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!
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!