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2012-06-06 tl;dr: I'm now seeing bamboo and palmettos. And the airforce. I checked out of my hotel early, carried all my gear down to my hidden kayak, loaded up, and hit the water.I only had one dam to portage. I took the back way around the Columbus Lock and Dam. There was a good north wind, so I broke out my sail again. I think this sail isn't worth the trouble. Perhaps if it were twice as big it would make a significant difference to my speed. I could extend it at my next stop, but the river after that will meander so much that it would again not be worth it. There are palmettos here. And bamboo of a sort. I paddled by the Columbus Air Force Base. I saw many jets. Soon after a pair of circling planes started coming into view. They continued circling over me much of the day -- until I stopped under a thick tree to take a break. I think this has happened to me before. I am a unique enough slow-moving target that I become a practice dummy. There aren't many folks on the river here. The boats are mostly transient; towboats and yachts. The yachts throw up some incredible wakes. Finding a location to camp was much harder than it should have been. Of course when I decided it was time to stop I was still near Columbus, and apparently Columbus has a resident population of I'm-rich-so-let-me-build-a-house-on-the-water people. When I finally passed up all of that I discovered that this stretch of river flows between two twenty foot mud banks that were mostly too steep to climb, let alone pull my kayak up. Even if I were to climb the bank, an imposing jungle waited for me. So I paddled on and on. Eventually I found some sort of gravel road and pulled up on that. I suspect I am on leased hunting land. Bugs and frogs. Dang it's going to be a noisy night. |
 kayak still cached  taking another stab at sailing  fly-by   MR DAVID   palmettos    camping near a swamp |