River and Bayou

Another tough day. Weather radio said temperatures over 100 degrees. THI near 112. I think it’s probably a bit cooler on the river. Maybe 10 degrees or so.

Often when I’m paddling, I start to fall asleep. Seems to be around mid-morning most days. Being asleep in a canoe or on a raft drifting slowly down the Mississippi River may sound pleasant, and even romantic. And I suppose back in the day, it might have been. Something right out of Mark Twain. But, today, being asleep at the paddle like that is dangerous. Aside from the barges (which more often than not probably mistake me for a log floating down the river than a canoeist navigating it), and obstructions like channel buoys, and dikes and wing dams, there are about a half dozen other things that can get a small canoe in serious trouble if not seen and avoided. So when I start to nod off, I begin to look for a place ashore to take a quick nap – and in this heat, hopefully someplace out of the sun.

Well, today I spotted what I thought might be a good place for a rest along the left bank. So I paddled over, took one step out of the canoe, and stepped into soft mud that nearly rose above the top of my boot. So, nope. Not getting out of the canoe and going ashore here.

Now I’ve been giving some thought about what to do in a situation like this. One where I needed to rest and not be on the river, but also where getting out and landing ashore was unfeasible I thought maybe I’d just find a nice slow nearshore eddy, lay back in my canoe seat, and rig a small tarp over my head to keep the sun at bay (my canoe’s spray skirt provides plenty of protection from the sun for my legs and feet.) So, I gave it a shot.

And it worked okay. But it wasn’t all that comfortable laying in the back cockpit of the canoe. And no matter how I tried to rig the tarp, I couldn’t quite get it situated so that it wasn’t stifling underneath. So I really didn’t that good of a rest. In a pinch, I’d probably eddy out like that again. But only as a last resort.

Oh. And at sometime during that ‘rest’, I lost a paddling glove. I do have a pair of leather work gloves I could use, but don’t think they’d be all that comfortable when they get wet. Anyway, all my blisters from ten days ago are now calloused, so probably don’t need them. The paddling gloves did offer quite a bit of protection from the sun, so will probably just need to apply sun block to the back of my hands more often.

So, after my fitful rest, I paddled on for a few more miles (about an hour), when I started to fall asleep again. This time, rather than try to find a shady spot ashore, I pulled up to an exposed sandbar (no shade anywhere), pulled the canoe up out of the water a bit, and rigged a sun shelter with my two oars and the tarp for me to lie under and rest. And it was a really terrible shelter because the brisk north breeze kept blowing it over. Still, I managed to get a hours of sleep. But whatever motivation I had to continue paddling was almost gone. I mean, I didn’t want to paddle anymore. But I couldn’t stay where I was either.

So what to do? Only one thing. When you don’t know what to do and need to mull things over, do something useful. So I sat on the gunwale of the canoe where it lay near the water’s edge and filtered water from the river. About three gallons worth. With my little filter that takes 60 pumps to filter a quart. Anyway, an hour later, I decided to take advantage of the north wind and push on. It was only 3 PM, I was no longer tired, and two more hours on the river would get me 7 or 8 miles closer to Greenville (my next planned day of rest.)

I ended today around 5 PM in a very nice shaded campsite with a firm sandy beach between the Island 70 dikes. And with 2 bar cell service, too! So I hit the jackpot as far as campsites are concerned. I sat in the shade and cool breeze for about 30 minutes just relaxing and admiring the stillness and silence all around me. A few coyote tracks in the sand are the only signs that anything even uses this place. Anyway, shaking myself from my pleasant respite, I set up my tent, checked the weather (where the mechanical voice on the weather radio said the words I’ve been longing to hear, “A weak cold front approaching.”) Then it was into the river for a quick dunk to clean up and cool off.

The sun was going going down as the first winds of a thunderstorm off to the north struck. Not destructive winds, but strong enough for me to rethink how I wanted to leave the canoe for the night. And how I had to put some extra tie-down lies on my tent, just in case a storm rolled through later on.

There’s a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. Will need to check the weather and radar before I decide tomorrow if I want to push on or wait for the front to move through.