Mentions: paddlestlouis

Two Days on the MO

Resting in some sweet air conditioned at home. An advantage of starting upstream of your home is to use your own place as a River Angel domecile on a big trip. Two days of paddling was enough to let me know what gear I might be missing, or what I don’t need at all. I was fairly spot on, only thing I need to procure is a bit more battery power.

Left Paddle Stop Brewery in New Haven yesterday around 8:15am after a previous evening of boat cleaning and touch ups. I know, it’s a sin to let that work of art collect dust, but that’s the life of owning 8 or 9 boats, all of which have their purpose. And the Mostar, Shane’s hand-crafted masterpiece, is 100% perfect for expeditions. She performed well in the MR340, fully unloaded and sitting much higher in the water, but she really shines fully loaded, doing long days out on the big rivers. I forgot how amazing this boat was, but two solid days in it was enough to refresh my memory.

Five miles in, I got a call from Shane that I’d left my sleeping pad back in New Haven. Not to worry, Shane drove ten minutes to Dundee Bottoms, where he was able to meet me to hand it off. From there it was some pretty solid paddling, a quick stop on a sandbar across from St. Albans, then the slog into St. Charles. I passed under all the St. Chuck bridges around 5, feeling pretty gassed. I knew there was one more sandbar to consider before Pelican Island, which was my goal for the day. I decided to blow by the sandbar with an hour and a half left of sunlight and pulled onto the gravelly sand at Pelican around 6:45ish.

I set up camp in the waning light, and what a spectacular sunset it was – pics on IG – @paddlestlouis. A quick dinner over a blazing fire to keep the mosquitos at bay and I was snoozing by 9pm. Nice.

65 miles the first day was way ambitious, and not a distance I expect to keep up on the Mississippi, but that left a relatively easy 32 mile day today to get to the Arch and a ride back home. I got on the river at 7:18am under an absolutely insanse sunrise and liesurely paddled the last 17 miles of the Big Muddy MO. I completed the MO mid-morning then entered the Mississippi. I made my way under the very active Chain of Rocks bridge construction site and had to adjust my route for crossing work tows. I portaged the 200 yards river left of the Chain, churning and boiling and sure to chew up any wood craft to sawdust.

Made my way into the Port of St. Louis, and barge traffic was heavy. I have a short wave radio with which I can communicate with barges and had a chance to use it today.

Barge Captain to other Barge Captains: “We got a kayaker coming down out of the Old Chain of Rock Lock” (incorrect, I was not)

Me: “Kayaker here, I’m going to hug the right bank.”

Barge Captain: “Ok, thank you for having a radio.”

I did not carry a radio on the Missouri, as barge traffic is quite minimal. But it’s pretty much required gear on the much busier Mississippi. I’m sure this is the first of many interactions with my fellow captains on this trip.

Soon I was under the familar sight of the Eads Bridge then the Arch, and my good friend Bill welcoming me into the fishing ramp with a couple cold ones on a hot day. Super duper thanks to Shane for your craftmanship and running my sleeping pad down to Dundee, my sleep under the stars was spectacular. And to Bill your ever-present willingness to River Angel.

Plan is to get back in at the Arch tomorrow morning and get heading Southwards!

mf

Mississippi to the Gulf 2025

Leaving a small family send-off gathering last night, one of my siblings said kind of in passing, “Enjoy another journey of a lifetime”. I kind of laughed it off, but have been thinking about it today.

On Wednesday morning, I will take my wonderful Shane Camden-built, cedar-strip, 20 foot kayak called the Mostar off the wall at Paddle Stop New Haven, take it down to the boat ramp, put in on the Missouri River and begin a month-long trip to the Gulf of Mexico, finishing just shy of Halloween.

The trip wasn’t really on my radar until around 3pm on July 24th. I got called into an HR office at my local corporate job where I worked in e-commerce Product Management, and was notified I was being laid off and my last day was August 1st. For better or worse, my mind is never too far away from being out on a river so my first thought was…scheming. My paddle buddy Dan coined this term for when we start thinking about going out to paddle. Where we’ll go, when we’ll go, how we’ll get there, how much beer we’ll bring, how we’ll shuttle cars or arrange transport. It’s our all-encompassing phrase for planning an adventure. As soon as I learned from my corporate overlords that I’d soon be having quite a bit of free time, I started scheming.

It also happens that a group I’ve been involved with for 23 years, the Hash House Harriers – the global drinking club with a running problem would be convening for an every-other-year national meetup for running trails, exploration, adventure and partying in New Orleans over Halloween weekend. Putting two and two together, I soon decided I’d attend our Hash in New Orleans, but I’d get there via kayak.

I’ve spent the last couple months prepping, dusting off all my long distance paddling gear, gathering gadgets and tools as well as dehydrating a ton of food I’ll eat on the river. I have been coordinating with a few paddling friends about possibly joining me for some of the trip, but those plans are still fluid. Most likely, I’ll be solo most of the way, potentially meeting other paddlers and hopefully soaking up the hospitality of incredible river angels on the lower Missississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers.

The trip in a nutshell: 82 miles on the Missouri River from New Haven, MO to the confluence at the Mississippi, 180 miles on the upper Mississippi from St. Louis to Cairo, IL, 646 miles on the lower Mississippi from Cairo, IL to the old river control structure, where I’ll hop on the Atchafalaya River and paddle through breathtaking swamps and bayous 150 miles to the Gulf. All in all, around 1060 total river miles. I am choosing to bypass New Orleans itself, due to sharing the current with massive ships on the river, not to mention pollution-spewing industry lining the shores, referred to as cancer alley. The Atch I am told, is a much more safe and appealing alternative. (It’s also likely the Atch will become the main route for the Mississippi watershed’s route to the Gulf in the not so distant future, but more on that later.)

Of course the natural question, beyond the why, is the how. Well, I have been incredibly lucky to enjoy a nearly 20 year career in IT/tech, and although that’s now been repaid with two separate layoff events, I have also managed to save a healthy amount and live a generally frugal lifestyle that doesn’t have me living paycheck to paycheck. Of course these are tough economic times, and I’ll dive deeper into the job search when I get back in November, but for now, it’s rivertime! And maybe I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up somewhere out on that big old river.

As with my 2019 Missour River trip, I plan to post plenty of content here, Facebook and my Instagram, @paddlestlouis. You can also follow me in real time with my live tracker link on the top right. Stay tuned for tales and pictures from the river as I make my way south. Thanks for following!

mf