Day 61: M 11/12- Barge Traffic Jam

  After two short days we were excited to make some good time the next morning.  We made it all of 15 miles before stopping for lunch while a barge passed by.  One barge ended up being three, all coming north, then the southbounders that had been waiting took their turn.  We ended up sitting on the sandbar for almost two hours before the way was clear to continue.  After that, we made decent time, but the day was pretty far along already.  As we came around a bend to the left, another huge sandbar, we passed a tug with no barges.  He gave us a toot with is horn and came out on deck to wave.  The evening was mild and the wind had finally died down.  We made camp on a pretty little hill just at the end of the sandbar, after a 24 ½ mile day.  It wasn’t as long as we had hoped, but we were back on the right track.

Day 60: Sn 11/11- New Madrid

  After an early night to bed, we were up before sunrise.  Although we could hardly see the river, we could hear the waves already crashing.  As we packed up and the light grew, we could see that the wind was as strong as it had been when we stopped the day before, and this was around 6 am.  It was a south wind and we knew we only had to go a mile or so before we rounded the bend and would be heading back north towards New Madrid, MO.

  As we were eating breakfast, we saw two hunters in blaze orange pop out of the brush on the mainland.  They probably saw us and we were worried for a bit that they would make their way to our camp over an exposed sandbar.  We were probably on private property, so we didn’t want to have to explain our presence.  After poking around the bank for a while, they went back into the woods and we were pushing off shortly after.

  We managed to get around the bend and head north towards town.  We both agreed that if we were headed into the wind, paddling would have been near impossible.  With it at our backs, however, we made it to New Madrid alright.  Our only real reasons to even try paddling for the day was minimize the risk of getting in trouble for trespassing at the same site twice and to replenish our beverage supply in town.  New Madrid is on the north bank of a large bend, after we landed, we knew we would have to fight our way into the wind back across the river and continue south.

  The crossing was one of the hardest stretches we had ever done and there was a couple of times the boat turned almost broadside to the waves, not good.  We managed to pull her back around, however, and after a grueling battle, made it to the south shore.  We immediately dipped into our newly replenished goods as a reward, but decided the sandbar we were on was not a good campsite.  There was little shelter from the wind, no wood for a fire and New Madrid was in clear view.  We went a little further down, around a dike and made camp in a more sheltered area; another 16 mile day ended at mile 887.

Day 59: S 11/10- Lazy Day on the Island

  We left our catfish lagoon headed for another windy day.  We started out alright, but the wind picked up before long.  It took us hours to make a few miles headed south into a strong head wind.  We stopped for a break on the upriver side of a dike, on a little spit of sand that was more mud than land.  Since it was a sunny, warm day and we were getting nowhere fast, we decided to call it a day just after noon.

  We paddled through heavy chop to get around the dike and landed just on the other side on a small, vegetated island.  After setting up camp up in the trees we spent the afternoon looking for cool rocks, reading Huck Finn and playing with Lilly.  We had big plans to wash clothes, take a bath and clean out the canoe, but the sunshine and relaxation got the better of us and we hit the sack that night after eating two dinners and doing no chores.  We were at mile 903 and had only gone 16 miles.

Day 58: F 11/9- Killer Catfish Hole

  We left from mile 951, our first full day on the ‘Big River’.  The fishermen we had met the night before came by after checking their trot lines and said hi again.  They gave us a few more pointers about the buoy system and told us to steer clear of the channel, again. 

 mAfter we had taken off, the going was smooth, for a while.  We stayed on the right descending bank for the first few miles, which actually kept us in the channel, but it was too late to cross.  After passing a large barge coming the other direction uncomfortably close, the wind started to pick up.  There was a slight turn to the river which choked the channel and was churned to chaos with the boat traffic and wind.  We fought through that and took a shaky break on a beach just after.

  When we pushed off, things calmed down a bit and we gained confidence.  Around 940 we came on a long string of barges moored with tugs attached.  As we rounded the bend we came on a repair yard, which we gathered was the reason for the line up.  After that we came around Wolf Island Bar, straight into a head wind.  The day was warm, but it was taking us forever to get anywhere.  We had lunch on the island then left for our final windy miles.  We made our way around a seemingly endless sandbar and made camp on its far end, next to a giant, gross killer catfish hole.  With the water down, it had been cut off from the river and was just a deep dark hole of dirty water, of course Lilly wanted to play in it.  Our camp was at 919, so we had made a surprising 32 miles for the day.

Day 57: R 11/8- The Big River

We were in for a big day, and one of the last major transitions on the river. The Upper Mississippi River runs to mile 0 at the confluence with the Ohio River. The count then resets at 953 and runs to 0 at the Gulf of Mexico. We had toyed with the idea of stopping at Cairo, IL for supplies, which is the southernmost point of IL, but decided against it because we could only access the town from the Ohio river side. Seeing how the Ohio is actually bigger than the Mississippi at their joining, we had no desire to paddle up it.
We decided to head to Wickliffe, KY instead. It's a tiny town on the outside of a bend just a mile or so from the confluence. As we sat at a sandbar and looked up both rivers, we could see stacks of barges and tugs at the intersection. The town front itself was covered with them and we couldn't even see the ramp that the maps had indicated. But, we chanced it and booked it across as fast as we could. As the two rivers meet they become a swirling mess, conveniently right along the bend at Wickliffe. It was a bit of a struggle getting to the ramp, but we ended up timing it well and sliding in with no trouble.
We walked about 2 miles to PeeDee's food mart, but it ended up being little more than a gas station. Luckily there was a dollar general across the street that had what we needed. We even got a couple of Snickers ice cream bar as a treat.
By the time we got back to the boat we were running out of daylight. We grabbed the phones from where they had been charging, thankful they had not been stolen, and refilled our water. As we pushed off three guy were putting in their fishing boat. We were already caught by the current, so we couldn't really chat, but we said hi and they asked where we headed and shouted a good luck.
We only went across the river and about a mile down before stopping for the night. The fishermen came by as we were setting up to say hi and see what we were up to. They were out checking their trot lines and were real nice. They gave us some tips about the channel asked a few questions and were off before dark. We only made about 20 for the day, but we had finally made it to 'the big river'!

Day 56: W 11/7- Commerce

It was a fairly heavy wind from the south but we still made good time for the 9 miles to Commerce, MO. We stopped here at a little boat launch and walked up to a town that was almost dead. There was maybe one house on each block that was inhabited. A few dogs followed us through part of town. We were able to get our package even having left our ids in the canoe.
We dealt with a lot of barge traffic when we left and had to stop again to let it clear. We still made 30 miles for the day and made camp at a cut little wing dam lagoon.

Day 55: T 11/6- The day Aaron lost his hat :(

Woke up a bit groggy and had a slow start on Tuesday morning. We left our little island, at mile 78, for another gray and cool day. We stopped for lunch north of Cape Girardeau, MO and had some questionable hotdogs.
As we passed the town, about miles 50-55, they began to make their presence known. To keep our minds off of upset tummies and cold winds we started making up a story about a spunky dog named Milo and his parakeet friend, Ruffles. We made up adventures for them, taking turns making the story up until we were just past town.
Sadly, at this point Aaron realized his hat was no longer on his head and no where to be found in the boat. He was pretty bummed to lose his favorite felt hat, but stayed hopeful that it might drift down and be reunited with us at some point.
We stopped at mile 49 on Marquette Island and camped on the beach right by the canoe. There was plenty of driftwood to burn and a clear view of the river to sit and watch for Hat. No luck though, as of yet. :(