Jason had to work all day (somebody has to work after all) so he didn’t get on the water until the early evening. By then I had camp set up and fire wood gathered for what would be only the second campfire I built on this entire trip. At about 5:30 Jason called to double check what island I was on before he committed to heading downstream on what he thought was the correct channel. Having to paddle upstream to correct the mistake of going down the wrong channel would have taken a gargantuan amount of effort in the rapidly fading daylight. I lit the fire to try to create some smoke to mark where I was but amazingly the soaking wet wood burned so hot it didn’t create any smoke (it may have had something to do with the pint of camp fuel I used). Thankfully Jason could smell the fire which was just enough to assure him that he was on the right track.

After a week and a half with apparently nothing to haul, the barge industry is back in action.  Over the last two days I’ve seen more barge traffic than I had seen in the ten days prior.  This traffic is resulting in bottlenecks at every lock.  When I reached Lock 24 today (Lord knows what happened to Lock 23) two barges were waiting to lock through downstream while an upstream barge was already re-assembling himself after locking through.  It didn’t matter to me because once again I was able to slide the Ikkuma, fully loaded, over the dry spillway on the far end of the dam.  It took a little doing to round up the logs and sticks required to act as bumpers over the rocky embankment, but I was up, over, and back in the water in just fifteen minutes, faster than it takes to lock through even without a waiting line. 

The weather man had been talking about a lot of rain on its way from the disintegrating hurricane that rolled into the Gulf last week.  The sky was cloudy but thankfully, so far, all I’ve seen is a couple short showers.  In fact the entire afternoon was dry and beautiful with a hint of sunshine even popping out just before sunset. 

With a little more time at the end of the day’s paddling than I’m used to I was able to go for a walk along shore where I’m camped.  I could only go about 100 yds in either direction until the sand ran out and became sticky mud, but along the way I did find an interesting animal tooth (looks like a molar from something big).  I also took the time to clean up my kayak a bit.  Weeks in tannic rivers had yellowed the normally bright white hull.  The other day I had pulled the Ikkuma up on a mud beach for a break and before I launched I rubbed the sticky mud off the hull.  In so doing I discovered that I’d rubbed some of the yellowing off the hull.  Figuring it couldn’t hurt, today I rolled the Ikkuma up on its side and polished out the entire hull with Mississippi River mud.  Incredibly the mud and a little elbow grease did a great job in making the kayak look presentable again.  It seems like a silly thing to polish a boat in the midst of a 5000 mile trip, but wouldn’t it be a shame to come across the final finish line with a dirty boat.

Today was one of those wonderful late summer days where the weather was warm, clear, and dry.  I’m enjoying it for all it’s worth as I carefully watch a weather system move in from the south, a remnant of the hurricane that spun into the Gulf of Mexico last week.  The weather man says it’s going to be a wet end to the week, but for now I’m loving life.

With a great breakfast with the Strosakers to start the day I was on the water by 10:30 and right from the put-in I could see that there was a lot of traffic at Lock 21 just down stream.  With one barge in the lock, another waiting upstream, and a third waiting downstream it could take all day to wait a turn to lock through.  Thankfully this lock is a bit different than all the rest I’d seen upstream.  On the far side of the dam, opposite the lock chamber, is a concrete spillway.  Right now it’s lying about six inches above the water holding back the river above, but at flood stage it would allow water to flow freely over the top.  This structure is flat topped and smooth much like a road and about as wide.  It was easy business to slide the Ikkuma out onto the dam then across and down a short slope to the other side.  Instead of hours of waiting it took mere minutes and I was on my way.  The only thing I missed was the opportunity to have my picture taken in a lock by David and Esther who had driven down to see me lock through.  I did paddle back across to thank them once again for their hospitality, I guess we’ll have to get a picture next time.

A few hours of paddling brought me to and past Hannibal Missouri which we drove down to visit yesterday.  Only eight miles further I came to Lock 22 which was just as busy as the one above.  Thank heavens this dam was constructed much like the one above and I, once again, was able to jump across in fifteen minutes.  Just a few hundred yards below the lock I found a great camp spot high above the water with cool shade trees and a great view of the river and hills on the far shore.  I timed how long it took the barge that was in line in front of me to get through the lock and was very grateful to have been able to portage saving myself three hours of waiting above. 

All of this barge traffic is a bit of a surprise after a week of seeing very few.  With only 83 miles and two locks to go and three days to reach Grafton I can handle some waiting.  But if the locks continue to be of the same design I’ll be happy to keep sliding over the spillways and continuing on my way.