Day 82 Mississippi River
Rain tapped the tarp overhead that covered my tent. A small part of me was content because it gave me a good excuse to stay in bed. When I came to about an hour later the rain had stopped, giving me the all clear to get the day started.
I made oatmeal and coffee as I did my best to let the tent dry before packing it away. Clouds hid the sun despite a warm day in the low 60s.
Once packed up and ready to push off a drizzle began to fall. Not enough of a rain to get you soaked, but enough to mist over the sunglasses on my face. Shortly after it started, the sprinkles stopped. This would be a pattern throughout the day.
With no wind to effect my progress I made steady time southbound. The river seemed to be busy today with barge traffic. At one point I was pinched into the outside edge of a curve along the shore of Arkansas as two massive barges passed by. With no room to squeeze between the barges and the shore I waited for 10 or 15 minutes, sitting still as the worlds commodities floated by.
As dusk approached and I began setting my sights toward camp I came upon the confluence of the Arkansas river. A beautiful sandy bank with a few feet of elevation stood at the meeting point of the two rivers. To the west, the Arkansas wound its way around small sandy bluffs that eroded into the river, causing loud splashes, similar to a glacier calving, but obviously on a much smaller scale. To the east, north and south the Mississippi flowed, encompassing the entire view.
It's wild to think of the different land the Arkansas carves out on its way to the Miss. I have caught beautiful brown trout, kayaked raging white water and passed the headwaters of the Arkansas, all in Colorado. Now, some hundreds if not thousands of miles later, it joins the Mighty Miss en route to the Gulf.
Layered clouds covered much of the sunset as waterfowl took flight and the screech of a Blue Herring rang out. Fish continually rise to feed off the surface as I sit by the campfire and write. Possibly my favorite campsite yet.
Life is simple on the Mighty Miss.