As I ate breakfast looked at the weather forecast for today. 15 mph gusting to 30mph….. uggh
Maybe I can play the hide and seek game trying to dodge it along the way? Open up my maps, direct headwind… zoom out…. River doesn’t really change direction….. keep zooming out…. Direct headwind all day.
I guess I’ll just hit the water and make the best of it. 25 miles in, my body said no more. Some of the waves today topped 6’ tall and large enough to get most of my 18’ boat out of the water before slamming into the trough of the next wave. I love wave trains, but it was a bit much today!
I found a campsite on the river for the night and set up camp. Shortly after, my friends started sending the storm photos of what is headed my way. I quickly broke down camp and found a little better shelter from the storm but it’s gonna be a long miserable night.
There is a guy (Llia Capefear) about 10 miles north of me trying to set the Guinness Book of World records for the fastest speed down the Mississippi River who is a paddling machine. Super nice guy and laying down a blistering pace.
I messaged him about the storm as we chat via text a couple times a day about the river etc. I have been trying to keep up with him but he is a rocket. He is going to get on the water at 5am, so I will break down camp and look for him to paddle past me at about 6:45am and join him for a paddle breakfast and then bid him farewell as he heads into the wind. Whatever his overall time is, he will have dealt with the maximum of what the river can dish out.
We have 3 more days of 25 mph winds gusting to 40mph before it mellows a bit. He will continue to grind, I may take a day or two off. This is my vacation 🙂
I burned just over 5000 calories today and just under 40,000 for the week. Ice cream anyone?
