Kayak Trip 2012 ‐ Medium-Rare Meatloaf

2012-05-05

tl;dr: I made about 47 miles today. It was hot. And there were carp. And spiders.

I'm growing tired of spiders. They just crawl all over! All the time! I know I've been bitten at least twice. They are in my tent; they're in my clothes; my kayak always has at least one slinking around in it. I pick them up off the ground when I take a break. They fall out of trees. They float through the air and land on my face while in the middle of the river. Spiders.

I stopped in Beardstown for coffee and these fried rolled-up things that couldn't have been healthy and weren't even very tasty.

When I arrived at the dam below Beardstown I radioed the lock operator asking about portaging or going through the lock. He told me to "just go around". It turns out the water was high enough that the dam was barely a ripple. I felt silly. Although it's hard to see such things from a kayak. The water isn't so high either. That dam must not be very impressive.

I saw a gar sticking its head out of the water, but didn't get a picture.

In Meredosia a local named John gave me a ride to the South Side Tavern where they served up a medium-rare meatloaf. This is new to me. And I liked it.

There were a lot of boats on the river today; mostly fisherman in large flat-bottoms running up or down the river for all they're worth, which was probably both fast and safe, for all of these boats finally revealed the famous jumping carp. They weren't so consistent as to catch a photo, but as boats sped by occasional carp could be seen leaping in their wakes. Had the boats gone to slow they may have been assaulted by those carp.

I think I paddled 47 miles today. That may be a new record. And it was hot. I got a little sunburned.

I am camping far from anything. I checked. And yet some loser has a thumper going. So annoying. I hope they get eaten by a giant worm. It's bad enough that I managed to pick a spot next to a pond full of clicker frogs and (new to me) raccoon frogs.

P.S. I made a video of a towboat going under a lift bridge. Unfortunately, I can't find the bandwidth necessary to upload it. It was really boring anyway, and, because I made it while floating in my kayak, shaky.