Brand new Paddle, same old River
Start: River Mile 610
Finish: River Mile 585
Day Total: 25 Miles
Segment Total: 656 Miles
We started our day at the Hampton Inn, Cleveland, MS with a meeting up with Mark from Quapaw Canoe Outfitters. Mark delivered Jons new paddle, my new waterproof map case and gave us a rive back to our boats at Dennis Landing. Mark was a really cool guy. He’s been working for Quapaw for 2 years and spends over 250 days per year guiding client trips on the Mississippi River. He know the lower river from St Louis to the Gulf like the palm of his hand.
We launched at 11:00 am, in a spot that was pretty snug with up river barge traffic. They are going very slow as the bend in the river is very narrow and sharp. We had now problem working around them. See the photo below. For perspective, each barge segment is 290 ft long and this tow had 8 across and 7 long. Way bigger than an aircraft carrier. I find them fascinating, and treat them with the utmost respect.
The first 12 miles just dragged along, we had no wind which I didn’t mind, but also no current. There was a ton of barge tow traffic today. I lost count of how many we passed. It can be a little stressful working around them, but it sure make this time pass faster.
We found our landing spot at River Mile 585, on a wooded island across the river from a major barge staging area. There are 6 harbor tugs cruising around at the same time collecting barges and adding them to tows that are being created to go up or down river. Out camp is on a small hill and we have a great view of all this activity.
A side note, the landing area is supper muddy. We were sinking in up to our knees many times. At the end we looked like we had come for a spa treatment! It was kinda gross cause it’s Mississippi River mud, which is made up of God knows what!
Tomorrow we paddle to Greenville, MS were we will connect with a river angle named Park Neff. He will pick us and and haul our boats and gear to his place were he has a bunk house set up for paddlers. We will likely be there through Sunday or even Monday depending on what Hurricane Delta decides to do. We will try to do day segments if we can, just to keep moving along, while still staying at Parks place. I can’t wait to meet him and share river stories.
After a slow start, the afternoon paddling was beautiful
Moving our boats to an easier place to unload
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