Jeff Wunrow: Day 5 (9/17/20)

Driving a Golf Cart at an Airport

Start: 186

Finish:150

Day Total: 36

Segment Total: 128 Miles

Since I was asleep by 8:30 last night, I was wide awake at 5:00 am. Since I always take so long to pack up, I just got up, put on my headlamp and started packing up. It was really fun taking my time getting my gear together and watching the city come to life around me.

Paddling into the city at 9:00 am we went directing in front of the St Louis Arch. This was another big milestone for me. Being able to see the Arch from the same vantage point that Lewis and Clark paddled was such a cool touch point with our American history.

The river from the Arch, south for the next ten miles was a very challenging technical exercise that I compare to driving a golf cart on the active runways at O’Hare International. There were points were there were 2 or more multi-barge tows coming at us up river. These would leave at 2-3 foot wake. The wake would then cross the rive and bounce off the right bank and hit us again. So, we had to balance compensating our padding to each direction, while accounting for the transition time between wake and rebound when we had the waves coming for both sides. I got pretty good at threading that transition much like a downhill skier would attack moguls. This was a time I was really glad I was in a Kayak with a spray skirt. I was very concerned about Jon in his canoe. These conditions were a much bigger challenge for him.

Today was the first day of full free river paddling having cleared the locks the day before. As a result we were able to average 5 to 6 mph, which is almost twice our Lock and Dam pace. So, we set two goals for our destination, one that was a conservative 27 miles and one that was more aggressive at 36 miles. As it turned out we made it to Kimmswick our conservative goal by 1:00 pm, so we decided to walk into town to see if we could find a cold soda.

We found a whole lot more! The Blue Owl is a home cooking institution in the cute little town of Kimmswick. We were seated by the owner Mary Hostetter, who shared the cool story of how the town recovered from near obscurity to become a tourist destination. I totally recommend a stop at the Blue Owl if you are ever in Kimmswick.

With full bellies we got back in our boats for the 8 mile paddle to our aggressive goal of Crystal City. We arrived around 4:30 pm and were greeted by Tom who happened to be at the landing reading in his car while his wife who runs the local college was on a conference call. After we get up camp Tom gave us at ride to town to the Krabby Daddy seafood restaurant. He was so friendly and really enjoyed out socially safe car ride with him.

As I write this we are on the patio of the Krabby Daddy, enjoying an after dinner drink.

Today’s quote of the day is from Jon, after getting through the technical part of St Louis. “There was very little of that last 10 miles of paddling that I enjoyed.”