Blog Archives

Reflecting

8/13/2014

I've been asked a lot of great questions about the trip, so I put together this list of FAQ's and other interesting facts about my time on the river. Please keep in mind these are only my answers, not Gabe's.

Total miles paddled: 2,340

Total elevation decrease: 1,475 ft.

Total days to complete the river: 71

Total states traveled to: 10

Total kayaks used: 4

Total rainy days (while on the water): 14

Total lbs lost: 21

Total # of shaves: 0

Total haircuts: 0

Total # of showers: 12

Total # of sunburns: 2 bad ones, 7 minor ones

Total alligators seen: 2

Total homes stayed at: 11

Total funds raised to date: $15,530 and rising!

Scariest moment on the river: Gabe getting sucked into Knutson Dam (never told anyone about that)

Favorite moment on the river: Swimming in the ocean!

Most challenging moment/day on the river: Day 2 in the Headwaters by myself

Favorite thing about camping: Hearing nothing but nature and no light pollution

Worst thing about camping: Sand sticks to EVERYTHING

Favorite sight-seeing activity while in town: Quad City River Rats Baseball Game

Favorite sight-seeing activity while on the river: Paddling next to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis

Best music to paddle to: I’ve memorized most of Taylor Swift’s songs…don’t judge me

Favorite beer on the trip: Yuengling or Stella Artois

Favorite town visited: I couldn't possibly pick a favorite, they were all awesome

Most scenic state to paddle through: Minnesota

Food craved the most during the trip: Pizza!

New foods tried for the first time: Catfish, Shrimp Gumbo, Crab, Sweet Potatoes

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The Finish Line

8/12/2014

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It's hard to believe this journey has finally come to an end. I've been planning diligently for this since May 2013 and can't fathom just how fast the time has gone. We reached the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, August 9th at 12:45 pm and I was mixed with emotions - happiness, a sense of accomplishment and exhaustion were just a few! Here is a summary of the last two days of our trip..

My parents have become our "support staff" for the last leg of the trip. We’ve been able to paddle as late as we like and then lock our kayaks up between the river and levy before catching a ride with my parents back to their hotel for the night. We enjoyed a large breakfast at their hotel before driving south to get back to our locked up gear on Day 70 (August 8th). I get nervous every time we leave our gear. How awful would it be for someone to steal our stuff this far into the trip! We came up to the levy and saw four work vehicles parked on the top and one parked down by the river near our gear. To our relief, our gear was untouched. We pushed into the river to begin our last full day of paddling on the Mississippi River. We were aiming for Venice, LA which is the last town with road access to it before hitting the Gulf of Mexico. As usual, it started raining just a few minutes after we started. I put my spray skirt on to keep my gear dry but decided against the raincoat. It was far too hot for that and the cool rain actually felt pretty good. As we were paddling today it was crazy to see the mile markers get closer and closer to single digit numbers. I saw a big coyote today walking along the rocks on the river. I paddled very slowly next to it and then just floated down past him. It didn’t realize I was in the water until I was maybe 30 yards from it. It took off and watched me from the woods afterward. It was the only coyote I had seen the entire trip though, so that was neat. We paddled as hard as we could but could rarely get over 5 mph. This made for a long day on the water. Right around 5 pm we came around a bend and saw some people swimming in the river. It was on this bend that it felt like the sun was burning us through our shirts. We both mentioned how incredibly hot the sun felt on that stretch of the river. It must have been hitting at just the right angle to reflect onto our backs. We made it to Venice, LA just as the sun was setting, but we still had a few more miles to get to Cypress Cove Marina. This is where my parents would be meeting us and where we would store our kayaks for the evening. Our two mile paddle off of the main channel to the marina was a little more difficult than we hoped. All the fisherman were returning as we were pulling in and none of them were taking their time getting back to the marina. It was a narrow channel that had a wall all along the right side. When the big fishing boats would fly past us at full speed, the waves would hit us once and then bounce off the walls to return for another chance to slow us down a bit. Those were probably the longest two miles of the day (we did 41 miles total). We eventually pulled up and got our kayaks locked up to a tree in the middle of the parking lot. We were given permission to keep them there and told that security patrols the area all through the night. As we were locking up there were a group of gentleman who asked my folks about the kayaks. They briefly explained what we were doing and said that we had one more day on the water. Two of the gentlemen, Tommy and Terry, asked if we’d join them for dinner at the marina restaurant. We enjoyed a great meal with these two guys who were traveling to the area to work on cell phone towers. They were both great company and even offered to pay for my family and Gabe’s food bill. It was a great way to spend our last evening in Louisiana!

I woke up around 5:30 on OUR LAST DAY (Day 71 on August 9th) to start getting ready. We had 30 more miles until reaching the Gulf and I knew we had to be on the water as early as possible if we still wanted to get on the road back home the same day. Gabe’s family arrived and helped us move our kayaks from the parking lot over to the boat launch. We snapped a few pictures before leaving and headed out just as the sun was rising. We battled the waves on our way back to the main channel again. It was a beautiful Saturday morning so all of the fisherman were on their way out. We had a lot of boats pass pretty close to us when we got out on the main channel. I’m sure it was strange to see a couple guys heading south without a motor because there were no more ways to get out south of Venice. We paddled past our families one last time before getting out to the main channel. Cypress Cove hotel was kind enough to let our families stay in their room (well after checkout) until we arrived back in Venice. We paddled past the last few single digit mile markers on the river. I believe the last one I saw was mile marker 7. When we were about three miles from Head of Passes we started to drift toward the middle of the river to make sure we entered South Pass. When we reached the entrance of South Pass, we were officially done with the Mississippi River. I was hoping to see a giant zero on the sign but it was just a green and red sign at the entrance of South Pass. I chose to keep my music off all day today. Over the last several weeks I would usually paddle the first half of the day with no music and then turn it on when the task of paddling felt a little monotonous. I had a lot to think about today. I thought all the way back to the headwaters and all the kind people I met there as I was leaving. I thought about how hard it was to say goodbye to my wife and family. I thought about the first person who waved at us as we were exiting Lake Bemidji. I thought about God's constant protection and the blessings He gave us throughout the trip, and how so many prayers were answered beautifully. Then I thought of each person that made a difference in our trip from beginning to end. There are so many people that made this trip more than I ever expected it to be. When I left the headwaters, I had a list of eight phone numbers of people down the river. I had no idea that we would be taken care of by countless others throughout the trip. I owe a special shout out to Jim Lewis of Grand Rapids. He was our first contact on the river and definitely one of our most important. Jim saw Gabe and I pull up in our two little twelve foot kayaks and was quick to advise us to consider something larger. After completing this journey, I’m not sure I would have made it in my original kayak. Jim was so invested into our trip that he remained in daily contact for hundreds of miles after Grand Rapids. We are happy to have met Jim and his wonderful wife Sharron and we certainly plan to stay in touch. As I was paddling the last day I also thought about how I felt that we had probably picked the perfect time of year to make this trip. It rained while we were paddling a few times up in Minnesota, once in Iowa, and twice in Louisiana. I’m not sure anyone else has had that good of luck on a trip like this. We were also lucky enough to catch three cold fronts while passing through Mississippi and Louisiana! A lot of the Louisiana locals continuously told us that this was a mild summer. I feel bad for that paddlers that had a normal summer down south. We’ve seen some heat overseas but this southern Louisiana heat was just comical. So I spent the entire day reflecting on how great everyone was to us these last couple months. When we bypassed mile marker zero at Head of Passes, it kind of reminded me of the headwaters again. I could reach my paddle down three or four feet and still see the end of my yellow paddle. The big muddy river that would usually only have about two inches of visibility was now clearing up again. Although the river was still wider down here, the scenery resembled the headwaters again. The edges of the river were lined with tall grass and had small paths to wander through on each side. I could finally spot what looked like lighthouse in the far distance. It must have been over 10 miles away but I knew that it was a sign that the ocean was near. I came around a corner and saw a tiny little gap with no land beyond it. My mind was going insane knowing that I was getting my first look at the Gulf of Mexico. The finish line was finally in sight! We had been riding the right side of the channel all day and then suddenly I asked Gabe, “How the hell did we get on the left side of the channel?” There must have been some strong currents right near the last several miles to the Gulf. We paddled pretty hard to cross back over and it really wasn’t easy. We had to fight to stay on the right side the rest of the way. We passed Port Eads where the lighthouse was located and paddled our final miles of this entire river. We pulled up on a small island that had a really nice sandy beach on it. The waves were crashing and it was one of the greatest feelings ever. As much as we loved paddling this amazing river, our bodies were both in need of a break. We pulled our kayaks out of the hot, shallow water and onto the beach. After taking some pictures we ran into the ocean and swam/floated on our own for almost an hour. It gave us each time to think about what we had just accomplished. Our journey was finished but we had no idea how we were going to get back upstream 30 miles. The advice we had always been given was to wave down a fisherman and ask for a ride. There was no guarantee but that was part of the adventure! I figured sitting on the beach wasn’t going to get us a ride so I told Gabe that we needed to get back into our kayaks and wait in the channel for a boat to come by so we could wave it down. I tried paddling upstream for a little while and we were barely moving. After waiting about 10 minutes we spotted a boat coming back towards the channel. When it was about 75 yards away I waved with both hands. The boat came to a stop and I paddled over to it as fast as I could. I yelled out, “You wouldn’t happen to be heading to Venice would you?” They responded with yes and I asked if they’d be kind enough to offer us a ride back upstream. Without hesitation, the driver, Chris, said, “Come on in!” We pulled up next to the 33 foot boat and fit our kayaks right inside. We met two other men on board, both named Charlie. They were both friends of Chris who were his charters for the day. They offered us each a beer right away after asking how long we’d been on the river. It was a nice little celebratory drink. The ride back up to Venice was quick, only took 35 minutes. The driver was doing nearly 50 mph the entire way back upstream. It felt strange going that fast on a boat. Chris, Charlie and Charlie were the last helpers on our entire trip and it just made the entire thing feel complete. The people on this river are some of the nicest I’ve met in my life and I am incredibly grateful for everyone’s kindness. The social media community “Mississippi River Paddlers” is something that recent and future paddlers are blessed with. I think this is a perfect example of what social media should be used for - to connect people who share a common interest and otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet. Thank you to everyone who helped me plan this trip over the last year, fed us a meal, let us sleep on their property or inside their homes, gathered others to greet us in their city, gave us beers to drink, and took the time to learn about why we did this trip in the first place. Thank you to my amazing wife, Heather, who not only selflessly spent the entire summer without me, but also spent countless hours making sure that all of this content was presented in an enjoyable way. She is the reason the website, Facebook page, and photos were all posted in a prompt manner. She was constantly making sure I was sending journal entries because she knew that people were waiting to read more. I'd also like to thank my parents for taking the time off of work to be there for me while I finished this journey. They were there for us when it seemed impossible to find camping spots. I'm not sure how we would have finished without their help. Finally, thank you to all of you who have already made donations to the Semper Fi Fund. We hope that our amazing summer on the river will help bring joy to military families that need it. Please continue to donate and encourage others to do so as well at www.MississippiRiver2014.weebly.com! Thanks for following our journey!

Semper Fi,

Nic

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Marines in New Orleans

8/8/2014

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New Orleans has been great to us! We enjoyed a concert in the park at Algiers Point, met our fundraising coordinator from the Semper Fi Fund, met the Commander of Marine Force Reserves, and tried some spicy Cajun food. It was the perfect city to wrap up the last days of our journey.

We had the luxury of sleeping in an air conditioned room last night! I woke up around 7 and went downstairs to grab breakfast on Day 68 (August 6). It was a short day into New Orleans (26 miles) so we didn't have to get into the water until around noon. Over the last couple weeks I have been working with the Semper Fi Fund and the Marine Corps reserve unit in New Orleans to plan a final event for our trip. Susan Wortman has been my point of contact for the Semper Fi Fund since I started planning this trip and she began reaching out to people she knew in the New Orleans area. We didn't know it yet but she had a great evening planned for us. We paddled in another miserably hot day and arrived at Algiers Point at about 5:45 pm. There was a band on stage playing and a group of people walked over to wave at us as we passed by and parked our kayaks. The first to greet us was GySgt Harilson, who contacted me before my trip even started. He said that the Marines in New Orleans would be prepared to take care of us when we arrived in his area of operation. We were greeted by several other Marines right away and then Susan came over to finally get to meet us. Working with Susan the last several months has been an absolute pleasure. She has constantly been looking out for us and making sure we had everything we needed. Shortly after we arrived, a big rain storm forced everyone to take cover under the tents. We had the opportunity to meet a bunch more Marines and their families. It was awesome to see how excited they were for our arrival. One of the Marines handed us each a beer to enjoy while we waited for the rain to pass. Lieutenant General Richard Mills, the Commander of Marine Force Reserves, also made an appearance to congratulate us and thank us for what we were doing. It was a pretty great experience to meet him! We even met up with him again at the bar later. When the storm finally cleared I went on stage and had the chance to speak to the crowd of almost 200 people. I explained our trip and some brief details of the Semper Fi Fund. We were then approached by a group of people who offered some cash donations and asked for business cards to follow our website. The concert continued on and we met a lot of great people in the audience. The Marines advised us to go to a bar called Crown and Anchor, which was just a block or two away. After getting a t-shirt purchased for us by a kind gentleman named Jeff, we made our way to Crown and Anchor. The General and other Marines have made this bar their own. It felt great being around a bunch of Marines again. We didn't pay for a drink all night! We had a very late dinner at a place called Daisy Dukes. I tried Shrimp Gumbo for the first time and really enjoyed it. The Semper Fi Fund was kind enough to put us in a room at the Hilton for the evening. The rooms were quite nice. We didn't get settled in our rooms until around 1 am and got a handful of hours of sleep. Overall, New Orleans was another huge highlight of the trip. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

On Day 69 (August 7), Susan drove Gabe and I to the Marine Corps base to pick up our kayaks that GySgt Harilson kept for us overnight. We restocked water and snacks and were given a small tour of their facility. It made me really miss being around Marines again. Gunny Harilson had three Marines follow him back to the levy to put us back in the water. When we grabbed the gear we needed from my parents' vehicle, the Marines had already carried our kayaks up over the levy and about 150 yards to the edge of the water. They literally did everything for us. We thanked them individually and said our final goodbye to GySgt Harilson. Without his help the coordination of the last two days wouldn't have gone as smooth as it did. We are thankful that he was willing to help from the start! Susan presented Gabe and I each with a large framed poster from the Semper Fi Fund. It had pictures of us on our trip and had a nice message on the bottom thanking us for fundraising. It was very nice! We pushed off into the water at 9 am and were exhausted fairly quick. It was another hot day and we paddled for a little over 10 hours, completing 47 miles. Gabe and I didn't talk much today. I think we were both tired and ready for the day to be over. I accidentally ran out of sunblock today and I certainly paid for it. When we finished the day my neck was burnt pretty bad and I had a few very small blisters forming on my forearm. Looks like I'll be wearing long sleeves the rest of the trip. We pulled our kayaks out just before dark and locked them up on shore.

Today is our last FULL day of paddling! Then just a half day on Saturday and we will have officially made it to the Gulf.

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River Traffic

8/6/2014

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On Day 66 (August 4) we woke up early so we could rip down our tents and get on the water right away. I cooked some pasta and bagged it up before leaving so I had something decent to eat during lunch today. We got a few good hours of paddling in and then the cracks of thunder got closer and closer. As we were debating whether or not to pull over, one of the huge ocean-going ships came cruising around the corner. They are about three times as fast as the tows pushing barges and seem to make no sound at all. The waves were similar in size to the barges though. They were large but spread far enough apart to make them easy to navigate without getting wet. The tug boats are another story though. They are some of the smaller ships on the river but they create the most difficult wake. The waves are crashing regardless of how deep the water is and are very close together which causes our front half of the kayak to dive into the waves. The thunder continued but no rain at this point. It was only after we saw lightning hit directly across the river from us that I told Gabe we needed to get off the water immediately. We knew the storm was right overhead. Just 100 yards back upstream was a small sandbar that we just passed. We turned around and quickly paddled back to this area. The dark clouds surrounded us and it looked like some were dropping rain. We decided to set Gabe's tent up to take cover from the rain. About two minutes after we moved all of our gear inside, the rain clouds disappeared and the sun was out. It was really frustrating. Gabe took a nap anyway and I constructed a little tarp shelter to keep the sun off of me while he rested. After a short break we got back in the water to finish our final 15 miles. We had a close call with a tug boat today. We were riding through a very industrial part of the river and barges lined both shorelines. Suddenly a tug boat was coming straight for us around a corner. He was driving straight into the sun and was going full speed, only leaving about 20 feet between him and a parked barge. After seeing the waves they produced, we knew that the waves would then just bounce back off the barges and create a big mess with the water. When he was about 50 yards from us I kind of waved my paddle a little. His engine came to a stop and I saw the driver looking at us through his binoculars. He slowly cruised past us. I yelled thank you to them as loud as I could when I saw two men step outside. They waved at us and said something but we were too far away to hear. We reached our goal for the day and began looking for campsites using our phones. There were no sandbars on this stretch of the river. After paddling a little further up, I spotted a sandy area on the shore of an industrial plant. We approached the sandy area slowly because it looked like the sand that disguised the deep mud that Gabe has fallen into a few times. As we pulled up I said "dibs on not getting out first." Gabe put his shoes on and stepped out into the very shallow water. When he shifted his weight his leg sunk down to the middle of his shin. This was not a good spot to finish our day but we were losing sunlight. We cooked our dinner this evening an crawled into our bug nets. We paddled 34 miles for the day.

We ate a small breakfast and were in the water by 8:00 am on Day 67 (August 5). We paddled for about three hours before pulling off the river to a small town to resupply our water. We pulled up to a barge that housed tug boat drivers along the shoreline. When I stepped out of my kayak my foot sunk in mud up to my ankle. I knew the mud was soft so I grabbed a large flat rock and dropped it on top of the mud for Gabe to step on. He put one foot down on the rock and took a big step. Unfortunately for him he stepped on the edge of the rock so it tilted into the mud and he sunk in up to his knee. His other foot went in up to his shin. The mud strikes again. The town we stopped in turned out to be a very rundown area with very limited places open to the public. The houses were in some of the worst shape I had seen yet and all the businesses were closed down. We managed to walk several blocks into town and find a restaurant that apparently just opened. The girl who worked there seemed quite hesitant to refill our water bladders. She insisted that she go to the restroom and do it. Again, it seemed like she thought we were homeless. When she saw that I had three bladders to fill she gave us permission to just do it ourselves. We walked back to our kayaks and had better luck re-entering. We made it into the most industrialized area that we had seen yet. Barges were coming from both directions, tows running back and forth in front of us and tug boats leading the way in front of huge ocean-going vessels. During one part of the day there was some traffic going both directions in the main channel. There were barges parked along both sides of the river and a tow staging some additional barges in front of us. There was a barge that appeared to be heading northbound but then started to turn in our direction. We held our position to see what his move was going to be and then determined that our only route was to get out to the center of the channel before the barges behind us got closer. As we paddled past the barge that turned towards us, the captain got on his loud speaker and said “You guys are possibly in the most dangerous part of the river to be doing that.” I gave him a thumbs up and loudly said “sorry” and kept paddling. I wasn’t upset about his comments as I understood that we were in the way of their work. He wasn’t a jerk about it or anything. Just reminding us that we were in an exceptionally busy part of the river. Several miles down there were two tows on the side of the river that we were riding on. They both turned upstream towards us and one of them gunned it as fast as he could go past us. We moved closer to the center of the channel so they could get by. The wake he created at full speed created one of the biggest waves that I had hit on the whole trip. I bet nearly half of my boat was showing underneath as I climbed up this wave just before it crashed. I’m almost certain that he did this on purpose because the tow behind him was courteous enough to drive at a very slow speed. Most of the commercial boats are pretty good about slowing down when they get near us and we really appreciate that. It rained on and off for about an hour and a half. We didn’t bother putting rain gear on because it was so damn hot. The rain actually felt pretty good. A couple miles before we pulled off the river we had another busy section of the river. We paddled past a tow that had several crew members taking pictures of us. One of them yelled out to me, “You guys must be tired of living…you’ve got a death wish doing that right there.” We smiled and waved and continued on. It’s funny that all the people who work around the river here wouldn’t dare get in it in a smaller watercraft. My parents drove down from Wisconsin and arrived near New Orleans today. We found a pretty bad spot to pull our kayaks out and carried them up over the levy to where my parents were picking us up. It seems as if there are no boat launches anywhere from here until we get done with the trip. My parents drove us back to their hotel where we enjoyed a great meal and spent the night crashing in their room! We’re both very excited for our day tomorrow. The Semper Fi Fund is flying some people out to meet us! We paddled 41 miles total.

It's about 95 miles to the Gulf after reaching New Orleans. Only a few more days left!

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Home Stretch

8/4/2014

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Not too much longer to go! We're both pretty sore and exhausted, but highly motivated to continue paddling hard to finish the route.

The weathermen in the south aren't any better than the ones up north. I wasn't expecting to wake up to rain drops on my face with a 0% chance of rain all night. Gabe and I quickly sprung up at 4:30 A.M on Day 62 (July 31) and grabbed a tarp to create a makeshift tent to cover our mosquito nets. It took us probably 15 minutes and then we crawled back into our tents to get a little more sleep. I ate breakfast on the water again. I seriously need to start eating more. I'm not sure how I function all day by cramming a bagel and a few honey buns down my throat before paddling nine hours straight. Lunch consisted of three packs of fruit snacks. The urgency to keep paddling in order to reach our goal supersedes any time spent eating. We enjoyed the cloud covered sky all day but battled a headwind most of the afternoon. Even with the clouds completely covering the sun, I still managed to get sunburn on my arms today. We pulled up on shore of an island at about 7:15 pm after paddling 52 miles and quickly set up our tents in anticipation of a rainstorm that would linger the entire next week. We started in rain so we might as well finish in it!

We woke up to thunder, lightning and rain on Day 63 (August 1). The rain was coming down strong and winds were pulling our stakes out of the sand again. We stayed under the cover of our tents until 10:45. When the rain finally slowed down for a bit we quickly ripped down our camp and pushed off into the water. During the first two hours it rained on us a lot and there was constant barge traffic going up and down stream. This forced us to stay out of the main channel and we averaged a speed of about 4 mph. The visibility was quite low at times so we stuck to the very edge of the channel in case a barge came out of nowhere. We saw our largest barge today at 7 wide by 7 long. I'm curious what is the largest anyone has seen on this river. I was in contact with a woman named Donna Graham who said she would like to help us when we came near Baton Rouge in a small town called St. Francisville. Donna's son, Austin, kayaked from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico last year and is now hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with his friend Brad. After paddling 39 miles, we arrived at the St. Francisville boat launch which was the muddiest exit we've had yet. The water seemed to be going down so much lately that most places we pull out are no longer dry. We met Donna and her friend Wayne, who brought us cold beers! We got the chance to talk for several minutes before the Sheriff's Department showed up with a trailer to haul our gear to a safe place for the evening. Donna had coordinated this for us and it worked out perfectly! We rode into town with Donna and made our final food resupply for this entire trip! We then rode a couple miles across river to Donna and her husband Bart's house. We had our own room with beds, a tv, and an AC unit. We were very lucky to be taken in by Donna and Bart. They prepared a great steak dinner which included macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, garlic bread, and a blackberry dessert with ice cream. It was an awesome meal and probably the most I had eaten in a long time. We stayed up until 1 am just enjoying the conversation with Donna. We talked about our travels and she told us a lot of Austin's stories. She felt she had to help out because of how great everyone treated (and continues to treat) Austin and Brad. We were beyond happy to be in a great home with incredibly great people.

Donna prepared some fresh fruit and biscuits for us on Day 64 (August 2). We packed everything up and drove back down to the boat launch where Tommy (Sheriffs Dept) met up with us to return our kayaks. Tommy is an Army veteran and thanked us for what we were doing. Donna had a friend named Susan who had recently caught up on some of our blog posts after Donna had posted them on Facebook. She came down to the launch to see us off and even brought us each a flower from her garden. It was nice of her to take time out of her Saturday morning to meet up with us! We pushed our kayaks through the ankle-high mud and back out into the water. We gave Donna one final thank you and pushed off towards Baton Rouge. Not long after we left the rain we were expecting all day started coming down. It only lasted about 45 minutes but the clouds remained. The day was filled with seeing wildlife. I FINALLY got to see the alligator I've been searching for. Right on the main channel, Gabe and I were just floating along the edge silently. About 20 yards away on shore I spotted the head of an alligator and it's tail still up on shore. It was probably at least 7 feet long. It quickly slithered into the water in front of us. I was hoping it would pop it's head up again so Gabe could see it but it was long gone. Just a few more miles down the river we kept our silent approach a priority. It was a very flooded muddy area so I knew there had to be some around. Just under a tree that was down on shore I spotted the large body of an alligator that had to be near 9 feet long. It slowly crawled into the water in front of us and was never in sight again. It was a pretty great experience to get to see them. I was worried I wasn't going to get to see any as we were starting to approach the cities. I also spotted what I believe is a Roseate Spoonbill. I saw a huge pink bird fly by but it didn't resemble a flamingo. Maybe I'm wrong but it looked more like that one. The weather had rain in the forecast all day and I think all those prayers for good weather and safety are being answered. It felt like we had a bubble of clear skies around us as we could see the surrounding areas getting stormed and rained on all day. There were a few times we even prepped our rain gear in anticipation of a big dark cloud but it would somehow wait for us to pass and then sneak in behind us to drop inches of rain on surrounding areas. We've got rain in the forecast from here until we finish so keep those prayers coming! It certainly feels like they've been answered. Just two miles from Baton Rouge we had two gentleman pull up in a fishing boat. They asked us a few questions about our trip and even handed us each a beer. At this time the sun was out and beating on us and it was one of the best cold beers I'd ever had. They didn't keep us too long and we pushed into the start of the industrial area of Baton Rouge. There was barge traffic everywhere. We had one cut out in front of us while another was just passing next to us. We really feel like a hassle as these people are just trying to do their jobs. We try and keep an eye out way ahead and anticipate any moving traffic so we can stay out of their way. We rode past a couple of parked ocean vessels that come up river. They are absolutely massive compared to the barges. We're curious to see the waves they produce. We found a small edge that was covered in sand and decided to camp here for the night. We paddled as hard as we could to get up on the beach, completing 37 miles. I hopped out of my kayak and onto the beach. Gabe did the same but he sunk into mud that was about knee deep. He quickly climbed out and we were forced to move down the beach a little further to harder ground. As I was walking on it I could see the sand cracking around each step. If I'd weighed a little more I'm certain I would have fell through as well. Gabe cooked chicken alfredo pasta tonight and it turned out excellent. One of the best field cooked meals we've had yet. We fell asleep to the sound of river traffic all night and the city lights just across river.

I woke up several times last night from how loud all the river traffic was. There were barges coming and going to the port that we setup camp next to. We jumped in the river and dealt with a couple miles of busy industrial traffic on Day 65 (August 3). After that the river went wild again. Our clothes were in pretty bad shape from the combination of sweat and rain. Unfortunately neither of us had anymore contacts down this way. We opted for getting out in the city of Plaquemine, LA to go to a laundromat. We pulled our kayaks up to shore alongside a ferry and grabbed all of our valuables. Gabe immediately sunk in some mud and decided to keep walking through it. I walked a different direction which was a drier route. He hasn't had much luck with mud lately. We washed all of our clothes and charged our battery. After spending nearly two hours in town, we were back on the water. We setup camp on a sand beach that had similar muddy sand. We had to be careful with each step. We both cooked our dinner and initially setup bug net tents. Shortly before going to bed the lightening started. Gabe and I scrambled to set our real tents up before the rain arrived! We paddled 34 miles for the day.

The plan is to make it to New Orleans by Wednesday evening!

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