My wife thinks I should be paddling with someone else for safety and because I will get lonely. I have recently discovered the following quotation that sums one reason for solo paddling
"The man who goes out alone can start today,but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready".
Couldn't have put it better myself
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Gear
One of the issues I have is how much gear to buy here and how much to buy in Minneapolis. Obviously,I will have to buy my kayak there (although I did look into shipping my Seabear over). I am taking my own paddle and have just bought a second split paddle and sculpted dry bags which mimic the shapes of the front and back hatches by tapering to the shape of the boat.I will also buy a proper kayak PFD here which I am sure will cause some merriment amongst the kayaking fraternity here who are used to seeing me in ill fitting life jackets and ones that are coming apart at the seams. There are some things that I can't take on the plane such as gas canisters,matches and possibly a knife.I have even bought some Back Country dehydrated meals but I am not sure if I take these Then there is a tent. I have been waiting for the Katmandu Easter Sale to buy a good quality,light,three season tent but now that it has arrived I am disappointed on what is on offer. There is a vast range of quality tents available to me in America at reasonable so that is where I will buy it
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Targets
In an endeavour to reduce the enormnity of the venture. I have broken the trip down into 11 short targets. I have already referred to the first four in an earlier post,namely
1/ Get through the wetlands to Bemidji-up to 3 days.My wife thinks that i will be so lonely after this time that I will want to come home once i get to this first town.To prove her wrong i have to last 4 days. Unfortunately this will plac eme in the middle of the lakes,my second target.
2/To get through the 4 lakes The giude book I have recommends against paddling across the largest of these because the wind can get up suddenly producing large waves. This advice is probably directed more towards canoeists rather than kayakers.
3/Pass the 300 mile mark equalling the distance from Takapuna to Cape Reinga,my longest paddle to date.
4Get to Minneapolis,a distance of 500 miles which qualifies as an expedition. Realistically,this is probably my first opportunity to pull out if i find i am not enjoying myself.
The other targets are
5/Pass the 1000 mile mark which is also approximately the comfluence with the Missouri, which is where the Mississippi becomes a seriously big river if it wasn't already
6/Reach St Louis-1180 miles and approximately half way,the end of the locks and dams, and the start of the free flowing river.
7/The confluence with the Ohio River or approx 1300 miles.
8/The 1500 mile mark. I haven't worked out where that is exactly but I am sure I will b/4 I get there.
9/The 2000 mile mark ( or just north of New orleans,probably around Baton Rouge
10/New Orleans
11/Mile 0 or Head of Passes-10 miles past the end of the road at Venice La and another 10 miles to the sea. If I go right out to the Gulf of mexico I would hope to hitch a ride back to Venice with a passing fishing boat rather than battling 20 miles upstream
1/ Get through the wetlands to Bemidji-up to 3 days.My wife thinks that i will be so lonely after this time that I will want to come home once i get to this first town.To prove her wrong i have to last 4 days. Unfortunately this will plac eme in the middle of the lakes,my second target.
2/To get through the 4 lakes The giude book I have recommends against paddling across the largest of these because the wind can get up suddenly producing large waves. This advice is probably directed more towards canoeists rather than kayakers.
3/Pass the 300 mile mark equalling the distance from Takapuna to Cape Reinga,my longest paddle to date.
4Get to Minneapolis,a distance of 500 miles which qualifies as an expedition. Realistically,this is probably my first opportunity to pull out if i find i am not enjoying myself.
The other targets are
5/Pass the 1000 mile mark which is also approximately the comfluence with the Missouri, which is where the Mississippi becomes a seriously big river if it wasn't already
6/Reach St Louis-1180 miles and approximately half way,the end of the locks and dams, and the start of the free flowing river.
7/The confluence with the Ohio River or approx 1300 miles.
8/The 1500 mile mark. I haven't worked out where that is exactly but I am sure I will b/4 I get there.
9/The 2000 mile mark ( or just north of New orleans,probably around Baton Rouge
10/New Orleans
11/Mile 0 or Head of Passes-10 miles past the end of the road at Venice La and another 10 miles to the sea. If I go right out to the Gulf of mexico I would hope to hitch a ride back to Venice with a passing fishing boat rather than battling 20 miles upstream
Time To Complete paddle
Once I tell people how long the river is,the next question is how long will it take. My reply is that the absolute maximum time I have in the USA is 90 days, being the time allowed under the visa. Having said that, I hope to keep to a time table of someone who paddled the river in 2001. He did it in 68 days,so, say 70 days. If you divide 70 into the length of the river,namely 3,500 kilometres this gives an average daily distance of 50 kilometres. Obviously, the daily distances will vary dramatically depending on the part of the river I am paddling. I think of the river as having 3 large sections. The first is loosely termed the wilderness and comprises approximately 750 kilometres to "civilisation" in Minneapolis. While there are some parts of this that will be slower going with several lakes and some obstructions to portage around, a lot of it is free flowing river with some current to assist., I would hope to approach the daily average during this section at least The next section is from Minneapolis to St Louis which has 29 locks and dams. It can take several hours waiting to be locked through, as while they will lock through a single kayaker, if there is any commercial traffic this gets priority. Consequently, the equivalent of up to 6 paddling days (assuming 12 hour paddling days) is effectively wasted and it might be difficult to reach the daily average over this section. Some of the locks may be able to be portaged around if there looks like being a delay.And, of course, where there are dams ,there are lakes. The invariable rule of kayaking that the wind is always in your face will no doubt apply to make the paddling even more harder going
Although I am looking forward to the experience of being in a small boat in a vast steel chamber, it could get a little tiresome by lock 29.
The final section of the river is free flowing from St Louis to the sea. This is where I really hope to make up the daily distance. I should be really paddle fit by then,the days will be longer, and with a current of 3-4mph I hope to be able to do the odd 100k day
So,in summary,although I have been working on a 70 day timetable I really hope I can bring it down to 60 days. This will allow me plenty of time at the end to visit with my girls in Georgia and New York. Jane is hoping to come out to St Louis where I should be around July 4. It should be a good place for fireworks and there is a Ansheuer-Busch brewery in town that does tours for Matthew and me to enjoy. They have a famous team of Clydesdales that they use in their TV adverts that should interest grand daughter Lauren
Although I am looking forward to the experience of being in a small boat in a vast steel chamber, it could get a little tiresome by lock 29.
The final section of the river is free flowing from St Louis to the sea. This is where I really hope to make up the daily distance. I should be really paddle fit by then,the days will be longer, and with a current of 3-4mph I hope to be able to do the odd 100k day
So,in summary,although I have been working on a 70 day timetable I really hope I can bring it down to 60 days. This will allow me plenty of time at the end to visit with my girls in Georgia and New York. Jane is hoping to come out to St Louis where I should be around July 4. It should be a good place for fireworks and there is a Ansheuer-Busch brewery in town that does tours for Matthew and me to enjoy. They have a famous team of Clydesdales that they use in their TV adverts that should interest grand daughter Lauren
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Flooding!!!
One of the concerns I have is being forced off the river because of flooding. If this happens there are two options
1/Wait until the flooding subsides and proceed;or
2/Get a rde further down the river to where the flooding is not as bad and continue from there
As I will be operating with a limited time frame,option one doesn't appeal
Option 2 would mean bypassing a portion of the river frustrating the rationale for the trip which is to paddle all the river from source to sea.
Concern is already increasing that the Spring thaw will bring record flooding caused by ice jams of broken ice and the heavy runoff. Already it is being about in terms of the 1965 flood which is unrivalled in Mississippi flood lore.Winter precipitation has averaged 150-200 percent of the mean in the river catchment above MinneapolisStream flow is at or above the 90th percentile for this time of the year.
So while the present flooding will undoubttedly have abated by the time I start out at the end of May it does reinforce that the river can flood in summer,generated in the old fashioned way by heavy rainfall in any of the catchment areas (remembering that the river drains 41% of the lower USA). Let s hope that doesn't happen this summer
1/Wait until the flooding subsides and proceed;or
2/Get a rde further down the river to where the flooding is not as bad and continue from there
As I will be operating with a limited time frame,option one doesn't appeal
Option 2 would mean bypassing a portion of the river frustrating the rationale for the trip which is to paddle all the river from source to sea.
Concern is already increasing that the Spring thaw will bring record flooding caused by ice jams of broken ice and the heavy runoff. Already it is being about in terms of the 1965 flood which is unrivalled in Mississippi flood lore.Winter precipitation has averaged 150-200 percent of the mean in the river catchment above MinneapolisStream flow is at or above the 90th percentile for this time of the year.
So while the present flooding will undoubttedly have abated by the time I start out at the end of May it does reinforce that the river can flood in summer,generated in the old fashioned way by heavy rainfall in any of the catchment areas (remembering that the river drains 41% of the lower USA). Let s hope that doesn't happen this summer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)