Day 51: F 11/2- St Louis

We headed to St. Louis excited but a little nervous. After two short miles we came to the Missouri rivet and the start of the Chain of Rocks Canal. The canal is a ten-ish mile man made structure to avoid the Chain of Rocks. This is a natural geological escarpment as well as the remnants of an old low overhead dam. With the water so low we knew we couldn't navigate the rapids by the Chain, so decided to go down the canal and through lock and dam 27.
As we entered the canal, the MO river pushed us in and created some turbulent water. As soon as we entered the current nearly stopped and the waters calmed. We then saw a barge stretched across the canal an not moving. We waited, a bit nervously, a he repositioned and found a spot on te east bank. We finally snuck around him, thankful he didn't suddenly move again, and spent the rest of the canal dodging moored barges. We finally made it to the final lock, without being squished, and approached the doors. We got the green light and entered the huge lock chamber with no worker in sight. We never did see anyone, but eventually the lock drained and we were through the last lock of the river. Paddle high-five!
After we left the lock, the canal rejoined the main river and things really got going. We could tell immediately that the current was faster; we went cruising under bridges and past buildings and paddle through strong eddies. The next couple of miles took us past downtown St. Louis and the famous arch. We toyed with the idea of stopping for a visit, but contented ourselves with some pics and paddled on.
After the picturesque tourist sector we reentered barge country. There were miles of moored barges along either side of the narrow channel and numerous tugs zigging and zagging every which way. The wakes intersected and bounced off of the shore and barges and made a lovely chop soup. I was very nervous until we finally left this industrial area and found the open river once again.
We hadn't seen a mile marker since the last lock and were excited to see how far we had gone and if we could stop soon. When we finally spotted a marker we took guesses about our distance and Aaron won with an optimistic (read: silly) guess of 35. We were pleasantly surprised to see we had actually made it to mile 165, 33 miles for the day. We called it good then and there and made camp across from an industrial plant that ended up making sounds like a mechanical cow all night. But, we were very excited to see how quick the current was running after the last lock. It was a big day for us and we were excited to start the next, lockless, leg of our trip.

Day 50: R 11/1- Al the Artist Fisherman

We cruised early off, knowing that it was going to be a short day. We stopped at a marina and were able to refill our water. We tried stopping at a park to charge the phone but failed to find any. We also passed a statue turned out toward the river, which was the "Lady of the Rivers".
The Mel Price Lock and Dam (26) was pleasant and informative as the friendly lock operators gave us pointers on the confluence of he Missouri River into the chain of rocks channel.
After the lock we pulled up immediately off to the shore were there were a few fisherman. When we landed, a guy who was setting up came down the hill and chatted with us about our trip an shared about his life. After our interaction we went up to the pavilion of the park and finally found power. We charged the phone and Maggie walked over to the museum at the park to find out more about the "water trail". She found out that the campsites below lock 27 existed but weren't mapped yet. As we were less than fifteen miles to lock 27, we didn't buy the map nor gather any information. When we were about to leave the pavilion after charging our phone, our fisherman pal came for another chat as he was finishing up.
His name was Al; and he was, self proclaimed the worst fisherman. He also an early retired artist and dealer, kind hearted fellow, eager to help us how ever he could. He offered to run us to a store, but we didn't need anything very badly and needed to go before dark, we refused. He even offered to give us his number to help us closer to St. Lois where he lived. We chatted a bit and he told us a bit about the "Lady of the Rivers", then he sent us off with a couple of delicious beverages he had left over from fishing.
The whole day with the wonderful interactions, beautiful weather, and ability to charge up and get water, boosted our sprits. We made a few miles through the industry and pulled off on the last federal island before the chin of rocks, which was on the chain of Maple Island. About seventeen miles for the day but we would be ready for St. Lois in the morning.

Day 49: W 10/31- Break from L/D 25

As we made camp the evening before, one of the workers flagged us down and informed us that the lock would be closing again on Wednesday morning at 7 am. We had decided to camp by the locks, so he told us to wake up early and call the lock so they could sneak through before they closed again.
So, I braved the early morning and woke up at 4 am and called the locks. The guy working was really friendly and informed me that plan had changed and the lock would remain open through the morning. Since it was still hours til dawn we went back to sleep and reset the alarm for 6:30. I then called them again and another worker told us we would be clear to go in one hour. We hopped up and broke camp as quick as possible to be there on time.
Unfortunately, as we were paddling up to the first barge in line we saw that he was already getting into position. I called again, right at 7:30, and the guy told us that we were too late and since no one had seen us they gave the barge the go-ahead. And so, our 20 minute locking was delayed almost 3 hours because of an impatient lock operator. Such is life, but Aaron got to hear exactly what I thought of the situation while we waited...
Eventually it was our turn and we made it in the lock. A very nice lock operator bought us a couple of sodas and chatted about the super Sandy storm out east. The kind gesture and talk put us in a better mood and we took off looking to make up some miles.
Aaron was still feeling pretty low, but stayed strong and we made it past the confluence with the Illinois river. We aimed for Slim island and camped around mile 216. The island was long and narrow and had steep foot high banks all down it. We finally found a place to haul the boat up and waded through the debris and trash to a pretty cozy campsite.

Day 48: T 10/30- Closed Lock and the Snack Stranger

It was fairly windy in our favor as we started out in the morning. We were already making food time but I thought that we should take more advantage of the wind. Upswing the oars as a double mast and whatever strings and bunge cords we had accessible, I fastened a slap together tarp sail. It only worked when the wind was directly behind us, and unfortunately the river took a change of direction in a couple of hours. We were happy to find that we were making our fastest time yet at a lightning fast five miles per hour. (With paddling)
Our excellent pace proved to be in vain. With twenty miles down, we approached lock 25, and noticed three tugs waiting on the side of the river. We continued on and saw two more tugs waiting outside the dam. We found a corner in the shores rock wall were sediment had built up forming a marshy area. Rather than passing the front barge we landed roughly there with four foot waves pushing us while we worked around the dozens of logs that had been pushed up there. We walked down to the lock and notices that there was a lot of people and activity. When we got to the fence that had an open gate, we were just about to enter when a security lady came out of the security post. She was kind and helpful. She told us that the lock was closed until 7:00pm that night. They were doing maintenance. We chatted with her and a couple other officials that came out to us. Through these chats we eventually got word from the lockmater that we could camp in the little day park that they had next to the dam.
We returned to the canoe, secured it better and carried our stuff the quarter mile back to the park. At this point I was starting to get hit with a second wave of being sick.
We had a very kind and strange encounter to go still before bed. While we were up reading a billboard about the "water trail", a guy showed up to walk his dog down the dams break-wall. We waved as he got out and Lilly showed her enthusiasm for his dog. He walked and we returned to our unsetup campsite. When he went back to his truck, he put his dog away and then started walking towards us with a box. We greeted each other when he was close and he set the box down and told us it was a box of snacks and asked if we wanted one. Unknowing that he meant the whole box, we accepted and took one. When we thanked him he told us that we could have the whole thing. We tried to refuse, but he was insistent. We talked a little, but it wasn't until the last couple comment followed by his quick departure that we realized that he probably thought that we were truly homeless. We couldn't do anything about it, as he was already gone, but we felt bad anyway. We did eventually decide that we should enjoy the generosity. It is great to know that there are some really good people out in this world that are willing to extend kindness to a stranger. We never even got his name as our encounter was brief, but thank you for the kind snack stranger.

Day 47: M 10/29- Great River Water Trail

We took off from Gilbert Island, mile 296, pretty early. We passed by Louisiana, MO, mile 283, in the afternoon, which got us thinking of our destination state and how far we still had to go.
We made good time to L/D 24 at mile 273, no barge sandwiches at this one. The guys working were friendly and informed us there was a grocer right after the lock if we needed supplies. We were good on groceries, but we did stop at the Clarksville, MO park to refill our water.
As we were bringing our water jugs up to the restrooms we saw a 'Water Trail' sign with a canoe symbol. We weren't sure what it was for, but later looked it up. Apparently MO and IL maintain a 200 mile water trail from mid-MO to Cairo, IL, with campsites and all.
We ended up paddling for a chunk of federal land another 10 miles down river. We made our longest day yet and camped on a small island 34 1/2 miles from the day's start.

Day 46: Sn 10/28- A Mark Twain Barge Sandwich

We got a good start in the morning with some nice sunny weather. We made the 11 miles to Hannibal quickly. We were excited to see Mark Twains hometown, since we were re-reading a copy of Huck Finn that my mom gave us.
The downtown/riverside of Hannibal was super cute with some brick roads and everything seemed to be name the "Mark Twain ______". The income level appeared to drop suddenly as we got toward the top of the hill and came up on the combination Family Dollar/Save A Lot. We were able to resupply a lot of our supplies including dog food. We carried our supplies the mile back to the river and ate lunch on the dock.
While we ate and admired the Mark Twain Paddle Boat(pic), a big barge passed us which was unfortunate because Dam #22 was eight miles down. We followed the barge a few miles back and gained sight of the dam while he was still finishing positioning to start locking. We drifted up the last mile or so and finally hung on to a mooring piling. When we eventually decided to go and wait on shore we saw another barge coming up. We didn't want to wait another two hours so we stayed close and hurried up to pull the signal cord as soon as the tug entered the lock.
The lock guy came out to us on the guide wall and instructed us to pull up the just outside the gates and hang onto a service ladder. They were going to get us through between barges but the barge behind us was lining up on the guide wall right behind us. That was a little freaky being between a hydraulic gate and a huge barge.
We made it through the lock without getting squished. Behind schedule, we paddled until after the sun disappeared and made our camp on Gilbert Island. Making and eventful day with 24 miles accomplished.

Day 45: S 10/27- Grocery hunt

We left mile 350 and weaves our way through a series of islands in the pool leading up to lock and dam 20. We passed by Canton, IA and La Grange, IA in the morning, hoping to find a grocery store to resupply. We thought one building in La Grange looked promising, but it turned out to be the Mark Twain Casino. That left us Quincy, IL to try for the day.
The wind was still in our favor, but the high was 50 and our sunny morning clouded over as we reached Quincy. Aaron walked up to a "grocery store" that ended up being a bust while Lilly and I paced around a park to stay warm. All we got was some cereal, some apple butter and little Debbie snack cakes, but it was better than nothing. Lock an dam 21 was around the corner from town and we made it through no problem. The guys working were both really nice and chatted about our trip. One said he was pretty sure we were crazy but admired our tenacity :)
We ended up at mile 320 for the day and camped on Goose Island.