Friday 17th July
Not only was it a beautiful sunset it was also a great sunrise. I thought about getting some water at New Madrid but by the time I crossed the river and back I would have paddled an extra
1.3kms so I didn’t bother. I later met two fishermen in a dingy, one was African American and they really had a southern accent.
The river meandered like a big anaconda snake, with bend after bend, long sweeping ones at that, so I spent a lot of time crossing the river and trying not to be half the way across when a
barge was coming. It felt a long way to the town of Caruthersville and when I saw the town and needed to cross the river a barge was coming behind so I had to wait. By the time the barge had passed I was quite close to town and with the current being pretty strong and with a kilometre wide river to cross I was losing ground pretty quick but I managed to pull in at a boat ramp just downstream of some wheat silos and an anchored Casino boat.
I pulled the kayak ashore, quickly changed and walked towards town. Within 150 metres I walked through a gate that was part of a 2 metre high wall that protected the town along the
riverside. A group of silos close to the river wasn’t protected by the wall so I imagine when it flooded they were vulnerable.
The town was far from busy, in fact it was quite dead. I ordered a burger and an ice cream and then asked if I could fill my water container. The girl serving me said I had to pay for
water even out of the tap, so I cancelled my order and walked to the justice building and filled up from the basin in the toilet. Toilets have been very handy to gather water along the way. It was quite hot and by the time I arrived back at the kayak. I was angry at myself for cancelling my food order as I could have done with a nice burger and an ice cream.
A man was backing his boat into the water at the ramp when I got back. He had his sand shoes on so he wasn’t keen to get out and get his feet wet. I decided to help him but it nearly
turned out being a disaster as the trailer nearly hit me when the guy lost control.
I left without that mouth-watering burger but I felt good as I chased a barge down the river. Some of the barges weren’t moving much faster than I was so I could sometimes keep up with
them. Wing-dams sticking way out into the river up to a kilometre were becoming more common. When the river is high the water flows over them which means I don’t have to follow the channel and I can cut the corners but they do create turbulence and sometimes a rapid on the downstream side so I had to be careful which ones I paddle over.
A wing dam, (groyne or dike) is a man-made barrier made up of rock piles extending out into the river from the shoreline. Unlike a conventional dam they only extend partway into the river.
They force water into the faster-moving centre channel which reduces the rate of sediment build up, whilst slowing water flow near the river banks. They were originally constructed to reduce the amount of dredging required. Although wing-dams assist in assuring that rivers are navigable, they can pose a threat to boaters as many of the wing-dams are underwater and difficult to see. The Mississippi River has thousands of wing dams.
I tried cutting between an island sandbar and the shore which turned out being shallow and a rapid developed soon after. It was getting close to sunset when I reached a corner at the same
time as a barge and then 4 others came along. Their motors created a lot of turbulence, standing waves, swirls, eddies and what a mess I was trying to paddle in. I was very pleased when they all had gone by.
I had paddle 145 kilometers and I was going to paddle into the late evening but there were less camping places along the way so I decided to stop on a beach surrounded by trees with the
company of a huge amount of frogs chattering. Bed at 11.30pm.