds.

In the photo of a map below, the red line connects last night's and tonight's camps. 21.6 crow miles, 43 river miles.

We are healthy and living in the tent is AOK, but we do miss our bears a lot.

Sep 19 - hello BIG river

So we just checked the web site for the two English kayakers who have been just ahead of us for the whole journey. They are doing a fundraiser, paddling the river in 60 days. Moments ago we read that they have gotten at least two rides downriver to catch up after taking rest days. One of those rides was nearly 200 river miles. Jim is indignant, "Are we the only people paddling this river with integrity?". I (Amy) say HYOH (hike your own hike). Amazing that Jim and I get along (nearly every day) when we have such divergent world views. 

Big milestone today when we reached the junction with the Ohio River at Cairo, Il.

The Upper Mississippi is 1334 miles, plus the 4 miles we paddled across Lake Itasca.  All done. The junction with the Ohio is river mile zero for the Upper River and mile 953 for the Lower River. 

Our river doubled in volume and is now about a million CFS. We paddled ~25 miles on the new big river and so far she is AOK. Wider, but neither faster nor more intimidating. 

And so it remains - I am intimidated by the commercial boat traffic (about 2 tows per hour today) and strong winds (today was calm, sometimes glassy calm). But the river, she's big but not intimidating me. 

We're camped at a usable but not perfect sandy bank in Kentucky. Too many mosquitos. River mile 926. Bye-bye Illinois. Hello Kentucky!

We're happy, healthy, and very grateful that our first day on the giant river was warm, sunny, and very calm. 

P.S.  We may have understated the chaos of log debris we dealt with a few days back. During dinner I was listening to marine radio channel 13, that's the channel the commercial captains/pilots use. I was curious about what the Tow pilots say to each other. (most of it was about who is where, and arranging where a northbound and a southbound tow will pass each other.) At the end of a conversation, a northbounder said to a southbounder: "Have a safe journey, it gets nasty up there, but I'm sure you've heard that already."

If it's nasty to a tugboat, well you can extrapolate from there. 

Sep 18 - great weather and food

No unpleasant wind today! And only one place with a harbor tug moving a barge from one place to another nearby place. Most of the day was on a very quiet piece of river with a few good back-channels. We had a steady stream of big barge tows in transit (about one an hour), but those don't make me nervous anymore.

One interesting thing we haven't mentioned... Since we passed Alton Illinois 3-4 days ago there has been almost no recreational boaters. We've seen one John boat with a pair of hunters, and a half dozen cabin cruisers, possibly on their way to the gulf too. North of Alton there was a great deal of recreational traffic.

Yesterday was dodge-a-log paddling, big time, which I don't think I mentioned yesterday. Today the log load was down to a small trickle, perhaps a log every minute or two. That's good news for us. The water level continues to drop.

Camped at a five star big sandy flat on an island. River mile 24. Tomorrow we will pass Cairo and thereby transition from the Upper Mississippi to the Lower Mississippi, and start a whole new numbering scheme.

Finally warmed up to 75 or so. I haven't been keeping track but I don't think we've had t-shirt weather since the big storm that caused this flood, and that was about a week ago. Forecast is now for temps in the 80s for the next ten days, so I think the rest of this trip will feel like paddling weather. And it looks like there may be only one rainy day in the next week, which seems pretty dang lucky.

Bob and Nancy, formerly of Redwood City and an interesting and nice couple whom we met at the state park campground last night, met us at the boat landing in Cape Girardeau and kindly took Jim to a big box grocery store where he bought a week's worth of food, a roasted chicken, and a pint of good ice cream. That was super kind of them and really helpful to us. It makes a really big difference to get a ride to a large supermarket instead of being limited to the convenience stores which are invariably the only thing near the landings. Bob used to work at the big United Airlines maintenance center at SFO; James had a tour there years ago and thought it was one of the most fascinating places he has ever visited.

While Jim shopped I hung out with the meet-for-a-morning-beer gang at the picnic shelter. This is the 3rd or 4th loose daily or weekly social group that we've hung out with at boat landings. In every case, I've been impressed with how kind and thoughtful the people are to each-other. None have been bitch-and-moan-sessions, or fuckin-A talk, or competitive banter. Just quiet talk about how the day is going, with lots of hospitality toward us. This group of six (all arrived separately) seemed a bit down on their luck, but extremely good natured, at-ease, and friendly. They wished us a safe journey, and all came down to the water to help us launch the canoe.

We are healthy and happy.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.001295,-89.279897(I+Am+Here+Thursday+September+18+2014+08:12+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 17 - SUN and BOC

Looking downstream, the channel markers on the left are red conical buoys, officially called nuns. The markers on the right are green cylindrical buoys called cans. 

Either the Coast Guard hasn't done a big retrieval trip in a while, or this flood has dislodged a large number of nuns and cans. Some are still drifting but most are on the river's edge, usually mixed in with driftwood. 

Society of Untethered Nuns, aka SUN. 

Brotherhood of Untethered Cans, aka BUC. 

Many members of SUN and BUC were seen today. 

Camped at the floodplain woods next to the boat ramp at Trail of Tears State Park. River mile 67. Nice campers at the adjacent campground (the old biddy campground host not being one of them) brought chairs and companionship and offered to take us to the grocery store. 

The water dropped 6" last night, but has another ten feet to drop to get back to where it was a week ago. Today it was carrying a lot of logs. I'm very curious to see how long it takes the logs to come to rest. 

About ten barge tows passed today, or roughly one per hour. That's much busier than it was above St. Louis. 

The forecast promised calm, but we had mild headwind most if the day. Not enough to kick up chop, but a bother none-the-less. And, as to my second fear, we had no industrial docks or fleeted barges on our side of the river all day. We stayed on the Missouri side, there are almost no islands or back channels, so no motivation to go to the other side. 

We are healthy and happy. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.454491,-89.462283(I+Am+Here+Wednesday+September+17+2014+07:55+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 16 - above and beyond

Julie and EJ took us back to the arch this morning, but as we were packing the gear into the boat the Coast Guard came over to tell us that the river is officially closed to all boating traffic (recreational and commercial) for 20 miles either side of the arch due to the floodwaters. Actually, it's not the high water that's causing the problem it's the quantity of logs. We were not permitted to put in. OK, they've got a job to do and they made the call. however, they were amazingly lacking in knowledge about where we could launch downstream of the closure. The best they could come up with was well over an hour away, 60 river miles downriver. 

IPhone to the rescue, and paddling.net's app Launch Sites. 20 river miles downriver, and 25 minute drive, to a boat ramp on the Meramec River. So EJ and Julie, who had not bargained on this added interruption to their work day reloaded our gear and canoe and took us to the alternate site.  Above and beyond stellar hospitality. 

There was lots of grumbling about the curmudgeonly Coast Guard, but I now have a different opinion. There was a steady stream of logs flowing out of the Missouri River yesterday - maybe 20-40 logs per minute.  And there was a steady stream of loosely clustered log rafts passing the arch yesterday and again this morning. But when the Meramec joined the Mississippi River, 20 miles downstream, there were no logs flowing in the river. My theory is that the abundance of commercial docks, fleeted barges, and bridge abutments in the Saint Louis area creates so many eddies that the logs are forming into some mighty messy jams somewhere in the 20 miles south of the Arch. So I am quite happy we skipped that part. Gratitude to EJ and Julie. 

I didn't take any usable photos today, so I'm illustrating a couple good birds from yesterday. We've been seeing large numbers of White Pelicans. But yesterday was the first time we saw a long string of them floating with the current - like a hundred rail cars rolling down the track. Fun. And yesterday we had terrific view of a Peregrine Falcon flying down the length of the underside of a bridge. 

Weather today was perfect. Not hot, not cold, no rain, no wind. And forecast tomorrow is similar. 

Camped at a nice little picnic area where the Kaskaskia River meats the Mighty Mississippi. River mile 117.6.  Two of the three picnic tables have water lapping at the base. Silver Maples and Cottonwoods. The water at this spot crested in the last 24 hours, and is starting a long gradual drop. 

Oh, and we've learned through experience that when the river rises above the designated Flood Level mark the navigational buoys that mark the shipping disappear. I can't tell if they are underwater or if the have broken free. There certainly is no shortage of buoy bodies scattered on the river banks. 

And about debris, many weeks ago I wrote about starting to see trash along the riverbanks. Turns out that was just at a couple riverside access points. The whole river corridor has been astonishingly trash free. 

I started this trip with many things on my worry list. I think I'm down to just two remaining things that make me nervous. Wind is number one. Without wind we are AOK handling Miss Tuffy, even in this big river, but strong wind makes waves, and those combined with churn of passing tows and/or the turbulence caused by abundant wing dams - that makes me nervous. Tomorrow is forecast to be calm. One day at a time.

Second thing that still makes me nervous are the loading dock areas and the working tows in those areas. The big barge trains in long distance transit are completely predictable and we give them a giant margin, no worries. But the tow boats (aka tug boats) moving around the working docks -- I'm nervous they'll pull out unpredictably. Jim has a different view - those tug boats are a half million dollar piece of equipment and the tug pilots are skilled serious professionals. They don't move around without looking for obstacles like recreational boats on the water. 

We are healthy and happy, and our successful day is fully credited to EJ and Julie. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.884491,-89.895824(I+Am+Here+Tuesday+September+16+2014+07:34+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 15 - what a day

We locked through the Mel Price lock - twice the size of prior locks, at 1200 foot long chamber. Holy wow. That was our final lock - Woo-Hoo!!!

Then we paddled over Chain of Rocks rapids, which in flood stage are completely underwater, so we didn't need to portage. 

Then, we ate picnic lunch at the point where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi River. Both rivers are in flood stage, so the interpretive displays were under water. It was a fun place to sit and watch the two rivers flow. We got to chat with friendly Larry who is taking photos of a cutout character in different locations for his nephew.

The Missouri was carrying a truly impressive flow of big logs dislodged by the floodwaters. So we got to play dodge-a-log after lunch, as we paddled from the junction of those two rivers down to the Saint Louis Arch. 

Water flow here in Saint Louis is currently 463,000 CFS.  Up from 225,000 five days ago at same location. And water temp dropped 10 degrees.

The surge of floodwater is moving downstream at the same pace as us, so we've been at the crest for a few days, and the forecasts indicate we'll stay in floodwaters for at least the next 4 or 5 days. 

Denny and Peggy hooked us up with Peggy's sister in Saint Louis. EJ and Julie picked us up at the Saint Louis Arch and we are enjoying a very fine evening visiting with them. A really good time at their house talking about stuff all over the map and comparing notes about the life and times on the river. And Little Miss Tuffy got to ride on a trailer, which was a novel experience for her. 

Here's a book we plan to read that EJ has recommended:  Wicked River; The Mississippi When it Last Ran Wild, by Lee Sandlin

We are happy and healthy. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=38.608283,-90.431163(I+Am+Here+Monday+September+15+2014+09:04+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11

Sep 14 - no bridges, 2 ferriesp

We believe today might be the first day of the trip with no bridges. To compensate, it was our first day with car ferries, and two at that. 

We had a near perfect day. But a two hour delay at the lock pushed the Jim-and-Amy conflict button, as we didn't see eye-to-eye in our reaction to the delay. I was going to title this post one lock delay can ruin a good day. 

Fortunately, we asked a family next to a little Army Corps park if anybody would mind if we set up camp at the park, and that was the start of a most enjoyable evening with a stellar family. It helps dissipate a conflict when you are surrounded by good people and good food. 

A dozen people at their family gathering - we didn't quite sort out how they were all related. They share a riverside cabin with 8 other families, and once a month or so they come out for a party or family BBQ. They were kind to us and great company. Even more impressive was how at ease and comfortable they seemed with each other. There may be skeletons in their closets, but none were on display!

Fabulous weather, nice scenery, with some small bluffs on the Illinois side. It really is a heck of a lot more fun to do this when the wind is not blowing and the sun is shining. 

We are camped at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, across the river from Grafton.  River mile 219. 

Pretty excited because tomorrow we pass our final 2 locks, and begin paddling 1000 miles of nominally free flowing river - plenty of wing dams and revetments, but no impounding dams like we've had for the past thousand miles. 

We are following the crest of the flood downstream, and paddled all day today on a river that was flowing outside its banks. My prior image was that it would have some sort of raging water when in flood, but it just gets wider. The current is a bit stronger, but the surface was glassy smooth for most of the day, and the paddling was easy. 

Try to wrap your mind around a river flowing at two hundred thousand cubic feet per second. Our household water usage is about one hundred fifty cubic feet per month. 

We are happy and healthy. 

Good night papa, I love you. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=38.960419,-90.456563(I+Am+Here+Sunday+September+14+2014+08:32+PM)&iwloc=A&z=11