Day 62 Mississippi River
I slept in and enjoyed the bed in St. Louis. Once up I began reorganizing my gear and getting things ready to hit the water. Sometime around 10am Dina returned from a workout class and graciously made breakfast. Eggs, blueberry sausage, toast and fresh fruit.
As I was working to put away my restocked food supply Dina reminded me of the meals her and Joe had saved for me. Two nights worth of Joe's famous beef chili, two nights worth of Dina's chicken and rice soup, and a serving of white chicken chili, all frozen solid and ready to be tucked away into my cooler. To add to an already amazing set up, Dina had baked my favorite cookies, 7 layer bars, and came prepared with a ziplock full of them (she had remembered that my Mom often bakes them as a special treat). Armed with enough delicious homemade food to fuel me for the next few days, the three of us set off toward the river.
Driving through downtown St. Louis we worked down to a river access point in the shadows of the famous St. Louis Arch, "The Gateway to the West". While shuffling my gear from the trunk of Joe's black Expedition to the compartments of my black canoe, a fully loaded 10 man canoe ferried over towards us from across the river. A grizzled fellow hopped out of the stern and introduced himself as "Big Muddy Mike". Big Muddy runs a guide service based out of St. Louis, and was taking a group on a day paddle, however, as he saw my gear he figured he would come over and have a quick chat. It turns out Big Muddy Mike is a bit of a legend on the Middle Mississippi (I had heard of him before), and he had done the entire river himself, twice. Before leaving he parted some advice on navigating the stretch of river I was about to put in on, known as the Port of St. Louis.
"Stay river right and towards the center. If you have a marine radio, keep it on and monitor channel 13. There's tons of barge traffic on this stretch, and if your not carful they won't see you. It lightens up after the second bridge 9 miles down river".
With that Big Muddy hopped back in his massive canoe and paddled away with his 9 or so clients.
Once my boat was fully loaded I said goodbye to Joe and Dina and pushed off into the Port of St. Louis, passing the Arch along the way.
The river was busy. Very busy. With the Lock and Dam system now over the river flows uninhibited all the way to the Gulf. As I came to find out, this also means that the barges get larger, as they don't have to deal with the size restrictions of going through locks.
With industry lining both shores, barges were in constant motion, moving from one grain elevator to the next, from oil refinery to a destination, and loading up massive piles of coal to be shipped. The wake from these larger barges were new to me, and the relative narrow width of the river in the section meant big rolling waves were constant. At one point I was pushed toward shore as rollers crashed into the stern of my boats, causing a nervous moment and nearly tipping.
Once past the second bridge traffic lightened up and the river widened. Compared to North of St. Louis the traffic was still heavy, but certainly less so than through the heart of St. Louis.
As evening approached I set up shop on a large sandbar, called it a day and heated up some of Joe's homemade chili.
Another milestone of the trip now in the rearview. St. Louis treated me right! Next big city stop- Memphis! Yeehaw.