Saturday, May 21, 2011
Returning back to the river
After a nice full day off in north Kansas City it was time to head back to the water. While at the Vacca's I was able to go through my food bags and whittle down what I needed for the run to St. Louis. I also weeded out the equipment that was weighing me down. The canoe is now riding as it should and the equipment bags are finally an appropriate weight. That ride from Nebraska City to Kansas City was definitely a strain because I was so overloaded. The good thing is that I've now had my "shakedown" trip and I'm in a very confident frame of mind about camping, paddling, etc. from here on out.
For my day off I went to dinner with Lora, Abbey, Grant, and one of Abbey's friends, Tiffany. It was a delicious meal at Buffalo Wild Wings, I'm so glad Grant told me it was my favorite restaurant and that I "just had to go"! Afterwards, we shopped at Zona Rosa where I picked up a new canoe seat at Dick's Sporting Goods and had a Cafe Mocha at the Barnes and Noble.
We didn't leave the house this morning until after 11:00 a.m. and it was about 11:40 a.m. when I finally got in the water. I paddled all afternoon with a single stop for lunch and made it the 36 miles to Cooley Landing at 5:40 p.m. The fast flowing high water is certainly a blessing. Even so, I'm not expecting to arrive in St. Louis until June 3rd. I intend to average 30 miles a day and enjoy the ride. Below Kansas City things are opening up a bit and it's a real pretty stretch of river. My favorite part is that the wild grapes are in bloom. When the wind dies down to a gentle breeze I can smell the grapes a hundred yards or so upstream, a very nice treat for a flower lover like myself.
The river was very busy today since it's the weekend. I saw more boat traffic in the few hours below Kansas City than I saw in the entire trip from Nebraska to KC. Lots of speed boats but no other paddle craft although I expect there will be a few coming along now that the weather is warming up.
Cooley Landing is another of those popular locations. Lots of people here fishing and I spent time talking with a couple guys who are camping out for the night. John and Dusty arrived just as I was pulling in and unloading the canoe. They are childhood friends that are now in their late 30s. John says he's just a Redneck but he wears the title as a badge of honor. They offered me a cold beer and we chatted a bit before this old man retreated to his tent to write his blog and go to sleep. Thunderstorms are threatening off to the west and it will be interesting what they'll do if it starts to pour since they don't own a tent.
The rest of the activity here tonight was an impromptu party at the boat landing after a group pulled out their boat. They were getting pretty loud and having a good time but they've since pulled out. Things have quieted down which is good as I'm one tired puppy.
Not much else to report. It was nice to get a real meal and a few hot showers the day and a half I was off the water. I was a bit sore before my rest day but I felt pretty good today, even though it was a hot and long day.
Thanks Brian and Lora for your great hospitality!
Cheers!
JB
Sent from Jerry Bricker's iPad. Oooooh!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Red triangles, green squares
The rain started gentle enough last night to make me think it would pass over and not be a problem. Boy, was I wrong! Put a paddle in my hand and point me down river and it was a sure bet it would pour all day long. Not to worry, though, the wind took away what little resistance to misery I had left in me. At one point the wind was blowing so hard that white caps were forming on 1-2 foot waves blowing upstream on a current running about 8 miles and hour.
Actually, it was a very nice morning of eating breakfast and packing to leave. Just as I was finished and ready to load the canoe a huge barge appeared at my "doorstep." It was quite the site and a real contrast with my little yacht. I gave it a wide berth as I started down river. It seems nearly everyone I've run into on this river has some story about a person getting sucked under a barge or dock and spit out the other side. Those are wonderful conversations for a guy in a canoe in a rapid current.
My goal for today was mile 377 and English Park Landing, just shy of 42 miles total. Today was my day to pull out and take a rester and repack and review my options for traveling downstream. Brian had been following my progress on my SPOT tracking map and was there to meet me just as I pulled into the landing. Later, he showed me the track map on his computer and it has enough detail to show when I switch from one side of the river to the other. Pretty cool.
Navigation on the Missouri River is pretty easy. I have the maps from the Corps of Engineers on my iPad and I look at my daily mileage goal and then determine what landings are in that general area on the river. The river is mapped from the confluence in St. Louis and the actual river miles are tallied upstream. Thus, when you pass a day beacon you know it will have a river mileage on it and how much further to St. Louis. That comes in handy when determining how much further until your destination. As I get closer to that day's goal I switch to the side of the river where I'll pull out and start looking ahead to the landing and how I'll make the final maneuver.
The Corps has a mandate to provide a navigable channel that is 9 feet deep along the entire river course from Montana down to St. Louis. To do so they use wing dikes to divert water into a narrower channel. Since the river bends and twists the navigation channel switches from one bank to another. When the channel is going to change to another side you will see either a red diamond (left side of river heading downstream) or green diamond (right side of the river) telling you to cross over. A red triangle means continue on the left side of the river and a green square means stay to the right bank.
All of this isn't real important at this high flow stage. The water is high enough over the wing dikes that I don't have to worry about staying in the navigation channel. The problem is that as water passes over the dikes it "piles up" and creates what I call roilers of swirling water that threaten to tip over the canoe. The other big issue is that the Missouri is so high that every time I pass a large eddy the water at the downstream exit is also roiling. The same is happening where rivers and creeks meet the main river. At those places the water is actually flowing up the tributaries.
All of the above reminds me of running the fast rivers in Alaska when I was in college working for the BLM. This water is pretty smooth in comparison and doesn't demand any high level of paddling skill but there are a few of the big roilers that I've paddled across the channel to avoid which takes some anticipation because of how fast my canoe is moving.
Actually, the biggest threat today was about five minutes from my landing. As I was paddling in the eddy approaching English Landing I was nearly knocked out of the boat by an Asian Carp. They are an invasive species that gets over a foot long and hates noise in the river. Every time I dipped my paddle in the river the damn things jumped over the canoe. One smacked me hard and for a second I thought he wanted me to join the other fish.
We've been looking at stream gauges down river and it's clear this is a Nebraska to St. Louis Canoe Quest 2011. My final mileage will be about 600 miles, about half of what I was hoping. On the up side, I'm sitting in a warm and dry house sipping a cold beer after a great ride down from Nebraska City. I won't fret much, however, as the world is supposed to come to an end in two days and I wouldn't have made my final goal anyhow!
Cheers!
JB
Sent from Jerry Bricker's iPad. Oooooh!
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