Instagram

I really don’t know anything about Instagram except for that you couldn’t get Instagram unless you had an iPhone.

Honestly I don’t know if that’s still true but I decided that with so many notifications of people going to Instagram from Facebook that I needed to at least post a few pictures from my account so I didn’t know whether or not the pictures would be saved in Google photos so I’m still learning Instagram and I can’t really access Instagram account to see if it’s saved on Instagram in someway but I don’t like the idea of it being a temporary picture that disappears so I don’t quite sure whether I like Instagram or not I’m trying to at least post some pictures there once in a while now I did find that Google photos because I had said save it did save some of these so possibly there will be pictures crossed over from Instagram to Blogger as a post to just pictures from Google Photos that are designed for the book and for Blogger.

The Plantation

I admit one of the pleasant surprises when I looked over on the west side of the island with to see Nottingham plantation a rather famous resort and plantation maintained by Louisiana I believe and after looking at the grounds map would be pretty impressive if I went over there however since I arrived I have noticed that there’s been an uptick in security and at night suddenly instead of just being a token laid on the ground seem to be lit up.

Like most places that can be accessed by roadway I probably won’t go over and take a picture because I can usually find pictures of what I’m looking for on the Internet and I don’t have to have my own personal set of them however taking Lori my wife to it sometime in the future would be nice as a celebration of the Louisiana loop that might be a fun safe trip for her and I and just going there and seeing it and then looking out across the water to to head Island.

Towhead Island

To head Island has really become a blessing for me.

I admit when I first pulled up to it the northern part access the current was running extremely fast and it cut out a bay with field blogs that looked ominous to me so I avoided that and wound up traveling along the east side of the island as opposed to the west.

The first sandbar that I pulled up to with completely enclosed and unable to access the internal parts of the island so what attracted me to the beach though with a air mattress that I saw slightly but mostly deflated but still holding some air.

Naturally being scavenger that I was it sat there so I’ll be us and so my itself it made no sense at all but I wound up salvaging it.

Being that I was as tired as I was from paddling I really did not want to pass up this Sandy alcove but in the end I wound up going to the south side of the island and thank God I did at the southernmost tip with the best place to camp that I found for me.

Journal 8 b

Journal 8

Journal 7b

Journal 7

Journal 6b

Journal 6

Observations on a Morning Walk

Journal 4 b

Journal 4

Journal 3 addendum

Journal 3 b

Journal 3

Louisiana Loop Recipes

Louisiana Faithful: “No One’s an Atheist, when talking to God.”

Journal Two Addendum b

Journal Two addendum

Journal 2 B

Journal Two

The Golf Ball

Journal One addendum

Journal One B

Journal One...,

The journals...,

Big boats

I like big boats.
Now I remember when I was first preparing to go down the Mississippi River I heard a lot of advice from people that battled canoes did a sea kayaks although they didn’t mention anything from the sea kayak department but people who did canoes in other watercraft that was previous to me more experienced and I am warn me about the big boats and how it is dangerous they were and how to worry about them in but to be afraid of and all I could think of was that serve so I’m not someone who tends to be afraid of big boats in fact I like to go up and if I can check out the anch I have an or.

Water

The whole plan had been not only to skip camp poor and proceed on the camp five on an island but to go to pellicle mine or however you say that and get water from the museum on the side of the building like I’ve already done the planning it it was advantageous to have fog or to do it on a Sunday morning we know when would be around so I decided to get up early about 3 o’clock brand of getting up at 2:30 and take off and paddle over to Beco mine I think that’s how you say it and get water well hauling water doesn’t sound like that big job but when you haven’t had enough sleep and you’re really not used to paddling and you’re still getting in shape for this Mississippi River trip then hauling water when your arms are killing you basically is a challenge that’s unbelievable as it was I carried 246 810 about 10 gallons and portage them piece by piece from the sealed up block over the levee to my kayak and back to pick up the rest of them from the side of the museum.

I’d already done this once and this time I was planning on continuing on not just with the water but to go on farther up river to the ferry or at least the ferry dock and walk up to McDonald’s and try to upload photos as well as maybe get something to eat and that worked pretty good but as it turned out everything was farther than it looked from the island camp that I was on it was 2 miles to the water from the water it was probably 3 miles to the ferry now McDonald’s with your close but unfortunately uploading pictures they cut me off about halfway through which it was OK probably register data limit.

The thing that’s not mentioned about being in Pako mine was that over the levee it was warm on the river side of the levee it was foggy and extremely cold going from one extreme to the other was almost a 15° drop in temperature that was amazing.

As it turned out my plan to go from McDonald’s was to get out of there early so that way I can try to paddle approximate 18 river miles to camp five which I was surprised that once I started it seem to go better than I thought mainly because I was still foggy and I guess because I was excited to finally be back on the water after having camp for so long on the first island

Room with a view..,

They say that a picture is worth 1000 words but even with 1000 words sometimes it’s hard to describe some of the things that you see and experience especially when it comes to the great outdoors in the Great American adventures that you can find on the Mississippi River and in the Louisiana Luke this is been one of the most exciting times for me because I already have previous experience of going down the Mississippi River and have learned a lot of wet to enjoy and to look forward to as well as being able to spend the time to simply relax to see the view to ride in to take pictures of the areas that I’m now traveling in though this first part I’ve already been here before every time I come across it it’s as though brand new because after all the Mississippi River when it floods watches everything I do or at least so the story goes no I’ll admit somethings remain the same but he pretty much changes on a consistent basis so I enjoy the panorama of the sky the water the land in the river itself as I enjoyed each and every sunset and sunrise on the Louisiana loop.

Campfires..,

I think one of the parts of camping I enjoy the most is being able to have an open campfire to build one in the ring is something I enjoy also when they’re on different parts of the Mississippi river their actual firings located on certain sandbars specially near La Crosse but not everywhere is like that so you have to dig a pit or at least I dig a pit other people may use other types of building fire techniques but I like the big dig a big pit because eventually I’m going to try to burn a giant log and see if I can burn it all night long like I did last night and so fire pits and campfires or something I enjoy doing when I get out doors because there’s nothing so relaxing as being able to sit for hours staring into the fire.

Of course it helps if you camp right next to ample would supply and where I’m at on an island there is more than enough wood to last for years as well as enough Lee’s grasses and firestarter just so long as it’s during spring or summer because when it’s raining everything here will burn.

The Shell - our turtle shell.

After a night from hell on an island on the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana on the Louisiana loop after a long hard paddle being out in the weather it felt good the next day to get up and to set up the shell.

The turtle shell or as we call it simply that shell is a rather large tent that’s a family tent that has a nice covered enclosed porch that we use for camping and for transport as a base camp now I also have smaller tents to use for the kayak and kayak camp on the river but for turtling especially being out in the weather this works well for summer and spring but it is not designed specifically for winters now I plan on improving it in some ways by getting a rather large tarp and stringing the tarp over the entire shelf itself because it allows for air circulation because it’s designed more for warm weather that it is for cold so I plan on trying to compensate for that with the extra layer using a giant massive tarp it might work it might not but either way during the summer months and rain and as long as it’s not too cold the Jail goes with Moonshadow and moon river and I was so glad to get this up and to be able to begin camping on ant island.

 

MOONSHADOW

My kayak has a split personality so to speak because it can do so many things and it functions in so many variety of ways it has two names one that I call it when I minute and another name that I call it with my wife and I are in it or that I’m using it in some other capacity then what are use it for.

Moonshadow is the name that I call the sea eagle 420 X explore kayak series 14 foot high pressure inflatable kayak that I paddle in Whitewater class for expedition kayaking stand up paddling long-distance paddling on lakes rivers and streams and doing just about anything you might imagine solo including camping turtling and water activities that are in regards to simply enjoying the kayak for what it is.

Of course now that I think about it that also includes ceiling which we’re going to explore soon and some other activities that this kayak really can do it all.

But when my wife and I used it on reservoirs flat water and just simply family outings and camping then we put a frame on it almost like the kayak has pontoons and we sit up on top high up on fishing chairs that are designed specifically for the sea eagle 420 X in its fishing combination there swivel chairs and they were billed for two and being 14 feet long we had a trolling motor so that way we can just troll around and enjoy it as moon river.

Since I plan on spending a lot of time with my wife on weekends then moon river goes out fishing while during the week Moonshadow goes out playing this way I get to camp out on Utah lake during the summers and go on long-distance paddling trips during the winters if I can find someplace warm.

Looking back is the only way to plan ahead...,

My first night was here underneath his tarp secured better than that with the umbrella on the north end and no real protection from the south end or from the Riverside.

It was on the beach and I had already landed once on the island and found a 12 foot to 15 foot cliff that I scaled realize that I couldn’t use it for camp on the north end but had late at night worked my way on the east side of the island defined the landing and is soon as I saw a log and some trees to try to I decided to land here and throw up a tarp and was planning to sleep just rolled up in one but did make a shelter which proved to be wise.

No I would like to say that everything went hunky-dory until the morning but unfortunately it was a long night I had already been too tired and more than overworked and over exhausted when I landed but sheer determination causeway to pitch a tarp and to get all the gear offloaded and then as they saw the waters to get the kayak out of the water because a barge pass by on the east side that I didn’t expect and it had quite a week.

So thinking I was doing well I crawled into my mommy bag and covered myself with my blankets and ate some honey nut Cheerios because I hadn’t eaten all day and I had paddled 15 miles to get here and edit been pretty much uneventful except for the very last part where I got caught in some reports on the oh I’d say on the curve on the southside that would be on the east side of the river as facing going south it would be on the left side but then I came around the bend and there was the island and so I made landfall but unfortunately as soon as I fell asleep I found myself covered in ants black ants billions of black ants, tiny ants.

and tour and everything including my precious honey nut Cheerios bag that I had rolled up closed and they seem to be crawling around in my sugar jar so quickly with my headlight on my flashlight I summed up the situation and decided on Atlantean and found my bug spray and started spraying the outside of containers and spraying myself to tarp the sleeping bag because I had woke up with ants all over my face I feed my body and ass the ants touched any of these places coming out of the jar they died so by morning when I finally got a chance to look at everything there was nothing inside any of the containers but on the outside antmageddon had happened.

No I’m not bashful and I admit to using biological warfare against ants and probably anything else that I might decide that I’ve had enough and I’m going to use modern technology against it I am not a tree hugger but when I’m kayaking I am a ghost tiger or a beach order so that I kind of stayed to one side or the other the river but when it comes to green piece and everything else of course there’s a certain amount of problematic usage of over using pesticides and other modern conveniences that we have but there’s also a time and a place to use them this was my time this was my place and this was definitely not a place for ants to win but I was exhausted.

So of course after I conquered the ants I went back to sleep and suddenly heard pouring down rain now it wasn’t scheduled to rain it wasn’t supposed to rain and yet there was rain so I organize my gear covered it and make sure nothing was going to get soaked and went back to sleep.

of course that was at the end my night suddenly in the middle of the night realize I was freezing and I needed to cover up even more so I grab another blanket and a tarp and pulled him over my head even though I was in my mommy that it wasn’t supposed to be that cold and yet it was because a windstorm had come up and it was blowing out of the north and I was freezing.

 Good morning I decided once again that I had made the classic mistake of trying to push it too far and being too tired to deal effectively with the situation that came up although I survived and it was fine and there was nothing wrong with doing it the way I had I obviously had gone through some challenges I didn’t need to go next time I’ll just stop at the camp that was perfect called Camp two that I saw was just a beautiful bay would’ve been great for one night but I wanted to go to this island it to stop here in order to get the gear organized and to prepare for eventuality that I knew was ahead which was weather wind rain cold heat variations in the season and other things that I had planned on that I didn’t know for sure but was about to happen.

A lot happens in a little bit of time....

 Getting Moonshadow ready to launch again on another long paddle which is about 18 River miles is what I’m setting a goal for with two stops in between order to pick up water and to upload photos it’s amazing to me how quickly you can lose track of time when you’re trying to do journal entries photographs conversations exclamations as well as Blogger.

Now I know it will get better because today I already have my battery pack charged up for five charges or four charges and I have the second battery which does a single charge getting ready to charge it before sundown so progress is being made as well as having the new box designed and fixed and repaired and modified for the Kia it looks like I’m going to have extra room now they had predicted a storm so I had pretty much occupied myself with keeping camp going well at the same time preparing the kayak for it eventual long-distance journey each camp has improved the gear as well as the storage of deer in different locations and Byam‘s for instance when I first landed here I ran into massive amount of Vance and wiped out my aunt spray but changing over from plastic bags to probably so the containers for sugar powdered mix powdered anything is a wise idea that I’m going to implement just as fast and as soon as I can.

It did surprise me that these tiny black ants could get into so many jars and so many things I thought were sealed but I think I’m going to stick with large Pepsi containers or Stars & Stripes containers for sugars and other items that aren’t already in plastic as much as people he plastic I don’t mind using them as long as I’m reusing them and in this case for my drygoods I think from now on kayaking I’m going to never carry any dry goods but make sure everything is in a Pepsi bottle gallon cooler a bottle or soda bottle or even a milk carton.

It ain’t hard.., but it ain’t easy either.

The day was predicted to be cold but little did I realize just how cold it would be the temperature had said certain degrees but with the wind blowing 10 to 12 miles an hour it’s suddenly dropped the temperature down into the 30s.

 Normally there’s a lot of temperature variances that I can handle but unfortunately at this stage I was not prepared for the 30s even if they are in the high 30s and the wind was bidding or biting cold and so it made it hard to be motivated to get out of the sleeping bag and to begin to prepare the kayak to be moved in to have improvised cargo holds as well as decks and to secure the chairs and tarps in order to transport everything 15 River miles downstream to camp number two which is on an island with the sandbar where I hoped to get re-organized.

This sandbar island sitting in the middle of the Mississippi river approximately at Plaquemine is where I planned on staying until finally the weather broke and we began to get warm weather again with sunshine otherwise I’m not moving and I’ll just travel over to Plaquemine and back to the island until it warms up.

It’s just taking too much out of me with this cold weather and not being equipped with it with the right tenant or the right gear in order to handle the biting wind and the severe cold it seems to have a grip on Louisiana at this time.

Reno I understand but a warm rain is better than a chilling biting cold rain and unfortunately this tent was not well equipped for the rain either but once I reach the island sandbar I can go ahead and use tarps to reinforce the tent in a better way for any eventual rain that may come my way.

 Everything is odd as it may seem made for a better end result but today was hard and it was extremely difficult to move the kayak because I could not slide it but I had to walk yet from catty corner to catty corner from one into the other and walking it back-and-forth across the landscape until finally I reached the slope where I could put a tarp under it and drag it the rest of the way to where tits now.

Taking my time and trying to reinforce body heat by drinking hot coffee and hot soup didn’t seem to alleviate just how cold it really is here it is amazing that down by the water of course it is like an air conditioner while in Lynn it’s not much better but at least some of it’s blocked.

Well I was working on the kayak I did have two gentlemen pull up in a skiff that was like I don’t know quite how to describe it but we definitely build for the river and for landing on the shorelines with the long front would look like a car very tight platform that they travel back-and-forth apparently in their cabin giving rides to people that are working for the company so we visited for a little bit and he warned me about being out on the ocean

225.8

According to my handy-dandy navvy onyx app I’m approximately river mile 225.8 which I find interesting because I Navionics it shows me the rack that’s just south of me on my side it shows me the Deppe that’s on the other side of the river down to about according to what it says 60 feet shows me how shallow it is on this side and the fact that when I plotted and planned my choice to cross over I am crossing over from shallow to shallow before the band it’s interesting because a lot of people want to travel on the channel or in the middle of the river well the channel doesn’t run directly in the middle of the river if you look program that is designed for boats and for sailing it shows a sailing line on navvy onyx for sailboats it shows the deep channel for ocean trollers it shows the shallows as well as things like submarine cable and other types of pipeline and moring spots in buoy‘s and night lights in Dabo reason just about everything that’s on the water or in the water or under the water or along the banks of the water and I like that because while I may not be able to use it per se on the phone I am able to at least evaluate the information that’s there so that I can compare it to what my track years and then accordingly adapt my line that I choose to use on the Mississippi River in crossing over back-and-forth from one side of the river to the other to avoid the deep channel and the barge traffic that is invariably going to go towards moorings or landings or stay in between the booties that are its guide in order for the barges to travel up and down the river now normally most people can see some of those booties in track for themselves and stay in the middle and avoid barges but I like to stay as far away from traffic as possible and so looking for shallow waters tends to also give me a different kind of current is it current is an always based upon how deep the water is but sometimes a faster current travels along the shore  shoreline often running over shallows faster than it does in deep waters now this doesn’t apply to everything and you do have to be careful of blogs and other pro Trude meant that may be extended out from the shore but if you’ve looked at your Maps and you ply did your course you could pretty much adapt by learning to read the river and seeing where as you look at the surface of the river your fastest or your slowest water might be.

That doesn’t mean you always pick the fastest and it doesn’t mean you always pick the slowest for a kayaker you pick the safest and sometimes that can mean risk of an investment or sometimes evaluating the most likely possible route to avoid an obstruction it’s on the water but to give you an oversight in the back of your mind at least you have a picture of with the river is doing according to Navion X and that’s what I like about using technology and not for shaking it just simply because I want to be a purist but being a Whitewater kayak her and being a expedition type of kayaker since my kayak does not roll.

I want to use all my available resources and tools to plan for and be ready for any eventuality whether it be sunshine or rain or snow or win or boat traffic of some type or obstructions that are in the water or anything else that might come my way and I think that’s why people don’t understand just how much goes into my Sam welfare or Deb Devil May care attitude it isn’t one of belligerence but rather one of careful planning learning to read the river experience from being in my boat and being mellow ball or adaptable to the water circumstances such as they are and The weather

I am amazed at just how much information really is available to just the average cell phone user that I am one of the opinion that you don’t need anything more than a cell phone and offline usage of your cell phone with Maps and with connections and with ongoing applications that can duplicate radios and sure wave and other functions that you don’t need to much technology but that really we’ve come so far that just about everything can be done on the phone if you use it properly and correctly and it doesn’t require cell phone towers

Coffee

Every morning this morning’s that start off so cold that I can blow frost near I begin my day with coffee and it usually about 4 AM or as in the case today on a Monday 5 AM.

What amazes me is that I have two coffee pots one that’s beautiful blue enamel that I really enjoy and I like it but the stainless steel seems to heat up extremely fast and so I’m pretty impressed with using a stainless steel coffee pot on top of the jet boil that I’ll admit now the jet boil seems to work faster more efficient then my camp stove that I really enjoy when I set up a permanent camp.

The hair spray cans that go in my camp stove I personally still enjoy having them around and having my camp stove for when I do finally get to a frying pan and cooking up a large breakfast with a lot of ingredients.

Now that’s not to say that I am cooking with that because this jet boil seems to captured my attention and having those little tiny parts that fit inside of each other and cooking up a meal for just one single serving that’s really got my interest and I seem to be drawn to that as it is so much easier when it’s cold in when you’re in a hurry but I think I’ll always have both.

Sometimes necessities good to have an good to have around when your backpacking or in an emergency like the jet boil in having that little cooking kid unfortunately most of the cooking it’s missing but I’ll replace it but there’s also something to be said for the emotional comfort of the camp stove that I enjoy even if I don’t use it every day or use it every other day there is something comforting about looking at it in its own box container and having it there just in case I need it.

Brusly Louisiana

I admit that I have no idea where Brantley Louisiana is I simply know that whenever I check the weather on AccuWeather app on my cell phone it appears that my location or at least the weather station that is near my location is in Brusley Louisiana.

I know that is a kayaker I’m supposed to know what river mile I’m at or where I am on the river miles of the Mississippi River and the fact that they change them from some point farther up north to 0 and then start working your way down word or upward just simply confuses me so sometimes I’ll record by river miles sometimes I record my paddle miles sometimes I’ll record the WeatherStation sometimes I might even find where I am on Google maps and GPS and maybe I’ll record the latitude and longitude but the fact of the matter is wherever I am there I am.

Olivia’s Golf Ball

It’s Monday morning in bristly Louisiana on the Mississippi River and I was thinking about Olivia and her golf ball from Sunday yesterday and the fact that she went and told Eric about it.

You see I found a golf ball on the Mississippi river on the shore bank and I thought of Olivia immediately and for some reason it came to mind that I wanted to tell her that she needed to tell her daddy that I had found his golf ball that he had hit it so hard that it flown all the way from Utah to the Mississippi River.

Now this doesn’t sound like much except for Olivia lives in Utah and she is probably a knowing how far it is between Utah and the Mississippi but being in first grade sheet already done something that I was so surprised and amazed that you’ll forever be in my heart remembering that you done show Intel in her kidney garden I believe or maybe it was for is great about the Mississippi river trip that I was on back in 2016 so maybe he’s in second grade.

But the point of the matter was when I told my wife to tell her that she immediately got excited and she ran upstairs to tell her daddy all about it and that is what is amazing about what children do for us as adults they bring us back to the memorable moments that we create in life for them to have a memory that will last for a lifetime in that moment will be not between me and Olivia but between Olivia and her daddy.

Someday somewhere in the future when she’s growing up as the older young lady she’ll probably remember her father with fond memories and the fact that he hit a golf ball all the way to the Mississippi River and she’ll probably tell her children about it.

MoonShadow retro-fit

Seeing how I had a minor disaster with having to leave my kayak tied up to the bank and I was gone in the hospital for couple of days when I returned I noticed that my cargo boxes had taken a spill so unfortunately I lost probably I would say 15% of my gear or I should say of my cargo and gear which included some canned goods maybe a bag of clothes and unfortunately to cargo boxes

No this didn’t stop me from continuing on the journey or from having to retrofit Moonshadow into a better streamlined version of itself then the one I had planned with two cargo boxes one inside the other but as I began the retrofit I knew that I was actually winding up with a better streamlined version that would be equipped to handle going upriver and down river better without the cargo boxes then I would with them it’s funny how sometimes adversity can work out to be in the long run better for you having pass through it then what you might’ve intended to do when you had planned it out in the first place

This first retrofit serve me well in being able to plan my interior cargo hold as well as my upper deck plans and an actual rain fly rain tarp kind of a skirting for the kayak in order to plan on transport between camps then unload everything then use the kayak to paddle around on.

Using this format then I wind up with a very streamlined version that is wind resistant or wind conducive because the tarp covers everything and makes it easier to slide through anyways or wind or rain that might come along

So well this wasn’t the final version but was my first steps towards getting organized it was inspiring and help me to get over the hump of losing some of what I had before but adapting to what was going to serve me well in going forward that is what I like about the Great American adventures that I’m on there never quite the same as any other one that I’ve been on and each one has its own unique issues successes failures and adaptions and adaptability they keep me young at heart and strong in mine in order to make work but others might have bailed on as soon as things started to go wrong.

Louisiana Kindness

When it comes to kindness there is a special kind of breed down in Louisiana it’s just time seems to exceed anything that’s up north including Minnesota nice or at least if we’re going to start a north-south war that’s what I’m going to say.

But seriously this gentleman came riding up after riding around in the mud noticing my 10 and introduced himself just simply coming up to see what I was doing and we got to talking and he visited for a few minutes then went back to his right he said he was going home to get cleaned up.

After a little bit I went back inside attention I was getting cold and depressed because the cold wind come up and this was supposed to be sunny and warm weather so I decided after putting on my layers that I would take a walk to try to generate some heat in my legs in my chest while walking along the shoreline beach combing.

As it turned out I was noticing that the river, maybe two or three more inches than yesterday and that means that it already been about 2 1/2 feet higher than what it supposed to be maybe three.

So walking along the shoreline trying to get warm and using my Walkingstick I noticed he rewrote spike that I tossed out to maybe pick up later and I also found a tough box that was full of water in kind of a green slimy mess but I decide to toss it aside and come back for it soon as I finish my walk so heading southward I noticed where the bend in the river was in so I was kind of pleased with myself as I turned around and headed back to camp.

Yes I did I noticed there was the gentleman I had seen earlier standing on his four wheeler riding along coming down the road from the levee and coming my way as he was approaching me I was thinking to myself that I kind of wanted to ask him if he could haul some water for me but it seem kind a rude and so I just waited till he pulled up and before had a chance to say anything he offered me a hot shower.

Of course I hesitated, not but I took him up on his offer and ask him if I could charge my phone as well as fill my 23 gallon water jug’s which I normally would’ve had to use a dolly I have for it in order to get it back to the kayak and I had no place to fill it up yet. This was going to save me a lot of time and effort and so I was thrilled to get a hot shower on a day that had turned cold and windy and while there is no rain now it definitely was Temperature dropping.

The rain...

When finally the rain did hit it hit so hard and so fast that it created a leak inside the tent that I have and that I thought was somewhat waterproof unfortunately came into the corners as I would say river turtle and then form itself going at a diagonal across the 10th floor to the back of the tent where I had to cut a hole in order to create the exit point for the river itself which then filled up the sand underneath and created a lake both inside and outside of the tent the rain came down so fierce that it went through the rain fly so internally I created a inside roofing from two tarps I also had typed up the northern side of the walls on the outside but unfortunately the The rain came down so hard that within I would say two or three hours there was probably at least an inch or two and that may not seem like much when you’re out somewhere else but when you’re sitting on top of a swamp on the other side of the levee next to the Mississippi River even a half an inch coming down fierce and hard certainly creates a Maki situation and flood light conditions so when this shit it wasn’t so much the cold as it was dodging water everywhere as I began to string ropes and began to move everything off of the floor and create at least a 2 inch barrier of everything that would get wet or could get wet standing on top of it seem to me that all the test that I’ve had never seem to be on able to handle the heavy rains that I run into I now have in mind my own set of modifications I’m going to do to attend that I’m going to purchase that even though I like this big can’t and I got it at a real cheap price I’m going to get a tent and modify it to where it works for me especially on the Mississippi river or anytime of kayaking so what’s the range did begin to let up some unfortunately no real sunshine still didcome and it began to rain in the middle of the fog now that I found interesting because it was foggy and yet it was raining I’m not quite sure how that works and less it was raining from higher up in the fog was Lowground fog but either way everything was getting wet except for me sitting underneath tarps inside at times when the rain would let up I walked over to the Mississippi River and where I had landed originally was already more than a foot underwater yesterday and by the time the rains let up it was Now 2 feet underwater at the time of this recording the Mississippi river is up according to a local that lives here right next to the levee is up 3 1/2 feet higher than what it normally is it this time of year that tells me a lot it also explains why there were so many logs floating downriver moving rather quickly and why barge traffic seems to been held up for the last week between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and why I have three Ocean trawlers sitting just off shore for me with the fog and with the rain I managed to get my writing journals where I am doing hand writing journals going and so even though their appears one journal entry here on Blogger I have four more pages already done and had written on both sides sooner or later I’ll scan them in when I have more battery time and sunshine

Louisiana Loop - Journal 1 - FOG

Sat Feb 10 2018 

8th Day on the Mississippi River

3rd Day at Camp 2 approx 

River Right

10 miles south Baton Rouge Bridge before bends in the river, common 4 wheeler tracks and road access over levee.

Second set before Dow Chemical on right.

Cajun cousin

He really is Cajun, or at least part and part French.

That’s what’s great about a great American adventure is that you never know when someone just might pull up on a four wheeler or someone might come paddling up on a canoe or someone just might be passing by on an ocean going trawler that my friends is a great American adventure.

Now I’d like to say that everything is predictable every day when I go kayaking and that the sun is always bride there’s food in my cargo and every morning is breakfast and eggs and every night is steak and whatever it is that outfitters do but for me no that’s not the way it works I’m back to racing trying to make ends meet with water and hauling things around and using Lyft and you know it’s fascinating because you know lift is becoming kind of like the river angel of the Mississippi rivers it’s really convenient to be able to get someone to take you right to where you want to go and be able to see them coming to get you now I’m not saying that I can always afford it but the few times that I’ve had to run emergency lift is really come up big for me Uber unfortunately I got dumped twice up in northern Minnesota.

Now to be fair most of these Lyft drivers are driving for Uber also but in northern Minnesota when they passed me by three times that hurt my feelings until finally I got a ride that took me free unbelievable magic carpet ride that I went on the yellow submarine that I called this yellow taxi that took me on a ride around never forget but then again you have to read that in how not to kayak to Mississippi River book series and in the book I think it’s volume three but I’m not sure of Mississippi in the first person but you could read it there.

In the meantime I’m just happy to have a day that didn’t completely rained on me all day long and I was able to get quite a bit of gear cleared up cleaned up dusted off mudded free and moved inside the tent that I have now tonight I’m going to try to just sleep pretty much without having to get all bundled up and warmed up and see how well the warmth of the night is now that it’s starting to warm up at night eventually I look forward to taking even the rain tarp off and just looking at the stars at night but so far they’re predicting rain tonight and for the next few days is probably gonna rain just like they say so I’m adapting and that’s kind of what makes it all so fun it’s not something that you have to be depressed about or obsessed to get on with what you were doing but rather treat it as an adventure treated as something that’s great about America something that doesn’t come as a cyber experience but rather you have to get out get Dirty get muddy get wet and get on with it and figure out how to make ends meet that’s why I am out here with the great American adventure series tonight just meet people like my Cajun cousins film told me the whole history the area that he didn’t come in here and four wheeling we’re actually dirtbike it since he was eight years old and now he’s taking his sons to the exact same place he said it feels like home now admittedly he used to go a lot farther down the Mississippi river but then they put the Dow chemical plant there and they kind of close off some of the areas that he used to go but that’s OK because every area has its own places to go and have fun and places for industrial and places for oceangoing trawlers and places for barges and also places for a kayaker like me to pitch a tent and have a camp.

Lady Bug

Trying to describe everything that is going on up until this moment probably is best remembered I just simply looking at the ladybug I mean think about it where do ladybugs come from where did they go how do they get here where they going when they’re crawling around where they going when they’re flying all I can say is that today is so much better than the last six days today I’m sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River I am oh maybe only about five or 10 miles south of Baton Rouge Bridge maybe I’m only owe I don’t know six or seven days before I get going again maybe for five but today the sun is shining today it’s hot like it’s supposed to be in Louisiana it’s muggy like it’s supposed to be in Louisiana and I’m not freezing and I’m inside a large family tent that’s I can stand up and I’m not crouched down in a little pup tent with umbrellas over me and a tarp hanging on for trying to keep warm inside my mommy bag while it’s pouring down rain I’m not throwing up left and right from some water pollution or some bug or virus that I got I’m not laying in a hospital bed I may not have all the gear I started with and I may not have as much weight as I begin with but today I’m actually healthier and in better shape then when I started I know that doesn’t make much sense to some people but you see you have to be here long distance Patiller or a expedition kayaker or solo kayaker to understand where I’m coming from because you said we don’t look back on what but we just survived in order to get where we are today we look forward to how we adapted and I made it this far and how much easier it is now that we’ve streamline our process that we’ve adapted to the circumstances that when it should’ve been the way we planned it turned out to be cold and rainy in ways that we weren’t prepared necessarily for but not unprepared that’s the nature of the great American adventure not that it turned out the way you wanted to but that you pass through it that you get through the thunder and lightning you make it to the rain you survive the cold and then when the rainbow comes out and you’re sitting on the water paddling and everything is just smiling at you you got a wind at your back and you looking down out towards the saltine golf waters you know you know you did it not just because you planned it but because you adapted to all the circumstances that came up on the Mississippi river on the Louisiana loop

Pros and Cons to Progress

Now I know there’s pros and cons to progress and sometimes the pros outweigh the cons but sometimes the cons just seem like they catch up with you little bit specially on the Mississippi River.

Up until this barge wouldn’t buy that came out of the channel water was pretty much the same as he always said lotta sediment not too bad on the pollution why is it not too much for the pretty much excepted you could look at not worry about drinking we have a filter well long about the time this barge one by the whole shoreline turn black and I’m not exaggerating I took a look at it and I kept thinking May and I don’t know what is Lincoln but you can’t tell me that that just came out a natural because you’re enough before it happened there was nothing on the shoreline now after it happened oh you could see it was not Blacksand it look like it was something beautiful on one of the beaches it look like one of those cons to progress and unfortunately that happens now I can tell you for sure that after a good rain or after maybe some high tide and low tides that this too shall pass and once again Mississippi be back to a river that recovering because after all there was a time when I guess they didn’t do as good a dredging as they used to and I guess they didn’t have as much money as they used to and are used to get pretty rough around here same thing with true I guess it one time with the pollution they just let it go until they realize that they were killing the Gulf of Mexico well now people are trying to do a better job I’m not going to say everybody’s perfect and I’m not going to say everybody should be a greeny but somewhere in between the two whether your green or yellow or black or white or red or purple all over we all got to work together in order to keep the river A safe place to paddle and did you splash in especially if you want to go swimming I’m not too sure about swimming across the river because there are occurrence but I guess it could be done good after all when I went down Mississippi River there was somebody that was swimming from one into the other and he did it