Day 269 - CLOSING UP THE GAP 08/31/2010
Daily Stats Start: 8:30 AM - Wyalusing State Park, WI Finish 5:45 PM - East Dubuque, IL time: 9:15 hours Daily dist: 52 miles Total dist: 5200+ Companions: None Weather: Mostly cloudy - rain off and on, 80’s, SW winds 15+ Notes: Big miles on a big river
Yee ha, 52 miles in one day! I had forgotten how fun this river is to paddle. With twelve days allotted to reach Grafton (near St. Louis), I had figured that I’d need to average about 38 miles per day in order to make it on time. The lower half of the Mississippi, the section I paddled last winter, flows free from St. Louis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Not only does it not have dams and locks in the way, the lower half of the river just plane flows fast. My pace down there last winter was well above six miles per hour. If I could maintain that pace I could pound out fifty mile days easily and reach Grafton in just eight days. However, the upper half of the Mississippi is quite a bit different than the lower half. Up here the Army Corps of Engineers has built a series of dams with locks to create what they call pools in order to maintain a navigable depth of water for boat and barge traffic. With all of these impoundments I couldn’t use my old river pace to calculate how long it’d take me to reach Grafton because I had no idea just what kind of pace I could average in the slack water in the pools and faster flowing water below the dams.  Mike and Scott in this John boat ended up locking thru with me. They are on their way back from La Crosse where they spent the weekend for Scott's birthday.
After my parents dropped me off at the boat ramp at Wyalusing this morning, I set out for what was my first full day on the Upper Mississippi, anxious to see what sort of pace I could set. Well… after logging a 52 mile day, even with a later than normal start, I’m fairly sure I’ll be able to reach Grafton by the 11th. I didn’t necessarily want to go 52 miles. But the end of my standard 8 hours of paddling put me right at Lock 11. Once through the lock I was hoping to see nice sandy islands on which to camp like I’d seen up above but there were none. Instead I paddled a bit further on before settling for what turned out to be a great camp on a wooded island below Dubuque.  Rainy day on the Mississippi
It was a rainy and windy day on the water but I had fun just the same, and now that I know I can set the needed pace, I can relax and plan my next two weeks of paddling with more confidence. CommentsJenny 09/01/2010 6:46am
Have a safe finish ! Jenny 09/01/2010 6:48am
EEEEEEEEKKK !! I guess I'll take the last comment back..........lol! Steven Krause 09/01/2010 8:03am
At least you'll finish the trip before those sections of the rivers freeze up. Maybe this December they won't freeze up. Maybe it was your bad luck last December that you got frozen out right away. But we're sure of no ice in September. Except in Kool-Aid. Lyn Stachovak 09/01/2010 8:06am
You made great time. Hope this keeps up for you. Glad you found someplace nice to camp for the night too. My blue box is gone too. There for a while and now gone. Neil B 09/01/2010 8:27am
Jake, Lyn Stachovak 09/01/2010 9:03am
I think you may have issues with the Spot people again. The last entry was 6 days ago in Montello. jake 09/01/2010 8:52pm
No issues with the spot I think the battery was dead. Portage Dug 09/02/2010 4:27pm
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