Finishing The Mississippi River 2006
June 21 to July 8, 2006
By Jerry Sorensen
Paddling the Lower Classic Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico
The information on this site covers my "finishing" trip down the Mississippi River. This completes my total paddling of the Mississippi over a period of about 5 years. I became enticed with the idea of traveling the length of the Mississippi as a young boy when my parents took me to the Headwaters in Lake Itasca State Park where I of course got to walk across the Mississippi. As I was growing up I heard about people canoeing and traveling on the River on other types of watercraft.
My dream was set in place in my adult life when I purchased a sea kayak and started to do sections of the River. As I did more and more of them putting them together end to end I then had a clear image of how I could do the whole River.
These earlier section trips were in the late '90s while I was still working full time and didn't have the flexibility to take a month off at a time for just something that I wanted to do.
In June of 05 I was able to retire from Dex Media after 41 years so the completing of the River was now a goal that I was really to achieve.
My traveling partner.
In 1993 I met Tim Goodsell on a dogsled trip in the Minnesota Boundary waters. Since then we have made numerous trips in all seasons being most partial to traveling on water, ice, or over snow.
A interesting point of bonding between Tim and I is that we were born on the same day, same year, and Tim is five and a half hours older than I. Therefore the elder I have learned to defer to when judging the changing weather conditions. The other major point is that at this stage of life there aren’t that many people who still like to camp out and sleep under the stars in tents.
By the time we decided to finish the Mississippi in one trip Tim and I had traveled several hundred miles of the River together already. We knew the River, knew how our skills complimented one another, and both had the same vision of completing the River together.
Tim is a seasoned Artic traveler from Chicago who has probably as much time above the Artic Circle as most Artic adventurers. The two of us have traveled many miles together on the Mississippi River, among the Apostle Islands, over frozen water in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, and other fresh water rivers.
We chose to use a tandem kayak for this trip as we felt this was the most efficient way to travel the last 800 miles. This proved to be true and I hope by the pictures we will share you can see the advantages of this mode of travel.
Getting ready to depart
This is the first loading of our boat at Cairo, Ill. The first time is the most challenging as everything doesn't want to fit in as we imaged. So lots of decisions on what to take before we head on down the River.
The process we finally worked out was that Tim packed and managed everything in the bow hold and inside the center hold. I did the same for the stern hold and the top of the center deck. We each figured out what worked best for comfort and functionality in our own cockpits. One of the things we learned soon on was that we needed firm backrests, support under our knees, and padding under our heels. So water bottles were used under our knees and the heels we just kept trying different ideas to protect them from wearing on the bottom of the boat that usually got sandy from being in and out so much. The sand tended to wear like sandpaper on the heels after awhile.
Big tows and our kayak
Here is an example of what it is like paddling next to the big tows that travel the lower Mississippi River waterway. Since there are no locks from above St Louis to Gulf of Mexico the tows are commonly made up of 35 barges and one big powerful towboat. Interesting that they call them "tow" boats when they are "pushing" the barges.
The barge traffic on this section of the River is constant, 24/7. We would see barges all day then it seemed like about dusk it would be quite for awhile. Then when we were ready to go to sleep, here they came with they constant drone and brilliant searchlights scanning the shoreline. A couple of nights we even had them pulled over to the side waiting for other tows to pass. When they pull over to the shoreline they keep their diesel engines running and lights on. We felt like we were in Chicago sleeping under the L train.
Prayer Flags in the Wind
I believe that when out with nature it is a good practice to recognize that I am willing to be one with nature and appreciate what it is about to share with me. You or I must be ready to move in harmony with nature and flying the prayer flags reminds me to be in that mode. We will see sunrises, sunsets, clouds of ever shape, the sun to light our way and warm us, water to satisfy our thirst, cool us, in some trips to carry us forward, and earthly elements to provide shelter.
In this picture the flags are blowing straight out as they hang from the paddles dug into the sand. The belief is that when the wind blows it is blowing our prays to the sky and gods that look over us on our travels.
Camping on the River
The timing of our trip put us after the tornado and before the hurricane seasons. The good news bad news for this timing was the bad news was the River level is down so the current is slower thus we didn’t get as big a push as we would of with high water.
But the good news is that the campsites available to us were spectacular! There are sand bars five miles long and a mile wide in many places, no footprints, very little litter, and sand as smooth as a wind blown snowdrift.
Camping on the sand is much like camping on the snow – it gets into everything! But we soon perfected our systems for managing all these issues.
We each had our own tent for this trip. During the day we were three feet apart all day long so this was a luxury we decided on before setting out. It proved to be one of the bigger factors in making this trip successful.
We normally would stop paddling around 6 PM so that we had time to set up camp, do our daily maintaince, have some cocktails, relax, bath in the River, have dinner, relax, and then go bed at dusk before the bugs came out. Our clocks become the sun and our body signals for thirst, cooling, hunger, and rest. Tim did wear his watch and I did ask him what time it was once in awhile but that was after looking at the sun and guessing the time then asking to see how close I was.
Dinner preparation
The evening meal was always a treat and as we got further on down the River we became more creative in our menus. This is an example of fine dining on the River in our traveling gourmet kitchen. Tim was the chef and I was the planner and organizer. The kitchen was a straw mat; we had camp chairs, a great Coleman stove, a kitchen all in one box, and a variety of food to choose from.
This particular shot shows us preparing fresh onion soup, sliced tomatoes, a Mountain House sweet and sour pork meal, of course a fine boxed wine, (the box gets discarded so we just carried the bag), seasonings, and a desert. A common breakfast was oatmeal, bars, hot chocolate, and fruit cups with a common lunch being tuna packets, fruit cups, pepperoni slices, and crackers along with lemon aid. During the day while paddling we grazed on trail mix, M & Ms with exact nuts, and organs along with a lot of lemon aid and water.
Making clean water
Now the River got cleaner the farther south we got but we did have a system to make clean water for clothes washing and bathing. The system was to pour River water through a funnel (cut off one gallon plastic milk jug which doubled as a bailing scoop), inside the neck of the jug were coffee filters that captured the silt out of the water. The box we used was our kitchen one. So when we got two gallons of clean water we could bathe with it and wash clothes. We basically wore the same clothes every day so washing made our environment look and smell better.
Mississippi River water
As we got on down past where the Arkansas River joined us this is what water looked like by our campsites. Yes this is water in the Mighty Mississippi!
Big equipment to keep the channel depth
This is an Army Corp of Engineers dredge and work barge that came by us while we were on a lunch break. This dredge works the lower part of the River and they move it to wherever they need it to keep the channel the right depth. In low water conditions the sand and silt settles to the bottom and in some narrow shoots it can shut them down.
“People on the River are happy together” Proud Mary rock and roll song
One of our goals on this trip was to meet and talk with as many people on the River as we could. Well this turned to be an easy goal to meet, one of the most rewarding and memorable activities of the trip. The most common phrase we heard was: “How are you all doing?” and “I wouldn’t go out on the River in that thing” meaning our kayak. Here are several pictures of people who touched our lives during this trip.
Munson
A young man named Munson from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He left LaCrosse, Wisconsin April 15, 2006 and this is June 23, 2006 at Caruthersville, Missouri. He had just painted his green plastic thirteen-foot kayak deer hunting blaze orange because he thought he looked like a log out on the River to the tow pilots. He was as happy as could be, a modern day Tom Sawyer.
Charlene and Hal
A Sunday morning out fishing on the River. This is Charlene and Hal who came over to visit. They took the picture of us in front of the barge, offered to let us camp with them, and gave us some MRI meals that FEMA gave them when Katrina came through in 2005.
Lawrence and Bond
We met this father and son fishing just above the Arkansas and Mississippi River confluence. Lawrence and Bond, they were like fourth or fifth generation rice farmers on 1200 acres of land in Arkansas. Bond is going to college for agricultural management to take over the family farming operation. They gave us a gallon of fresh water in a Gatorade jug.
Three Friends on the River
Now these guys had been on the River all day long in the blazen sun. So what do you think they offered us? We are still kind of close to St Louis, home of Budweiser, but they came up with the coldest Miller Lite we have ever seen in our lives. Now Tim and I aren’t but beer drinkers but we sat on the beach, watched the sun go down, and drank the best ice cold six pack you could imagine.
The Mayor of Vicksburg, Mississippi
I know this picture is a little distant but the Mayor of Vicksburg did stop and welcome us to his town. It was a water, food, and lunch at the Casino buffet line. They had oranges put out in a big bowl so we took the opportunity to put some oranges in our pockets like seasoned buffet lunchers and headed back to our boat. The oranges were a great treat out on the river later.
Getting away from the city
We met these people at a boat landing that we pulled into to get fresh water. This was Fourth of July weekend and they had their new tents set up in the shade on the slopes of the levee. They gave us a ride into a country store for fresh water and some light supplies.
A family outing
This family stopped by to visit, “how you all doin’”, and for the kids to see our set up. Mike, the captain of this pontoon, had grown up on the River and was passing on his love and knowledge of the River to his children. They of course gave us some cold drinks out of the cooler in the foreground too.
Sunday dinner for the church
This man was out early on a Sunday morning catching fish for a church dinner that same day. He used to fish commercially on the River but now only goes out for special occasions. You could tell his gear had seen many a day on the River. He offered us fresh fish but neither of us wants to have a half dead fish flopping around between our legs all day till we got to a campsite. But, as always, the kindness of the people on the River came through again.
Fisherman of the future and his dog
We hailed over this boat to ask some clarifying questions about how the far the next town was for fresh water. The boat driver, to the right in this picture, said, “ask me anything, I have been on this River all my life”. He gave us information on where to get water and where we could camp tonight. He also gave us his telephone number and said we could call him if we couldn’t find fresh water that night.
Three couples in campers on the River
We pulled into this landing to get fresh water and supplies in town. These people have their own permanent campsite that they come to several times a season. Under this canopy they had fans, a stove, a sink, and tables set up. The man on the right drove us into town to the grocery store so we could get some fresh vegetables for dinner and snacks. They also took our picture on shore and as we left in our boat.
The last group on the River
This was just above Morgan City and Berwick, Louisiana where we pulled into shore to clarify our final assumptions about the last few miles. There were four or five families out on this sandbar picnicking, swimming, and boating. They told us about how high the water surge was here when Katrina hit. This area was under about 30 more feet of water than what is visible here now.
We are at the Gulf
Berwick, Louisiana is the last town before the open water of the Gulf of Mexico. The boat landing here is where we pulled off the River. See the low clouds in the picture? We no more than landed when it started to rain, no started to pour! It rained to hours, we got soaked, but again River people to the rescue with a back seat of their car to sit in out of the rain. But like many people in the south they smoked so much that being the rain was almost better. In just a few short minutes we hear more detail about their son’s wife who was messin’ around than we needed to know.
What worked well
As we traveled we found out in detail what was working well and what was sometimes just a piece of cheap junk.
So here is a list of what worked really well:
• Ex-official shirts both short and long sleeve
• Padded paddling shorts
• Bathing in the River and using peppermint camp soap
• Coleman single burner camp stove
• Straw beach mats for use on the sand (Plastic beach mats would be even better as the straw mats came apart after being wet so many times)
• GPS
• Corp of Army Engineers River navigation maps
• Disposal cameras with digital developing
• Mountain House meal packs
• Canned fruit cups and tuna meal packets
• Big brimmed straw hats for sun protection
• Wine in a box carrying just the bladder
• Separate tents so we could have our own space at night
• Big plastic stakes for use in the sand – you had to totally stake out the tent each night
• Taking dips in the River to keep cool during the day
• Camping near the water on the biggest sandbars we could find
• Sticking to our parking system once it was refined
• What we would like on the next trip
• When we use Mountain House meals figure either two or at least one and a half per person. They were quite tasty and one wasn’t quite enough.
• Use more fresh vegetables in our cooking. For example, tomatoes for slicing and eating and chopping and putting in with dried tomatoes soup mix. Fresh onions for onion soup. Oranges for eating during the day.
• Get the DNR maps for the states we are passing through as they have more information on them about boat landings, campsites, etc. that corp maps.
• Find some plastic verses straw mats. The straw broke down and started to smell and being wet and dry so many times.
Jerry’s Journal and Travel Log for River Trip 2006
Journal
Day 1 June 21, 2006 Wednesday
This was our first day of the trip and we put in on the Ohio River in downtown Cairo, Illinois. We had driven down to Cairo from Chicago on Tuesday, found this landing, had dinner with the locals, and had our last night with our honey’s. Our honey’s being Susan for Tim and Kathy for Jerry. They came down to the landing with us in the morning to see us off then went back to the local café for breakfast where they talked with the local men about where their husbands were going and getting the response to the question: “Where are they going?” “To the Gulf and they should be there in about 20 days.” “That sounds about right.”
The first day on the River the boat seems overloaded and we feel slow. But our first day mileage is 50 miles, the water is cleaner than we expected, we see the sandbars that will be our campsites, and we sleep in another River bordering state, which is Kentucky.
Day2 June 22, 2006 Thursday
The first morning to break camp on the River. Now we are experienced campers but we couldn’t get ourselves organized and on the River till 8 AM. It will take us a few days to get the organizing process down and improve our launch times from 8 or so AM to 6:30 AM.
We have a thunderstorm come through just as we had the boat loaded. We huddled down next to the boat on the leeward side and let the storm cell pass over. Hardly any rain but lots of wind.
Today we passed our first town that was New Madrid. There was a landing built through the levee which we found with the directional aid from some people on an observatory. What we did do through the trip was ask people when we could for clarification on or for directions. We agreed it was better to get fresh water whenever we could and ask directions or to reinforce our assumptions early.
At New Madrid we got a ride to a grocery store from the ex-city administrator and a city bus back downtown to the recommended “Grill” for some handmade hamburgers.
When we left the Grill we were walking and had our grocery bags and water containers. As we crossed the first street a young man in a pickup asks us, “Do you need a ride?” So of course we accept the offer. This man is on his lunch hour, he works for the local power company, had completed one tour of duty overseas with his Guard unit, gave us a driving tour of New Madrid along with a narrative history, drove us down to the landing, and took our picture as we loaded the boat. His name was Jonathon and we now began to understand the Southern hospitality we would experience from all the people we met on this trip.
Late this afternoon we would experience what a fast moving windstorm was going to be like in this part of the country. As we were making camp we could see low dark clouds building in the south and moving towards us over the flat lands next to the opposite shore. I (Jerry) looked at them and didn’t see the tell tale white or green streaks in the clouds that you would see in a prairie storm in Minnesota. I under estimated the power and quickness of how fast this storm would approach us.
Tim got his tent us and staked firmly. His learning’s for doing this all the time came from getting blown down while on an Artic trip.
I on the other hand put in my sand stakes at the corners of my tent.
When the wind wall hit us the sand exploded off the beach in whirling tan cloud! We both got into our tents, Tim got the wine, sausage and cheese in too, and I was sitting in my tent with my back to the wind with the top and walls of the tent pressed around me. If I weren’t in my tent it would have been blown two miles away in about 20 seconds. The air turned tan with blowing sand that found its’ way into ever little fold of all my gear and then the rain pounded on us for about 13 minutes.
After this chaos it got cool, wind went down, we got ourselves reorganized, and I learned the lesson of why you fully stake out your tent ALL the time.
This event his turned out to be one of those memories that Tim has to bring up to me, in good nature, every time we talk about the trip. There will be something coming up later in the Tim where I can even out the thrash talk I’m sure.
Day 3 June 23, 2006 Friday
It took me a little longer to get organized this morning as I tried to get the sand out of everything that I could as I packed. We did discuss our schedule and agreed to an 8 AM start, off the River by 6 PM, and to do at least 40 miles a day.
The 40 miles a day would put us at the Gulf around July 9 or 10th, which was going to be about the time when Susan could be near the Gulf to pick us up. With the water level, the tandem kayak, and current we felt like this a reasonable target where we could sustain this on a day after day pace.
Traveling in the tandem kayak one of the things we had the opportunity to do was talk about any life issue we wanted. The lesson we were to learn today was: Never pass up the opportunity to take a leak, let a fart go, never to waste a hard on as it was going to be a couple of weeks more before we got back with our honey’s, and never pass up an opportunity to get fresh water when on the River.
Today we would pass by Caruthersville, Missouri where we thought we could get water. As we came into the upstream end of town we spotted a guy on shore who waved at us so we pulled in. Here was another River traveler whose name was Munson. He had left Lacrosse, Wisconsin around April 15, was by himself, was in a rather small green plastic kayak that he had just painted deer hunting Wisconsin blaze orange so he wouldn’t look like a log, and he was stopping over in Caruthersville for a far days rest. He was on his life’s adventure paddling down the River and was going out to the Gulf then paddling up to his brother shore house. He was a Huck Finn looking guy with beads in his beard, cut off shorts and tees shirt.
Munson said there was a boat landing just down from where we were and we could get water close to there. Well we missed the landing, just couldn't see it, and paddled down about a mile then stopped for our shore lunch.
We had quite a discussion about if we needed to get water, how much we had on board, our rate of consumption, and when we could get water next. Tim was very concerned about water as he knows himself quite will and getting short on water was a critical concern for him in this heat and humidity.
So we set off to walk back to town to get water. This route took us through low level River bottom terrain. We came to place were you could go around or through. I took the around route. Tim took the though route which turned out to be the in route as in the mud route. He almost got stuck in the mud and it did pull his sandals off his feet. I, on the other hand, walked a little farther but on dry ground.
We did get our water, got it back to the boat via the walk around route, and then back on the River.
The lunch break was 2.5 hours far longer than we would of liked but we still made our 40 miles.
Tonight’s campsite was on a sandbar that was well above the water line, lots of tows going by all night, an excellent meal, and first real invasion of bugs at sundown.
Day 4 June 24, 2006 Saturday
We have reached our first weekend day and now we are seeing local people out on the River fishing, picnicking, and pleasure boating. It is good to see this on the River, as that is a sign that the River water is healthy and there are more people enjoying this great piece of Mid America besides Tim and I.
Today we get introduced to bottle fishing. Having traveled the River from the headwaters I have had the opportunity to see several different approaches to trying to lure fish to a baited hook. This one is most interesting!
The process is to have a “bottle” made of PC pipe with sealed end caps. Then line is attached with a large hook to which “stinky” bait is slipped over the hook. A single person can have up to 50 of these things out at once. The way it is done is to find a section of the River where there is a good current, bait the hooks, then unwind the line from the bottle, and throw them into the River. The fisher people then watch them from there john boat and when one starts to bob they run over to it, grab it, try to set the hook, and then start the fight with a big old catfish.
With this many bottles out, a fast current, it is a very active event for them and fun to watch as we paddled through their bottle drops. The “stinky” bait would be something like chicken livers and snake meat that had been stirred together and let set to season.
We talked to young couples that were out for their Saturday time away from the kids and everyone in the boat was into the whole process of having fun.
We got off to a one hour earlier start today, we are now making quick stops on the shore more often, and can feel ourselves trimming up around the midsection making it easier to get in and out of the boat.
We are passing sandbars that run for over two miles and our footprints are the only imprints that are made in the sand. This is spectacular to see and be part of in an area that most people think is all mud and dirty brown water.
We had our first Mountain House meal tonight of spaghetti and sausage. We are pleasantly surprised that this is very good and next time we should have at least three or four packets per meal as it went down very well and we could have eaten more. This turned out to be true for all the Mountain House meals we had with on this trio.
Today was a day of reflective thoughts and discussions. On reflective thoughts we saw big Army Corp of Engineer work barges with large dredging equipment that my Dad would of gotten a kick out of seeing.
Our talk this evening got onto to what or whom should we dedicate this trip to? What we came to agreement upon was that this trip is dedicated to Peter Goodsell and Scott Sorensen. How we came to this conclusion is that Peter and Scott both died in accidents before their time but would of very much enjoyed being on this trip with us right now and we very much would so enjoy their being with us.
Peter Goodsell is Tim’s brother who died at age 35 in a rock climbing accident. Scott Sorensen is my son who died at age 30 in river water related accident. They both enjoyed the outdoors and the freedom of adventure it lets us enjoy.
Day 5 June 25, 2006 Sunday
We are getting the routine refined as we expected so things are going much smoother.
We will end up the day 215 river and 131.19 airline miles from our starting point which is a ratio of about 1.61 river miles to every mile airline forward which gives you some idea of how much the river twists and turns sometimes even going north when our primary direction is to be south.
Now Tim finally experienced one of the most refreshing, energizing, cleansing, stimulating, and easy activities on this whole trip. He took his first bath in the River in this evening! Tim’s background on long trips is in the Artic and you don’t have the luxury of bathing in open water as most of the time it is frozen over.
I have been bathing in the River every night since we started and have expounded on the luxurious feeling of being clean. So Tim has now crossed over to fresh water bathing as now he is like a born again paddler. I must be fair and balanced in my comments here in that I deal with the hot weather better than Tim and conversely he deals with the cold better than I. So as we travel together we do learn from one another.
So for the rest of the trip Tim is a water boy and I might add smells and looks a whole lot better. For the rest of the trip we also had short jump out stops during the day where we would pull up onto shore when we were hot, jump out of the boat, and into the River to cool off. This worked great and was also just pure fun to float with the current too.
Tonight we went through a very detailed review of all our equipment, how is working, our food, what we liked, what we would like for the next, and what equipment we could do without. For tomorrow we will be in Memphis and one of Tim’s business vendors is located in Memphis and Tim’s contact is coming down to the city marina to help us out.
This afternoon was also wash day which wasn’t too hard as I am wearing three things: padded paddling shorts and a yellow tropical Ex Official short sleeve shirt and in camp some North Face Teflon coated shorts. This part of the trip is simple during this time of the year.
We are camped just about five miles above Memphis so expect to be there in the early morning. Part of tonight’s conversation is about getting some ribs for lunch tomorrow.
Day 6 June 26, 2006 Monday
Memphis here we come! We do get on the water early with a lightened load as we have let our water reserves go down as well as our food weight is way down.
We pull into Memphis and see this gigantic boat ramp like sixty feet wide and a hundred and fifty feet long. We pull right in and are soon met by a uniformed guard type guy who asks us “Can I be of some assistance?” We reply “no, we have friend coming to meet us, thank you.” The guard then says “this is a private ramp but there is another ramp right past the bridge pilings over there.” He has pointed to the area he is referencing too. So I ask him, “Would you like us to move?” Guard guy responses “yes” and during this whole exchange his tone of expression never changes.
So we moved over to the Memphis Marina, which turned out to be the right place to be as they had fresh water right down by our boat too.
Tim had called his business associate, Dean, he came down to pick us up and take us on a shopping tour in Memphis. We got the grand tour plus: replaced Tim’s three legged chair, which didn’t work in the sand, with a folding canvas chair with cup holders in the arms, dropped Tim’s phone off at a cellular store to get recharged, went to a grocery store and got food for the next 10 days, and best of all had lunch at Corky’s Bar B Que. Man oh man, pulled pork, ribs, coleslaw, and sweet tea plus this was our first meal inside a building in six days. Dean also took some stuff from us that we knew we didn’t need and will send it back to Chicago.
This planned stop along with Dean’s very kind help has helped to make this trip highly successful.
The talk today as we paddled was about how fortunate we are to be 60, on the River, eating like kings, knowing what we are doing, and doing it in style. We both called our home today and all is well there too.
We have a new moon raising and the Tour de France starts in five days, I mention this as the last three Tours I have watched every day and this year I going to miss the start and first nine days.
