Empty Boats, Big Waves, All Good!
Start: River Mile: 247
Finish: River Mile: 227
Day Total: 20
Trip Total: 427
The benefit of having a friend that can shuttle you from your hotel to your boat (safely stashed where you took out), is that you get to paddle with an empty boat. Why is this important? An empty boat weighs 55 pounds, were as my boat fully loaded with all our gear is over 250 pounds. That is a lot more weight to move around. Also, my empty boat sits 3 inches higher in the water, so it can handle bigger waves with out the worry of water splashing over my cockpit and soaking me. Thanks to my friend Shawn Pye, we were able to enjoy an empty boat paddle today.
Our first hour on the river was smooth as glass
How much does any empty boat effect the effort to distance ratio? Well, even though the paddling conditions were very similar to that of two days ago where it took us 9.5 hours to go 21 miles, today we did 20 miles in 6 hours. That is a huge time savings. it allowed us to go grocery shopping and completely empty all our old food bags, assess what we really have and keep what makes sense and dump the rest. All that was thanks to having our boats empty today.
Paddling on water as smooth as glass
We ended our day exactly 20 miles away from Pickwick Lock & Dam, which we will lock through at some point tomorrow. Pickwick is very close to the Shilo Civil War Battlefield. I wish we had time to explore this monument, but I’ll have to trust Shawn tours it tomorrow and tells us all about it.
D
Dinner today was at Riccota, a local Italian restaurant. This place was packed, with folks waiting out side for a table. I had Fettuccini Alfredo, and it was really good. I ate so much f it, I didn’t have any left to bring home and enjoy.
Taking a break just near the Nachtez Trace
Jon went back to the room, and Shawn and I sat in the hotel lobby, watching baseball, Shawns favorite sport, an having a night cap cocktail. It sure is nice to have Shawn be part of this trip. The last time we saw each other is when he drove me hope from my Mississippi River paddle.
All the best to my friends, loved ones and feller paddlers. Have a great night and sleep tight!
No comments:
Post a Comment