River and Bayou

Right after I crawled into my tent last night, the thunder and lightning began. And it didn’t stop for almost five hours. I think a line of thunderstorms must have trained over me.

And the rain. It rained all night. The rain came down so hard that it often drowned out the sound of the barges going by. At one point after midnight, it rained as hard as yesterday afternoon, which is to say, the hardest I can ever recall. Just sheets and sheets of rain. And winds, of course. But my little tent (an 18-year-old Mountain Hardware Spire II three-season double-wall expedition tent), exposed on the sandbar as it was, passed the test with flying colors. Ever since my I bought my first Mountain Hardware tent over twenty years ago, Mountain Hardware has never let me down.

Anyway, the rain stopped long enough after sunrise for me to make coffee, have some breakfast, and figure out what the plan was for the day. The weather forecast is for more rain and thunderstorms today. But Natchez is less than 15 miles away. I could pack up, make a four hour mad-dash paddle into Natchez, try to find a place to hide my canoe near one of the riverfront casino resorts, and book a room for the night. Might even see about finding a ride to a Walmart where I could buy a new flip phone and camera (mine were waterlogged victims of yesterday’s thunderstorm.). Or I could just stay put and wait until Saturday when the weather is suppose to clear. I was undecided. Then a boom of thunder to the northwest and I had my answer. Stay put. Wait it out.

It rained all morning today and most of the early afternoon. Often very hard. Sometimes barely light. But never completely stopped. So, I slept, read my book, checked the weather radar (when I had a cell signal my hot spot device could receive) and just hunkered down.

About 4 PM, all the rain finally cleared to the southeast. Though the sun wasn’t out, the wind was blowing pretty good from the north, so I hung up some items to dry out. Also baled/pumped from the canoe almost six inches of rainwater from last night’s storm. I used some of that water to top off my water containers.

Tonight and tomorrow’s forecast revised downward the probability of showers and thunderstorms. Looks like the worse of the weather is over.

Can’t wait to get off the Lower Mississippi and onto the Atchafalaya. I’m tired of the Missisippi’s big water and big barges.