|
2012-05-09 tl;dr: I paddled through St. Louis. It was not fun. If you ever have the opportunity to canoe or kayak the Mississippi down past St. Louis, don't. It sucks. Unless your idea of a good time is dodging giant collections of barges and towboats in an unforgiving current and extremely choppy water. Even on the water big cities are no fun.I have reconsidered my interest in photographing every towboat I see, partially because it would have been impossible to do so today. For mile-long stretches to take a hand off my paddle would have resulted in immediate swamping. And the barges! They were stacked eight deep right up to the bank! That means I had to push a hundred yards out into the river just to get around them. And hate-to-be-you if you can't make that hundred yards before the current carries you to those barges. I was so happy when I reached the end of that shipping container jungle after two hours of dodging, portaging, and paddling like mad. The rest of the day was spent trying to decide where best to paddle. Should I stick to the relatively slow current along the shore where there were things to see and I didn't have to be on guard, or did I push out into the fast current where I almost doubled my speed? What usually happened was that I ended up between the two in a broiling mess of switching currents. Near the end of the day I was tired of paddling, but I had a slight tailwind, so I deployed my sail and drifted along the Illinois-side bank for a while before spotting a beautiful beach to camp on. Good enough reason to stop. What is up with people? I find an awesome beach so I stop early. Ten minutes later a guy shows up in a boat and starts fishing right next to me. Fine, I think, because there is sort of a little bay here. But then he beaches his boat, unfolds a lawn chair, and starts sunning himself! Right next to me. I could hit him with a rock from where I'm eating my summer sausage and Ritz dinner. He has to know I'm here. I considered just getting back on the river, but the shirtless creeper should realize before long that it isn't actually that warm. Because the mosquitoes have yet to make any sort of real appearance I decided to forgo the tent tonight. We'll see how that goes. |
 the Missouri River  that's above sea level   a flock of cranes  Chain of (Trucks) Bridge  rapids  building a new bridge  waterfront property  camping  as if there aren't already enough bridges   bad panorama of the Gateway Arch  photographing tourists photographing me  the fun begins  barges barges everywhere  blocked in    barge repair   just go away   goodnight Mississippi River |