The Envelope, Please...

For the Fall 2009 trip we are going to: the Red River.

This may come as a surprise to some of you considering how uncertain the river conditions are. It's true that we have planned and canceled at least two previous trips to the Red because of water levels.

But we're feeling lucky and the river goes down almost as fast as it goes up, so it will improve our chances of floating this beautiful river if we commit to it. We also have some (not yet fully developed) contingency plans in the area so if necessary we'll get creative about where we paddle. More about that later.

The strategy will be to go up Friday and be in a position to assess the river on Saturday morning. As you know, that system works best when we can stay overnight without having to get the tents and gear out.

It worked great on the Green River trip when we stayed at the turkey hunting lodge on Friday night...






And when we stayed at The Barn on a Friday in Spring of '08 we were able to redirect to Dale Hollow Lake on Saturday morning when the Sequatchie was still flooded...





So we'll do the same thing on this trip, except instead of just a barn on Friday night, we're going to take over an entire Robertson County farm.

This is it:



We'll have the whole thing to ourselves for a night. Bordered on three sides by the Red River.





With the farm comes a farm house (sleeps 12, not counting the porches):





Also numerous out buildings, barns, a farm pond and a farmer's daughter.

Beverage Manager: even though you're generally opposed to kegs, this might be the time to reconsider.

Shooters: bring some clay pigeons and a trap thrower.


Here is a high level view of the Red.



We're in the square shaped bend 1/3 in from the right. If you want to Google Earth it (which is fun), search for Adams, Tennessee and it's about five river miles upstream.


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