The Rebel Rivers Canoe Club

Dos and Don'ts

2011-11-15T08:27:00.013-06:00

Ok, the Fall Trip wasn't perfect. There were some beers spilled when people had to lunge for their sunscreen on Saturday. And the princess in the front of my canoe said the accordion in the Duluth pack felt like a big square pea under her mattress.

But it was pretty close: weather, water level, mollusk hunting, food, music, all of it. Even so, the best time to think about what we can improve is always right after a trip. So before we go into the off-season, here are some things we learned about what to do and not do for the next one.

DO: Keep the new personal cup system.

DON'T: Keep the small coffee pot system.

DO: Serve the hot soup for lunch. And when it's matzo ball, the Loaves and Fishes keep things ecumenical.

DON'T: Serve giant turkey legs.

DO: Use the Grizzly Spit again.

DON'T: Use the Grizzly Spit as a reason not to have a kitchen fire.

DO: Replace the wobbly-legged cooking grate.

DON'T: Replace the crosscut saw with a chainsaw. Packing an extra cooler for severed feet and fingers will just add to our space problem. And a chainsaw will be like an alarm going off for nearby landowners. Even the friendly ones won't be so friendly if they think someone is cutting down trees on their property. Plus a chainsaw is just plain cheating. By the next trip, we promise to either have the Two Man Crosscut sharpened by a real expert, or get a new one, or both. Also, it looks like we should be using a saw lubricant (they sell special cutting oils, or we could use kerosene like the old timers, or Tim's Vagisil) and a wedge, both of which sound like things that might help a lot. Remember, there have been times when the crosscut saw worked great.

Read about lubricants:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/wilderness/training/training_docs/2010-winter-meeting/updated-crosscut-saw-lubrication.pdf

Read about wedges:

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf04232822/pdf04232822dpi72pt12.pdf

DO: Learn more gospel and cajun songs.

DON'T: Pretend you don't know "Blind Willie McTell."

DO: Bring the music stand.

DON'T: Forget the capo on the accordion songs.

DO: Appoint a special sub-committee on crap reduction to save space in the canoes.

DON'T: Save space on beer or tents. If you paddle a solo canoe, you deserve a solo tent if you want it. Consider eliminating bulky earplugs instead.

DO: Find the slow leaks in the jon boat. And a solution to the tilt release problem on the motor.

DON'T: Change a thing about the boat lights. The late night guys could see everything they needed on the ride down, and she was a gorgeous sight coming around the bend like the Electric Horseman.

DO: Use the buddy system for the jon boat. Two people is both the minimum and the maximum for the Green Mule.

DON'T: Use the buddy system for anything else.

DO: Bring the satellite radio again

DON'T: Jump off-sides on 4th and inches.

DO: Try to finish the last 100 yards without turning over.

DON'T: Bring up the construction on your street's water main just for something to say.

DO: Plan the Fall Trips the same weekend as the time change.

DON'T: Plan on going anywhere but the Duck River for awhile.

2011-11-14T09:25:00.002-06:00

If you have receipts, get them in. If you don't, watch here for your assessment and a date we can get together and talk about how good the weather and the paddling was.

2011-11-10T09:49:00.003-06:00

Even on a trip that good, the best part is always the beginning.

Year In Review

2011-11-08T09:05:00.000-06:00

D-parture Day

2011-11-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

I guess nobody needed to be told to check the weather forecast after waking up to rain this morning. And you were probably happy with what you saw! If you next started worrying about the river level, we think the amount of rain we got didn't last long enough to cause any concerns about that. In fact it might be just enough to help us glide (or motor) over the shallow spots. So as long as you don't do anything stupid like mix alcohol and boating, or travel at night, you should be fine.

Last minute items:

We are looking for the Paul Bunyon sized perk coffee pot. Did anyone take it home last time? Is it an artificial reef at the bottom of Big Swan Creek? If you have it, let us know ASAP.

This is the one:

Just to clarify: all drinks including drinking water are B.Y.O.B. The only water officially being brought by the Club is for cooking. Coffee is cooking, though.

Ok, that's it. Skip, Kirk, Phil and David we meet at 8:15 tomorrow. Josh will see us off so he can get the keys to the whole Green Mule rig, then he and Jack will pick up Stuart at 8:00 pm at the airport. The morning guys will pick up Jim at the WH on Charlotte on the way out of town. Rob and Vernon will be hanging out at the put-in.

_____________________________________________

October is the good month, in a normal year at least.

With luck, though, November can be all right. . . .

Goodbye to a River, p. 10.

Fish and Whistle

2011-11-01T22:42:00.009-05:00

The Other Jim is stuck in Cuba and won't make it back in time for the trip, so there will only be two departures now: early morning and late at night. For the morning guys, we are picking up The Other Other Jim at the Waffle House on the way down and both Rob and Vernon are meeting us at the put-in. That means there should only be four of us actually leaving with the trailer Saturday morning: Skip, David, Phil and Kirk. You guys try to get here by 8:15.

As always, virtually everything that is not considered personal camping gear will be provided or acquired by the Club: canoes, paddles, lifejackets, rain fly, lanterns, saws, shovels, kitchen equipment, plates, utensils, guitars, banjos, washtub bass and a tambourine for the hallelujahs and hare krishnas on "My Sweet Lord."

One new exception to that rule is that everyone on this trip and forever after shall now bring their own cup. We've just never been able to bring enough or the right kinds of cups for everybody so get yourself a good one and make it your personal drinking vessel every day for the entire trip. From coffee in the morning through whiskey in the evening. If you were lucky enough to hold on to one of the ribbed tin cups we got a year or two ago and it hasn't fallen apart or given you lead poisoning, you can use that. Or find one that expresses your own personal style and individual taste.

Summary of your packing list: camping gear, sharp knife, B.Y.O.B. and B.Y.O.Something-to-Pour-It-Into.

All of the food, of course, is in the "will be provided" category. The last unplanned menu, Saturday lunch, is also set now: specially ordered giant smoked turkey legs that until now could only be found at NASCAR races and renaissance faires.

Because they weigh in at 2 lbs. per leg, our only side item for Saturday lunch will be mustard.

Summary of menu: smoked whitefish and champagne for Friday lunch; brats and buns Friday night; cold breakfast and hot coffee Saturday morning; mutant turkey drumsticks Saturday lunch and Grizzly Spit prime rib for dinner. Sunday breakfast is all-night dutch oven coffee cake, bacon and more hot coffee.

Finally, this is optional, but you may also want to give serious consideration to bringing the fishing gear along. We are going to be on a river that has more species of fish (151) than all of Europe. More importantly, for just about the first trip ever we'll actually have time both days to try to catch them. And a real fishing boat for goodness sake. There's a whole episode of Tennessee Wildside called "Duck River Smallies" so that should tell you something.
http://www.tnwildside.org/stories.asp?Story=525">

We don't want to jinx it or anything, but we're bringing some oil and cornmeal this time just in case.

For no good reason I went down to the canoe and took out the spinning rod and made one cast, reeling the lure in fast as it swept down the quick smooth water. As I was lifting it out, a good bass took it with a splash and a twist and tore fifty feet of thin line off the reel before it slowed him. Then he gave up and came to a quiet backwater where I beached him - a black of about three pounds, long and slim as the river fish are likely to be.

Since the afternoon's two whites were still flapping strong on the clip chain, I turned them loose and fileted the black for supper, and it was dark. The lantern's gas was exhausted, but its hissing would have been harsh against the calm starry night anyhow; I cooked and ate by the fire's flicker and used the flashlight to put out a throwline and to get myself to bed. It was warm; the pup, finding me too efficient a heater, went off to sleep on my wadded pants.

Goodbye to a River, p. 105.

Schedule

2011-10-30T16:18:00.010-05:00

Group I (Friday Morning). Departure is 8:30 am. Currently that includes the following seven people: Skip, Rob, Vernon, Phil, Kirly, Jim and D. Fox. I will provide canoes for the first five. Jim and David, bring your canoes over sometime this week if you can and leave them beside the trailer.

Group II (Friday Afternoon). The other Jim plans to leave Nashville early afternoon in time to get to the campsite before dark and will get to the put-in by himself with his own canoe. If anyone in Group I can't make the morning launch, we can leave a canoe for you on the trailer at the put-in.

Group III (Friday Night). Jack and Josh will pick up Stuart at 8:00 pm and will drive straight from the airport to the put-in with the trailer and the truck. They should be at our camp site by midnight. Both Jack and Josh have now been fully trained on how to ride the Mule. They passed the driver's portion of the test this afternoon which requires trailering the boat to Cleece's Ferry boat ramp on the Cumberland, motoring one mile upstream to Rock Harbor Marina and successfully returning with a 12-pack of Bud Light. They also learned how to raise and lower the motor during the shallow sections and how to safely smoke a ready-roll sitting on a 6-gallon tank of gas.

Saturday Mule Riders. The advance kitchen team of Rob, Kirk and Phil will take the jon boat Saturday. The rest of us will float all day and arrive at our second campsite to find a roaring fire, stacks of firewood and the prime rib turning on the spit. Or all three of them passed out on the gravel bar.

Which reminds me: this trip is strictly B.Y.O.B. Plan accordingly.

Duck Season

2011-10-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

Turns out Vernon's ancestors have history here too, so this Duck River trip is going to be like one big family reunion. In the meantime, everybody who doesn't give a crap about our personal genealogies still needs to get oriented - because it looks like there will be at least three different put-in times. There's no guarantee you'll be paddling with one of us natives.

We're on the middle part of the Duck River.

We will be paddling all the way around Greenfield Bend (et tu, Jeff?) from Williamsport, Tennessee to just below the Natchez Trace Parkway which is a total of about 17 miles.

Our put-in is a first class, honest to goodness public boat ramp at the Williamsport bridge. It is exactly 3.0 road miles east of the Natchez Trace on Highway 50. It is open 24/7 which is important for our multi-stage launch, and true luxury for a club that is one trip removed from 24/7 trespassing.

Our take-out under the Natchez Trace bridge would have required a lot more effort - and a lot more trespassing - until Vernon secured our alternate spot a mile downstream. We don't know if there will be trailer access there, but that's no problem because there is another public boat ramp at Littlot Bridge a mere 8 miles farther. Which is nothing for a Mule.

Meanwhile Josh, a diligent map gazer, noticed we will be paddling right past Jackson Falls in Greenfield Bend.

As previously mentioned, the falls are named after Andy Jackson when he took a little bacon and he took a little beans, and fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans. However, every single thing ever published about Jackson Falls uses the word "intermittent" in the description which means on a November canoe trip it's probably not going to look like that picture. Plus, it's not visible from the river.

So, Josh, it still might be worth setting your beer down to hike up the outlet stream to see it, but it's not like you'll be doing this again:

Before My Time But I've Been Told

2011-10-21T11:30:00.007-05:00

At-a-vism. n. (ă't-ә-vĭz'm )
[French atavisme, from Latin atavus, ancestor : atta, father + avus, grandfather; see awo- in Indo-European roots.]

1. The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes.
2. The return of a trait or recurrence of previous behavior after a period of absence.
3. Same as my daddy and his daddy before.

We've gone back to the Duck River more times, by far, than any other river. Maybe there's a reason we hadn't thought about much before - especially on this section.

Great-great-granddaddy Felix K. Zollicoffer (the first Confederate general killed in the Civil War) grew up on the Duck River in Maury County just upstream from our put-in at Williamsport:

He married great-great-grandma Louisa Pocahontas Gordon (supposedly descended from her middle-namesake) who was born and raised right at our take-out:

At river mile 98, at the mouth of Fattybread Creek:

Louisa's father (therefore another great-etc.-grandfather) was John Gordon. He built that house that is now a rest stop on the Natchez Trace:

Gordon House on Natchez Trace Parkway

(So shouldn't we rightfully be able to just sleep there Saturday night?)

John Gordon also ran a ferry across the Duck River there, and, among other adventures, ferried Andrew Jackson and his men across the river. Just before they passed Jackson Falls on their way to the Battle of New Orleans.

For some reason there's a big plaque for him hidden in plain sight in front of the Custom's House in downtown Nashville. It gets about the same number of hits per day as his great, great, great grandson's blog.

But the best explanation for why we keep going back - whether we knew it or not - may be in General Zollicoffer's official biography:

A granddaughter who was reared by Mrs. Gordon wrote an interesting account of her early life at Gordon's Ferry. She referred to her grandmother as "the widowed young wife with a family of eight children, battling and struggling among the canebreaks, with no neighbors save the Indians." She spoke of learning her ABCs from between the lids of the family Bible, and of the children playing with their dusty companions, the little Negroes, hunting chestnuts and scalybarks with which the woods abounded.

Years later the Gordon home, a brown brick house said to have been one of the most elegant in Hickman County, became a mecca for the grandchildren who returned each summer to spend their vacation at Grandma's. Here, both young and old rode horseback over the Indian trails, paddled up and down Duck River in "Uncle Scip's" canoe and swam at the shaded beach where Fatty Bread Creek flows into the river.

The Zollie Tree, Raymond E. Myers, pp. 18-19.

______________________________________________________

In general, I think Davis Birdsong likes the changes that are taking place. He hasn't been fenced off from their fruits. The old way was cob-rough on him and his, back through his parents to his old grandmother, who was another thing and had seen The People in the time before the cedar. . . . He recalls years when his wife had to make her housedress out of flour sacks, and the milk for his kids was short. That's past now. He prospers reasonably from the change, and his razor-minded son will go to college.

And yet his gaze can turn back, too. Not long ago he and I went to look over a lost 140 acres on a dry creek, far back in the cedar. After the road to it played out at a wash, we left the pickup and walked, and along the way we came on a place with junk scattered around and a concrete well curb and the tumbled fire-blackened stones of a foundation and a fireplace under a pecan tree. Davis stopped, and grunted.

"What?" I said.

"Nothin'," he answered, and leaning over stared down the dark eight-inch tube of the well, crisscrossed at its mouth with ragged spiderwebs. Davis said: "Went dry."

"You can't tell just looking like that," I said. "It might be a deep one."

"Used to run over like a sprang," he said. "Hit was artesian."

"You knew it."

"I reckon," Davis said. "I growed up where you see them rocks. . . ."

We walked on parallel to the dry creek, ascending, but the ghost place had reached him and he felt like talking.

"We didn't have nothin'," he said. "I mean, nothin'. Two mules and a wagon to rattle into town with ever' two weeks haulin' a load of posts. A ridin' horse, wind-broke. Some old pieces of arn you could farm with, a little. Choppin' cedar. Putt coal oil on ever'body when they got hurt or sick. Coal oil on a cut. Coal oil on a rag on your neck if you tuck down with flu . . . But you know somethin'?"

"What?"

"We didn't live bad," he said. "They was a garden patch under that artesian well and it'd grow might near anythang. I mean. And we kept a cow most of the time, and hogs. Good house. Plenty of wood to burn in winter. And old Maw she kept thangs right."

He lingered. He said: "I bought Louise a warshin' machine last week."

"Save a lot of work," I said.

"Yeah," he said, but kept looking around on the crumbling white soil beneath the cedars.

"God damn it!" he said finally.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothin'. Just God damn it . . . "

Goodbye to a River, pp. 269-73.

Traveler's Advisory

2011-10-19T11:35:00.012-05:00

Reservations for the late night sailing of the Green Mule are now CLOSED. All seats are taken and then some. It's already going to be pretty crowded.

The rest of us are putting in EARLY that Friday morning, so if you cannot make it then we will leave a canoe on the trailer at the put-in and you can paddle down in the afternoon. Allow three hours to get to the campsite and make sure you arrive with plenty of daylight left. The sun sets at 5:49 pm on Friday, November 4. Fortunately, Daylight Savings doesn't end until Sunday, November 6 this year.

River Runner

2011-10-18T14:30:00.002-05:00

We just found (and bought) (but have not installed) at least part of the solution to our shallow water problem.

Because we plan to go "where no prop has dared!"

It also protects manatees in case we run over one on the Duck River.

~~

Grizzly Spit for Dinner

2011-10-17T13:55:00.018-05:00

The Saturday night menu is shaping up, as it usually does about this time before a trip. The portable rotisseries just arrived for the prime rib. Check out the video but don't get Rob started about Sue...

Possession of your own, personal sharp knife is mandatory for the prime rib and just for showing your face on any RRCC trip for that matter. We'll also have Minnesota wild rice and mushroom casserole, smothered green beans, cornbread and dutch oven cobbler.

Friday lunch: smoked whitefish and cheap champagne.

Friday dinner will be our traditional brats on rolls over the grill.

We need ideas (read: volunteers) for both breakfasts and for Saturday lunch. Step right up.

Under Thirty Days

2011-10-11T11:11:00.017-05:00

Time to turn our full attention to the business of the fall trip.

As far as the menu, the central dish is going to be something on a slow rotisserie over the kitchen fire - a method we have surprisingly never tried before.

The original plan was to go whole hog.

But then we realized all we really wanted was to be able sit in our camp chairs and hypnotize ourselves watching it turn all day. That can be done just as easily with a size XL cut of meat without having to ride down the river with a giant pig head. So it is going to be prime rib on Saturday night cooked on the "Grizzly Spit Camp Rotisserie System," shown here complete with hypnosis chair:

The paddle Saturday is not long so we'll be setting up the rotisserie early afternoon and settle in for the rest of the day.

Extreme Makeover: The Jon Boat Episode

2011-10-06T14:40:00.007-05:00

~

~

The Actual Canoeing Part of the Trip

2011-10-05T10:22:00.015-05:00

Obviously tonight is about the jon boat but it will probably also be our only pre-trip meeting so here's a map of the section of the Duck we're doing:

It's 16 easy miles from the Williamsport Bridge to the Natchez Trace Parkway. You can click on that map to expand it.

Notice the excellent Paddle-to-Drive ratio of the shuttle. Mile for mile it has got to be one of the best in Tennessee; maybe even better than the Narrows of the Harpeth although we'll have to run that comparison through the RRCC computers.

The take-out at the Natchez Trace is "dodgy" (pronounced in the Ian way) and, depending on your tolerance for trespassing sometimes requires a rugged "portage" (pronounced in the french way). Our tolerance is high, especially when it means avoiding a portage. But Vernon claims he has a friend who knows someone whose second cousin once met someone who has another friend that might have some river property a couple of miles downstream from the bridge and he (Vernon) is going to point it out to us on the map tonight. That wouldn't even count as trespassing under RRCC rules.

5:00. Sportsman's Lodge. See you there.

Boats to Build

2011-10-02T18:59:00.022-05:00

October 5 is National Jon Boat Day in Franklin and we are all geared up.

Be at the Sportsman's Lodge in Williamson County at 5:00 sharp on Wednesday and be ready to drink and wire.

If you look carefully you will notice The Mule has been to The Lodge before.

That's because The Lodge is on a straight line between its old home in Columbia, Tennessee and its new home at the RRCC.

It makes us happy knowing it came from Columbia because the Duck River runs right through downtown. That means we at least know its suitable for the fall trip, since that's probably the only river it's ever been on.

And we like this about it too:

http://muleday.org/

~

Big Swan Creek Revisited

2011-09-29T16:59:00.002-05:00

He either camped on the wrong gravel bar, or they haven't looked in Pee Wee's yet.

2011-09-27T14:38:00.001-05:00

What I think is you should come down for the Jon Boat workshop next week.

Pope John Boat II

2011-09-25T17:35:00.004-05:00

We tested the new boat on its first shallow river and experienced some discomfort in our rear end that has been traced to a case of Severely Acute Transom Syndrome.

Maybe that's Severely Obtuse. Anyway, our transom is not vertical and it means our propeller will be doing some serious ass-dragging on the rocky shoals of the Duck River if we don't fix it, especially because we have a long shaft motor (like the RRCC would ever have anything else). Normally we could just adjust the motor angle but because of the transom shape we can't get enough trim (like the RRCC ever could).

Here is an update of what we'll need for the other boat improvements. Most of the supplies have already been gathered, but everybody needs to bring a bunch of tools, especially whatever power saws are best to notch out the plywood. No clue on that. By the way, we removed the forward swivel seat because it suggested a kind of leisureliness that was just not proper for a work boat like the Green Mule. We can decide if we are going to take out the stern one when we are all together on Jon Boat Day October 5th.

Floor - parts and supplies:

Cardboard for templates
3/4" plywood (two 4x8 sheets)
Wood supports
Weather stripping
Thompson's waterseal
Marine carpet
Carpet fasteners/staples
Carpet glue

Floor - tools:

Scissors, box cutters, tape and markers for template
Table saw
Band saw (or jig saw?)
Sanders
Saw horses
Paint brushes
Throw tarp
Staple gun or carpet fastener
Drill and bits
Extension cords
Screwdrivers
Real screwdrivers

Electrical - parts and supplies:

Rocker switch panel
Mount for switch panel
Wire (different gauges)
Screws and attachments
Silicone sealant
Port (red) and starboard (green) side navigation lights
Stern (white) all-around, pole-mount navigation light
Cigarette lighter accessory plug for spotlights (and cigarettes)
Trolling motor cables and clamps

Electrical - tools

Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Real strippers
Drill and bits
Extension cords

Accessories

Automotive console cup holders to mount on carpeted floor
Foam lining to convert live well into built-in cooler
New trailer wheels and possibly wheel bearings
Replacement trailer rope
Gunwale and transom trailer straps
Deep cycle marine battery

If you think of anything else post it in the Comments or just bring it.

Boat Party is Oct. 5

2011-09-15T22:29:00.011-05:00

Jon Boat Improvement Day will be Wednesday, October 5 at Phil's Cool Springs Canoe Trailer Storage and Dry Dock. There is real work to be done and it's going to take some time, so plan to go straight to Sportsman's Lodge right after work where we'll roll out the blueprints before heading over to the warehouse.

Someone tell Frieda to tell Jim to look at these pictures we found on the interweb. This is one of the things on our To Do list:

______________

Three or four philosophers in bib overalls with brown juice in the corner of their mouths regarded me as I dumped the pup on the floor. Countrymen are usually unfond of dogs indoors, but I was tired of carrying him and didn't trust him alone outside by the highway. Their gazes told me that I was dirty even by their standards which by open evidence was not effete.

"Kind of motor you usin'?" the owner said. Four sets of hairy philosophical ears radared toward me.

"Canoe," I said.

And saw a quintuplicate reproduction of the expression on the face of the little man at Possum Kingdom dam.

"Tippy damn things," the owner said.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 120-21.

In the News

2011-09-11T17:05:00.007-05:00

Stuart talks about the jon boat in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/computer-generated-articles-are-gaining-traction.html

Pimp My Jon Boat

2011-09-06T21:19:00.006-05:00

We are going to have a boat workshop to get The Mule ready to whisk Stuart and the other Night Rangers down the river for a Friday arrival. We will do it at the warehouse (right, Phil?) just like our maintenance and repair party a couple of years ago.

The main jobs will be to install floors over the exposed ribs for maximum cooler stacking - and wire up regulation lights for night running.

A short, thin man in a Stetson, seam-faced, came out and looked at us and at the canoe on the car, opened the gate, and showed curiosity and a willingness to talk. November is a quiet month for sociable people at lakes. . . .

"All by yourself?" he said. "Without no motor?"

I said yes.

He looked disgusted and, walling his eyes across the lake, said as though to a fourth, disinterested person that he'd never had no use for canoes, not even in summer.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 17-18.

The Green Mule

2011-09-01T15:11:00.008-05:00

Here is the big news for 2011:

The RRCC has a motorboat. And we intend to use it.

It all began when Stuart committed to the Fall Trip but can't make it down until late Friday night November 4. There are others who can't make it in time for a morning departure either - and since it will be a full day paddling on Friday it will be too far to take a canoe down to the campsite in the dark the way Rob did on the Eleven Point River. But...what if we had a big, flat-bottom jon boat? ...With an outboard? ...And a spotlight?

That was just the excuse we've been looking for. Because the RRCC needed one of these things years ago without ever knowing it. Now, we not only have the perfect vehicle for Midnight Riders, we have solved the problem of the overloaded canoes forever.

Bikers call it a "Sag Wagon": http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-sag-wagon.htm

A sag wagon is a support vehicle for cyclists. As a general rule, cyclists on tour call the vehicle a sag wagon, while racers prefer the term “broom wagon.” In either case, the sag wagon can be a vital part of the team which support cyclists along their journey. On long tours and trips, many cyclists grow quite attached to the sag wagon and its drivers, thanks to the comfort that the sag wagon provides.

The origins of the term “sag wagon” are a topic for debate. Some cyclists believe that it is an acronym for “Support and Gear” or “Support Aid Group.” Others suggest that it may be related to distressed or weary cyclists “sagging”, or trailing behind the pack. In either case, the sag wagon can be a lifesaver for cyclists, since it carries everything from water to medical supplies. Many of the staff on board are cyclists themselves, sitting out an event for various reasons or simply enjoying the opportunity to help out.

Usually, the touring sag wagon takes the form of a large, sturdy van or truck. It is designed to hold food for the cyclists, along with camping gear and other equipment. The sag wagon may drive ahead to the night's designated camping spot, so that the cyclists are welcomed to a fully set up camp when they arrive. In other cases, the sag wagon trails slightly behind, keeping an eye on the cyclists and picking up stragglers who may need a brief break from the open road.

Using a sag wagon for a bicycling tour allows the tour group to include a wide range of cyclists at varying levels of physical condition. The wagon can carry the bulk of the cyclists' luggage, making the bikes much lighter and more easy to handle. It also brings along a sense of home, and since a van can carry far more food than a bicyclist can, it usually indicates that good supplies will be less spartan than they might be on an unsupported trip.

In racing, the broom wagon specifically seeks out cyclists who may need medical attention or a rest. The broom wagon meanders through the course route slowly, making sure that stragglers are cared for and meeting the needs of cyclists who may need anything from more water to a lift, so that they can withdraw from the race if they are experiencing physical problems. Staff on the broom wagon usually have medical training so that they can evaluate cyclists in distress.

Cowboys never called it a Sag-anything. They called it a mule. They figured out a long time ago that if you're going to be hauling cast iron cookware, bottles of whiskey and guitars, you better get a mule.
So we did.

2011-08-29T17:17:00.004-05:00

While we have no regrets about the Swan Creek adventure last spring, some kind of sixth Rebel instinct tells us the Club is looking for something a little slower, wider and less populated this fall. That's one of the reasons we're headed for the middle section of the Duck. There are other good reasons we'll share with you soon, but for now rest assured this won't be a Bold Journey. At least not because of the river.

Standing there at the low bridge after we'd loaded the canoe, I doubted the dark sky, and the bite of the wind and its ruffle on the water; and under that grayness even the rapids below, rolling now with the two gates open above, looked sullen and dangerous.

But rivers tend to look that way when you start a trip, and so does the ocean when you clear the breakwaters and hit the gray swells, headed out on a cruise. . . . They say our protoplasm, the salt of its juices the same still as sea water's, yearns back toward that liquid that brewed it, and I guess that may be so, but the air-breathing, land-walking structure the protplasm molded itself into sometimes argues otherwise. Familiarity helps, as the skin divers know, and living beside the sea you lose the caution and can swim out daily a half-mile or more to float bobbing for hours with the slow rise and fall of the big, smooth-crested waves. I've done that, and then have left the sea for a few months, and, returning, have found the fear there again, to be fought down again.

It's the same with a rolling, roaring river. I didn't want a Bold Journey; I wanted the quiet Brazos, and it wasn't there. . . .

Goodbye to a River, pp. 13-14.

Welcome to the Fall Season.

2011-08-28T15:35:00.012-05:00

The answers are:

November 4 - 6.
Duck River from Williamsport to Natchez Trace bridge.
On the river both nights.
Why yes, as a matter of fact we did once again acquire something large and metal in the off-season that will change the way the RRCC travels. Thank you for asking.

Brush up on your malacology

Change of Venue GRANTED

2011-04-27T11:17:00.004-05:00

Meet at Savarino's on Belcourt at 7 tonite.

2011-04-26T21:50:00.001-05:00

How fitting that it's going to rain tomorrow.

As you are well aware, we don't cancel trips because of weather, but we have been known to change destinations - like when we called an audible on the Sequatchie River and moved it to Dale Hollow Lake.

That worked out pretty well, so with an 80% chance of severe thunderstorms we will probably move the post-trip meeting tomorrow night from Phil's backyard to Savarino's upstairs.

We will make the decision no later than noon tomorrow. If it's at Savarino's it will be same time - 7:00 pm - but BYOB and you can order dinner there. We'll post the final decision here.

Post-Trip Post-Morten is This Week!

2011-04-20T20:42:00.001-05:00

We will treat Swan Creek as a non-revenue generating trip for the Club, which means you only have to pay actual costs for the privilege of getting terrorized Deliverance-stlye by the rednecks on the ridge in the rain.

The total for the trip was $878.19. With nine people that's $97.58 per head. So everybody who actually floated bring a Benjamin to the post-trip party at Phil's this week (ok, so we're making money afterall).

We will gather at Phil's at 7:00 pm this Wednesday. Come join even if you didn't make it on the spring trip because we'll have a double feature slide show (Fall 2010 and Spring 2011) AND will preview the Fall 2011 river, which is a lot bigger than Swan Creek. A lot bigger.

Here are the directions from Phil, written in a language only Rob will understand.

Directions to the Wednesday House

If coming from the north, you’ll find yourself wanting to make your way to Hillsboro Road. For you urbanites, Hillsboro Road is merely a southern extension of 21st Avenue. Although the transition is demarcated effectively by the 440 Parkway crossing, you can feel confident that you’ve advanced from 21st onto Hillsboro when you notice improved spacing between ambulances and a paucity of be-spandexed fat women.

About the time that traffic comes to a complete standstill, you’ll wish you had taken the western flank known as Estes Road or the eastern assault known as Belmont Boulevard. But don’t be discouraged. Instead, don your best William Tecumseh Sherman grimace, and barrel-ass right through the heart of Green Hills. I love doing that.

Once you notice the Bluebird Café on your left and think to yourself, ‘jesus, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to the Bluebird Café and I’m damn glad cause it really wasn’t that great’, I recommend getting well-acquainted with your trip odometer. In fact, go ahead and ratchet it down 0.0, because below I will make some rather nuanced and highly generalized references to distances between landmarks and turns that may or may not seem important and damn sure won’t require use of an odometer.

Shortly further south on Hillsboro, you may sense that you’ve seen a youth sporting event - basketball, maybe baseball or soccer - somewhere near here. Take comfort in that – it means there aren’t any meth dealers watching you pass by. Next, begin to look for the large buffalo in a field toward the west. Turn left at the traffic light immediately after you see the buffalo.

If you see horses in a field to the west before you see the buffalo, you’ve gone way too far and should probably stop on the roadside to wait for Vernon’s northbound Primm Springs Express.
If, however, you made the left turn at the buffalo, proceed forward until you reach the first public road on your right. Make that turn and proceed forward until you reach the first public road on your right. Make that turn and proceed forward until you reach the first public road on your right. Make that turn. Really. At that point, you are welcome to park in the first driveway on your left, or along the street, where it will not at all be difficult to find a spot.

If you are coming from the south, I have every confidence you’ll have no trouble finding the place. 2001 Otter Valley Lane.

Really Important Notes:
1. The white dog, Danger, is sweet, kind, and couldn’t hurt any creature with a stable set of eardrums (she barks a lot).
2. The black dog is sweet and kind -- to his family – and bites others. He would like nothing more than to sink his teeth into an eloquence of lawyers. Heed this advice. By arriving at the post-trip party destination at the scheduled date and time, you warrant that you fully and completely indemnify the homeowner and dogowner of any liability whatsoever.
3. The black dog likes to hump sheepdogs, which is pretty cool.
Great scot, you have to be careful when you google-image “hump a sheepdog”. But you bastiges probably knew that.
4. Telephone number for lost souls is 3001540

Editor's Note. The file that arrived at RebelRivers.com with these directions had some placeholders for images that say "QuickTime and a decompressor are needed to open this picture," both of which are things that you can only find in Phil's warehouse so you're not going to see them here. Pictures of General Sherman making a sheepdog squeal like a pig wouldn't have made it past your firewall anyway.

Post-Trip Meeting

2011-04-08T11:00:00.003-05:00

We have two trips to post-meet about and Phil has offered up his backyard Iron John drum circle fire pit for the event. So we will gather at Phil's the night of Wednesday, April 27. If the Creek don't rise.

Way Down Upon the Swan-ny River...

2011-04-01T09:23:00.005-05:00

The Unstoppable RRCC

2011-03-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

Rain
Rising water
Barbed wire across the river
Psycho-property-rights-hillbilly landowners on the ridge tops

And another great trip.

You don't need good weather if you've got good people. Thanks, everybody, for making it a pleasure once again, and get ready for a blow-out post trip meeting soon.

At around two o'clock the rain stopped, and though the outdoors was mainly sodden red mud and a sullen sky, I decided the worst was over. I called Hale and caught him loose, and argued him past his wife's objections by promising to get him to Dennis bridge by the following night.

He was a good friend and an old one and the best kind of company. We were camped sloppily on a loose-sand shore a mile or so below Old Man Willett's, with willows furnishing a leaky break against the continuing cold northeast wind. The river was high and wide and thickly brown, and made angry noises in the dark against snags and the roughness of its banks. Hale had brought steaks and some good whisky, which we were drinking out of enamel cups with honey and lemon and water while we waited for the fire to make coals.

He'd put out a trotline, a quarter-inch nylon cord from shore to shore with maybe twenty hooks, baited variously. The big cats bite most willingly in a rising muddy stream. I'd helped him set it, fighting the brown shove of the river and watching for the drifting logs that can toss a boat end over end, but had told him that if he wanted to run it during the night not to wake me. Now, restless, he emptied his cup and took the lantern, loud and functional again with white gas he'd brought, and went down to check it alone, absorbed in the bow of the canoe, pulling himself across hand over hand and examining the stagings as he went. Against the night the lantern made a clear bright circular picture of Hale and the canoe's curving bow and the hard-rushing brown water. I wrapped potatoes and stuck them in the fire and got the grill ready to use. Hale came back grinning, the lantern in one hand and his chain stringer in the other, with a six-pound channel cat and a couple of others that looked to be maybe three pounds each.

"My breakfast," he said. "Them as works, eats."

The steaks were plump; garlicked and seared over glowing oak, they came out fine, and when we'd eaten we had coffee and smoked and talked about the days when we'd gone out to the mouth of Falls Creek in Hood County with big black Bill Briggs, Hale's family's chauffeur and yardman and occasional cook. Hale agreed that they had been the size of telephone poles, the tree trunks that Bill had lifted and carried over to drop across the fire.

The wind, quite naturally, as though it had intended all along to do so, started bringing horizontal thin rain, so cold that it seemed it should be snow; and in fact, I knew when a fleck hit my cheekbone and slid down to where beard stubble stopped it, it partly was snow. We tarped things and tumbled into the little tent. Hale had unrolled a fancy down bag on the windward side, which was sagging, its stakes unfirm in the sand. After I'd lain there for a while and was nearly asleep, I heard him cursing under his breath.

"What?"

"Leak," he said.

The flashlight showed a drip from the down-curving sag of a seam, and a dark stain on his sleeping bag. We rolled out into the night, all wet snow now, and pulled the stakes tight and pounded them deep into the sand, trampling it down on top of them and finding stones to put on the trampled spots. It was tight then, but the snow was piling up against it, and I knew that having started it would probably keep on leaking. I offered to flip a coin to see who slept on that side. We did. I won, and lay down again on the good side and slept well except when, from time to time, I woke to hear him thrashing and blaspheming in his bag. Once when I did I said: "Hale?"

"Yeah?"

"Hale," I said, "how come you don't go run that line? . . ."

In the morning it was worse, still snowing, the ground a mass of melting slush and patches of dirty golden sand showing through. I stayed in the sack, as was my policy with weather. So did Hale, and slept a little finally; it had not been so much wetness as the first-night-out insomnia that had bothered him, most of the water having run off onto the tent floor beneath his air mattress.

Finally at about eleven he woke up and reminded me that I'd promised to get him to Dennis by night. It wasn't far, but on the other hand we were bound to move slowly. . . . Outside, the thick wet snow plastered itself to us, and having lost my raincoat somewhere upstream I soon got soaked through a "water-repellent" jacket. While I gathered wood, fishing for it with numbed, hurting hands beneath mounds of snow, stumbling on numbed, hurting, wet feet, Hale built a fire. It took him thirty minutes to get it going even with gasoline, and when he did, a willow branch bowed down with slow grace and deposited a load of snow in its exact middle, and put it out. Later, when we had it burning again and a pot of sugared fruit bubbling on it, nearly ready, I raised my foot too high as I passed and dropped a thick glob of wet sand from my boot sole into the pot.

I looked at it, aware that seldom in my life had I wanted food as I had wanted that hot sugared fruit. Not even those beans on the island . . .

Hale started laughing. So did I, and remembered with a clarity that I hadn't felt till then exactly why it was that he was good company, out. It was an awful day. The tent pulled together into a collapsed double-pointed lump finally from the weight of the snow on it. My old shotgun, left in the canoe, gushed water out both barrels when I picked it up. A drifting snag carried away Hale's trotline, entire. We got coffee and fruit at last, and stood by the fire steaming ourselves for a couple of hours, and then, the snow thicker than ever, hit the brown river miserably, the pup a shivering sullen protuberance under the tarp.

I remember most clearly of all the feel of melted snow crawling down the hollow of my back and between my buttocks, and I told him, to put it on record, that if it hadn't started clearing by the time we reached Dennis I was going to pull out too, for the year.

But the snow stopped not long before we came in sight of the 1892, plank-and-iron, one-way bridge, and blue sky showed behind us in the west, and at last the yellow setting sun. Soggy, we went into the old ser sta gro there and braved the stares of another set of philosophers while I bought some things I needed.

Outside again, Hale grinned. "When you think up another good joke, you be sure and call me," he said.

"You picked the worst of it," I told him.

"Picked, hell. Was picked."

But it was a measure of how much like me he was in certain childishnesses that he looked wistful as he stood by his car beside the rusty cotton gin, the stringer with its catfish in his hand, and watched us move off downriver. Wistful was the only word for how he looked. The pup stuck his nose out from under the tarp and looked back at Hale until willows intersected the line of sight between us. . . .

Goodbye to a River, pp. 182-89.

The Final Countdown

2011-03-24T13:44:00.000-05:00

Headcount

10 on the river Saturday
12 - 14 Friday night

Travel

In case you missed the essential info for Friday it is all here: CLICK

We're assuming eveyone has figured out how they're going to get there. It sounds like there will be a quorum at Pee's Wee's by 3:00.

Drinks

In case you missed the announcement from the "Manage Not to Bring Any Beverages Manager," the whole weekend is BYOB except for a bloody screwdriver break on the river Saturday. Bring your own iced-down coolers and if we see an opportunity to consolidate when we're at the put-in we will leave extra coolers in the trailer. On Friday, of course, there are no space issues and you can even bring bottles for Friday as long as you promise to use the bottle openers on the trailer.

Kitchen

Nobody has touched the dutch ovens or the Big Daddy skillet since we got off the Eleven Point River last fall. In fact, nobody had even looked inside them until last night and it wasn't pretty. At least we'll have something to do Friday night.

Paddling

As the name suggests, Big Swan Creek is plenty big, just not large enough to be a river. Like a Little Village (motherfucker!). Maps will be distrubited at Pee Wee's, but we will be putting in at the bridge at Horse Branch Road (A) and taking out Sunday at Raleigh Chapel Road (B), both of which are off of Big Swan Creek Road south of Centerville in Hickman County. The total float is 7.5 miles. From the put-in it's about 6 miles to our Saturday campsite, so it will be a leisurely float on Saturday and very short one to the take-out on Sunday.

Also

If you're really organized, you might throw in a pair of heavy work gloves - this river is known to have barbed wire across it in a couple of places. Not that we learned that the hard way or anything....

~

The Food Issue

2011-03-23T07:05:00.002-05:00

From Roy:

"The dinner Friday night will be Frogmore Stew. Richard Gay of Gay Seafood Company claimed to have invented Frogmore Stew. On National Guard duty in Beaufort about 40 years ago, he was preparing a cookout of leftovers for his fellow guardsmen. He brought the recipe home with him, and it soon became popular in this area. According to Gay, the Steamer Restaurant on Lady's Island was the first establishment to offer Frogmore Stew commercially, almost 20 years ago. Gay campaigned to have Frogmore Stew declared the official seafood dish of South Carolina, but the recipe remains an "unofficial" delight."

"The Steamer" in Beaufort, South Carolina

Fom Phil:

"Saturday is Southwestern Night:
Southwest Caesar Salad
Beef Fillets with Tomatillo-Chipolte Sauce
Grilled Bread with Sun-dried Tomato Campfire Spread made with RRCC Warehouse Meat Grinder (don't ask)
Roasted Green Beans."

From Tim:

"This will be a BYOB trip. That means you are responsible for all beverages except for my bloody screwdriver bar, including but not limited to scotch, beer, whiskey, bourbon, vodka, wine, coke, water, tab, mr. pibb, fresca, red bull, 5 hour energy drink, apple juice, lemonade, root beer, etc. and river snacks. Coffee (and coffee maker), however, will be provided."

From F. Kirk:

"I have taken the liberty of preparing a laceration repair kit. This is in case someone gets overly anxious with the cross-cut saw or rams their cheek into a boat prow and needs to be repaired. This would allow a lengthy detour to the ER. I will be properly anesthetized."

From Stuart:

"You may recall that I recently accepted the position of Club Videographer (http://rrcc.blogspot.com/2008/11/work-day.html). I just wanted to let everyone know that as part of that job I will be wearing a Helmet Cam this year.

Not just on the river. I will be wearing the Helmet Cam the whole weekend and it will be streamed live on RebelRivers.Com. Uninterrupted and unedited."

The Music Issue

2011-03-22T11:00:00.003-05:00

PICKERS: go ahead and bring your good guitars for Friday night since we're staying in a real house. They can go back to Nashville with Rob before we get on the river in the morning. For Saturday it looks like we'll have about 5-½ players so let's say we need three river guitars. Old Glory is one. Post in the comment section below if you think you can bring another.

GRINNERS: we'll have the squeezebox, plus Roy and his one red glove back on the WTB. We should be at full orchestra on this trip.

_____________________________________________________

If you want to learn chord changes ahead of time, here are some new songs we're planning to work up. Even better, someone could actually learn the words, which always seems to be the absolute lowest priority.

1. Ophelia, The Band.

Chords and lyrics here.

Listen to it here.

2. Goodbye's All We've Got Left to Say, Steve Earle

Lyrics here.

Chords are just D, G, A drunken power strumming.

Listen to it here.

3. Cherry Bomb, John Mellencamp.

Chords and lyrics here.

Note that most sites, including this one, say "That's whan a sport was a sport" instead of "That's when a smoke was a smoke" which is just wrong in so many ways they ought to get kicked off the internet. You will get kicked out of the RRCC if you sing it that way, we don't care what the original lyrics really were.

Listen to it here:

4. Salt of the Earth, Rolling Stones.

Roy, tune your Washtub Bass to Open E.

Chords and lyrics here.

Don't listen to it, watch it, so you'll remember to pack your foul weather gear. 40% chance of showers on Saturday.

Finally, Vernon, feel free to post the chords to some of those panty-dropper songs you're so good at and we'll see if we can't lure a few Centerville girls down from Sassafras Ridge.

Hale always claimed, and still does, that those other girls that time were solid in their intentions toward us, and that I botched it. He seems still to feel strongly about it. . . .

As I remember, we were walk-fishing in the limestone country below Granbury, ranging down the river afoot from camp at some farmer's pay picnic ground, wading the long shallow stretches in tennis shoes and climbing over the boulders beside the pools. The girls, older than we, were sitting under a cottonwood by their car with cold beer in an ice bucket; laughing, they offered us some, and Hale swilled two bottles in succession, declaring that he was an old beer drinker. I drank one, and since I was empty and hot it dizzied me, nor did I like its bitterness. The girls started a kind of banter that made me jumpy even without my understanding much of it. Hale answered with some truck-driver talk from a humburger stand we frequented, and in a while one of the girls slapped him and started wrestling with him in the sand, laughing.

"Let's fish some more, Hale," I said.

His answer was muffled but negative.

The girl with him sat up, tugging her blouse straight. She said: "You ain't nothin' but kids!"

"Agnes, you old bat," her friend said. "Fred and them'll be waitin'."

Hale was in favor of wrestling some more, but got slapped in earnest, hard, and sat back. Then they were in the car with their bucket and driving away, their laughter trailing back at us out of the window. Hale said, with surprise, that he felt terrible, and proved it by being sick. . . .

Goodbye to a River, pp. 107-08.

Minor Details (Like Where and When)

2011-03-20T22:20:00.005-05:00

As previously mentioned, we won't be gathering in any official way in Nashville before this trip, so you have a few options for meeting up Friday afternoon.

OPTION 1 is to come to the airport with those of us who are picking up Stuart at 1:15. We will be headed straight out of town from there, probably in a big hurry because every Homeland Security officer and TSA agent has a picture of our trailer in their file.

OPTION 2 is to bushwhack it to Rob's place on your own any time you want. Below are written directions from I-40 (the first document) and from the Natchez Trace (the second document). The third document is a crazy treasure map he drew complete with "tricky triangles" and dangerous sounding pits. But the written versions will get you there and have the familiar sound of Rob talking non-stop in your ear from the back seat.

Directions to Fri House FROM I-40_RRCC_Spring 2011

Directions to Fri House From Natchez Trace_rrcc_spring 2011

Directions FRI HOUSE

OPTION 3 (recommended) is to meet up at Pee Wee's roadhouse on Highway 50 Friday afternoon. We should be there right about 3:00 pm if Stuart's plane is on time. It is at 801 Hwy 50 East (Centerville) although no one, ever, in the history of Hickman County, has used the actual address and will probably shoot you if you ask that way. It is just to the west of Big Swan Creek toward Centerville, so this plan has the benefit of allowing us to eyeball the water level of the river the day before we paddle. Here's a map of where we remember Pee Wee's to be, subject to confirmation by Vernon:

We'll post more info about the menus (from the cooks), the put-in and campsite (when we figure it out), the alcohol policy (yes), number of paddlers, guitars, canoes, etc. etc. so in the unlikely event that it isn't already you can go ahead and make rebelrivers.com your home page for the week.

Crisis: Averted

2011-03-08T22:01:00.003-06:00

Jack was so alarmed by the dinner situation he did some research and concluded, based on the Lewis County Museum of Natural History anyway, that we probably would not have gone hungry on this river:

Archaeological evidence suggests that the first humans to make use of the abundant natural resources of present-day Lewis County were pre-Columbian Native Americans. Perhaps as far back as 10,000 BC, Native Americans hunted game and gathered food using seasonal/short-term campsites along the Big Swan Creek in the eastern portion of the county. At one site along the Swan Creek, an archaeological investigation in 2000 unearthed a number of artifacts from a phase of the Woodland Period of Native American habitation (estimated 1000-500 BC). By this time, Native Americans began occupying the area for longer durations. Animals and plants consumed included turkey, fish, deer, beaver, turtle, walnuts, hazelnuts, grapes, and raspberries. Archaeologists uncovered remains of rectangular living quarters, clusters of storage pits, and rows of fire hearths dating from this period. Fiber-tempered stamped pottery shards found near Swan Creek dating from 950-80 BC are some of the oldest examples of pre-Columbian pottery discovered in Tennessee.

Thanks to several members stepping up in the kitchen, though, the RRCC will not have to forage for berries and beavers.

First, Roy has said that as long as we'll bring a very long extension cord for his microwave he will take over as Top Chef on Friday night.

We will announce the full menu when he sends it to us, but you can count on an upgrade from Vienna Sausages to at least frozen burritos.

Mike will also contribute on Friday night because he will be hand-delivering the catch-of-the-day. Actually catch-of-the-previous-day because the day before we leave for Big Swan Creek he will be returning from a deep sea fishing trip in Guatemala, hopefully with a big chunk of freshly filleted fish in his suitcase (Roy: don't count on this).

Let's just not tell anyone that after all these river trips the only fish dinners we've had have come from either Central America or a trout farm.

We did catch this nice Rainbow on the Eleven Point last fall and COULD have eaten it if we hadn't been so lazy:

On Saturday night Phil will don the sanitary hairnet and will "whip up the Patey special" whatever that means.

Judging by what we found at his warehouse when we picked up the trailer last week, he may have been talking about cocktail hour.

Josh: if Phil turns in a receipt that says "Hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line" it is APPROVED.

_________________________________________________

The sun's laziness got into me and I wandered up the lesser channel, casting only occasionally into holes without the expectation of fish. Then, on a long flow-dimpled bar, something came down over my consciousness like black pain, and I dropped the rod and squatted, shaking my head to drive the blackness back. It receded a little. I waddled without rising to the bar's edge and scooped cold water over my head. After four or five big throbs it went away, and I sat down half in the water and thought about it. It didn't take much study. My stomach was giving a lecture about it, loud. What it amounted to was that I was about half starved.

I picked up the rod, went back to camp, stirred the fire, and put on a pot of water into which I dumped enough dried lima beans for four men, salt, an onion, and a big chunk of bacon. Considering, I went down to the stringer and skinned and gutted the little catfish and carried him up and threw him in the pot, too. While it boiled, I bathed in the river, frigid in contrast to the air, sloshed out the canoe and sponged it down, and washed underclothes and socks. In shorts, feeling fine now but so hungry it hurt, I sat by the fire and sharpened knives and the ax for the additional hour the beans needed to cook soft in the middle. Fishing out the skeleton of the disintegrated catfish, and using the biggest spoon I had, I ate the whole mess from the pot almost without stopping, and mopped up its juices with cold biscuit bread.

Then I wiped my chin and lay back against the cottonwood log with my elbows hanging over it behind and my toes digging the sand, and considered that asceticism, most certainly, was for those who were built for it. Some were. Some weren't. I hadn't seen God in the black headache on the sand bar and I didn't want to try anymore, that way. . . . . . Starving myself hadn't had much to do with spirituality, anyhow, but only with the absence of company.

Philosophically equilibrated, I rolled down into the sand and went to sleep for two or three hours, waking into a perfect blue-and-yellow afternoon loud with the full-throat chant of the redbird.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 162-63 .

~

Crisis in the Kitchen

2011-03-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

Way back in the early years of the RRCC, a "Friday Guy" was someone who went out early and set up camp before everyone else arrived on Saturday morning. Usually that was just Mullowney, Myers and the Unabomber, although Mullowney and the Unabomber were never actually seen on the same gravel bar at the same time.

Nowadays we all go for two nights, and "Friday Guy" means a landlubber who comes down and parties at the put-in Friday night then heads back to Nashville patio living Saturday morning. This year we have several like that, and they happen to make up the entire kitchen staff.

So all of you chefs who have been watching from the sidelines waiting for your chance, think of this as your big break. Who wants to step up and get the keys to Big Daddy for a weekend? Possibly earn the prestigous RRCC Dinner Triangle. Maybe even Wally Pipp one of the regular cooks. If there is enough interest, we'll have tryouts. If there is no interest, we will adjust the menu as follows:

Saturday Breakfast

Coffee
Cigarettes

Saturday Lunch

Slim Jims
American Style Chicken-Beef-Pork Sausages
(with gelatinous sauce)

Saturday Dinner

Cub Scout Campfire Foil Pack
(place foil pack in coals, drink, serve when dish reaches raw and burned simultaneously)

Sunday Breakfast

Campfire Foil Pack leftovers
Coffee
Cigarettes

Swan-Upping is Just Three Weeks Away

2011-03-02T17:13:00.000-06:00

Rob's first post is coming soon. He found the internet but then couldn't tear himself away from all the amazing things he found there. Like pictures of waterskiing squirrels.

Meanwhile, the saw is sharp and ready to go to Big Swan Creek.

Note to cooks: Swan is a legitimate game bird for cooking - once a royal delicacy, it now just has a royal price.

Procurator-Fiscal: better raise dues for this trip.

Swan Meat - 9 to 12 Month Bird
Item# newitem30910414
Regular Price: $1,499.99
Sale Price: $999.99

Raised in USA. Processed Birds can be delivered in California, USA. Outside CA the bird will be shipped live.

Link: http://brentwoodtradinggroup.com/swanmeat1.html

Swan meat was a gourmet dish often seen as the magnificent centrepiece for a medieval banquet. But since those times, when all swans were assigned royal status, it is a dish almost exclusively enjoyed by royals.

The mute swan has been a royal bird since at least 1186 and was formally assigned royal status in the Act of Swans in 1482. Under the act, any other owners of swans were required to mark their property by way of a succession of nicks in the birds’ beaks. It was the duty of the Royal Swanmaster to organise the annual swan-upping on the Thames, when the cygnets are rounded up and marked, which survives in symbolic form to this day.

With their royal rank, it became a status symbol to eat swan. It was a tasty ceremonial dish, until superseded by turkey early last century.

Today, the Queen still has ownership of all swans in the UK except in one small corner of the British Isles - the Orkney Isles. Under Udal Law, the ancient Norse system of inheritance and law, which the Viking settlers brought to Orkney, the swan is the property of the people, rather than the Crown. The case was proven in 1910 by a Kirkwall lawyer who, accompanied by his friend, the Procurator-Fiscal, went out to Harray Loch and shot a swan. The case went to the High Court and the Crown lost. Nowadays, Orcadians do not shoot swans, but the principles of the old Norse Udal Law still stand. The swan is protected across the entire Great Britain by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Our Swans are raised in County of Riverside, California, USA.

Here's the Royal Recipe:

For to dihyte a swan. Tak & vndo hym & wasch hym, & do on a spite & enarme hym fayre & roste hym wel; & dysmembre hym on þe beste manere & mak a fayre chyne, & þe sauce þerto schal be mad in þis manere, & it is clept.

Tak þe issu of þe swan & wasch it wel, & scoure þe guttes wel with salt, & seth þe issu al togedere til it be ynow, & þan tak it vp and wasch it wel & hew it smal, & tak bred & poudere of gyngere & of galyngale & grynde togedere & tempere it with þe broth, & coloure it with þe blood. And when it is ysothe & ygrounde & streyned, salte it, & boyle it wel togydere in a postnet & sesen it with a litel vynegre.

Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

2011-02-21T22:55:00.007-06:00

Friday night will be indoors on this trip. Rob's got squatter's rights on a country home about three hollers away from the put-in. He will tell you more as soon as he plugs in his computer, but you can just make your way to the house any time Friday afternoon instead of caravaning down.

On second thought, we might want to consider driving down together because one of the great attractions of Big Swan Creek is the stretch of Highway 50 between Columbia and Centerville, which is a horn-o'-plenty of dive bars and Ser Sta Gros. "Pee Wee's Place," for example, makes Springwater look like the Four Seasons and is a Place we ought to spend some time.

And the folks at the Williamsport Ser Sta Gro have something they want to say:

Spring Trip Announcement For Real

2011-02-20T21:47:00.002-06:00

People get ready. The RRCC is heading back out on short rest.

The 2011 Spring trip will be March 25 - 27 on a a Best Kept Secret category stream. Hint: it flows due north and enters the Duck River just upstream from where another RRCC favorite, the Piney River, enters the Duck from the other side. Between Lewis and Hickman counties. In the middle of Gravel Bar City.

Hint #2: It may be small, but it's not Little.

~

~

~

2011-02-14T16:48:00.006-06:00

Looks like we are going to have to postpone the Thursday meeting, too. We've had more false starts than the Titans offensive line this year. But the Spring trip definitely won't be until late April or early May so we have plenty of time to get it together. We will still keep the news going as the river planning takes shape.

In the meantime, enjoy Pete Feldman's Big Fucking Bike Ride Blog as he pedals coast to coast.

I know we're supposed to be thinking about bicycles, Pete, but that is one hell of a gravel bar on Hondo Creek. (Day 32).

Spring Awakening

2011-02-13T20:42:00.012-06:00

We had a false start to the Spring RRCC season when we got all worked up about another Okefenokee attempt then found out it's still dried up and closed. So we are going to give up on our swampy dream for now and concentrate on planning a good ol' middle Tennessee float sometime in April or May. Here are some news items to kick things off.

First, remember that we are having an official meeting this Thursday, February 17. At Brown's. At 7:30. We'll discuss spring destinations and reminisce about the fall.

Next, we are pleased to announce the addition of a celebrity guest blogger for the spring season.

Rob will post frequently and/or whenever the mood strikes him to supplement the typical drivel you get on this site. So you can expect both the quantity and the quality, or at least the entertainment value, of the posts to increase significantly for the near future.

Housekeeping: Josh, can you send $100 to the Camp Cookie? The deferred transitive pre-payment depreciation plan worked fine except that Sands never paid Jim and now probably can't go on the spring trip so he said just take his Okefenokee money and give it to Jim. He pre-paid $150 and said to give $100 to Jim and $50 to the eleemosynary fund of our choice which I believe means a bottle of Basil Hayden for the Executive Committee.

86 the Call Party

2011-01-24T12:10:00.009-06:00

Stand down, gentlemen. The Waffle House meeting tomorrow morning is CANCELLED. Repeat, no Okefenokee call party tomorrow. Do...Not...Seek...The...Treasure.

The swamp is still closed.

This calls for a real meeting. Put Thursday night, February 17 on your calendars for a good old-fashioned Fall Post-Trip and Spring Pre-Trip meeting. If we do it right, we'll still end up at Waffle House.

~

Spring Trip Dates (and Call Party Dates)

2011-01-19T16:15:00.013-06:00

Time to try again for an Okefnokee permit. Our proposed weekends for paddling involve some complicated flex-time swamp logistics. It is designed to cheat the U.S. Department of Interior permit reservation system. So pay attention.

First Target Weekend Schedule: Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27 (depart Nashville Friday afternoon March 25, put-in Saturday morning March 26, take-out and return Monday, March 28).

Second Target Weekend Schedule: Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2 (depart Nashville, Thursday afternoon March 31, put-in Friday morning April 1, take-out and return Sunday, April 3).

That means we report to the Waffle House the morning of Tuesday, January 25 to begin calling the Wildlife Refuge. If we can't get no satisfaction, we'll return on Monday, January 31 to try again. Notice that if we do get the first weekend, you'll need to take Monday off of work, not Friday. If we get the second weekend, we will leave after work that Thursday so you'll need to take Friday off.

P.S. The Two-Man Crosscut is in Knoxville getting sharpened again. Apparently using the Washtub Bass as a saw horse is as hard on the saw as it is on the bass.

Team Picture

2010-11-16T21:00:00.002-06:00

Click it:

YOU JUST POPPED THE TOP ON A SIX-PACK OF WHOOP-ASS

~

HEADLINE: RRCC Gets Eleven Point Win

2010-11-15T06:29:00.004-06:00

Final Details

2010-11-11T12:00:00.006-06:00

Jim, Jim and Vernon are either leaving late tonight or first thing tomorrow. If they leave early in the morning the plan is just to have everybody head up the interstate and we'll reach each other by cell phone and find a place to meet.

Rob is still arriving late tomorrow and we are going to leave a canoe at Turner's Mill for him. Although there is no camping allowed at the put-in itself, our goal is to find a gravel bar as quickly as possible. There is a Float Camp less than a mile downstream ("Stinking Pond") and we have agreed that under no circumstances will we go farther than the Float Camp since Rob will be paddling in the dark and we know we can camp there for sure.

Rob will be equipped with an RRCC-procured mega-spotlight for his midnight ride. One if by land, 5,000,000 candlepower if by sea. He could gig a blind frog with that thing.

We have given up trying to reguluate tents. You can save space by pairing up with someone or just bring your own. Either way, make your own arrangements.

Ever since the Great Utensil Crisis of 2007 we have been gradually acquiring tableware but have never had proper drinking vessels. We've been getting by with aluminum cans and styrofoam cups. Now, as a reward for your participation in both the swamp attempt and the cold weather alternate river, all Fall 2010 attendees will get official RRCC-issued authentic tin cups. Hand-made by a tinsmith in Bell Buckle and ribbed for her pleasure.

So that's it, nothing more to say before we go. Can't wait to pull the trailer across the Ohio and the mighty Mississippi over those huge double bridges in Cairo.

OHIO RIVER

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

That's where Huckleberry Finn and Jim were trying to get on their raft - because if they made it to Cairo Jim would be a free man. We weren't the first ones to have some good times on the river.

Field & Stream

2010-11-10T13:25:00.005-06:00

Apparently Saturday is opening day for deer season in the Show Me State. Everyone should wear a little bright orange, even if it means shoplifting some UT paraphenalia at the Mapco when you're getting your BYOB. The orange letters on the camo Busch cans don't count.

Shots, far back from the river . . . Deer season, and
a Saturday, which would likely make for hell on the hills
. . . I guessed that not even the normal quota of whisky-head sports would probably shoot a boat for a buck, but decided to wear a bandana if I went rambling ashore.

Goodbye to a River, p. 96.

~

You should also know that most of the Ozark streams are pretty heavily patrolled by wildlife officers on normal weekends, so they may be out in force for opening day. For those of you who are fishing, you better get a license. You can buy one and print it out on-line. Go to http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing and choose Code 018 "Daily Fishing" when asked. It's only $7 per day and worth it because the Eleven Point is an elite smallmouth stream and rates as a "Blue Ribbon" trout stream below Greer Springs because of the cold water.

Eleven Point fishing links:

http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=29&Itemid=72

http://family-outdoors.com/Eleven-Point-River-Smallmouth.html

http://moscenicrivers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fishing3&action=display&thread=77

http://www.missouriscenicrivers.com/Elevenpointriver.html

Near the Oakes crossing where the old road between Weatherford and Palo Pinto used to hit the river, the water's surface was much as I remembered the surface of the classic Test, in the south-English chalk country, from once when I stood there on a bridge watching the big, incredibly uniform trout at their feeding stations over the gravel. Smooth, with little swirls forming everywhere and drifting downstream to disappear, a dry-fly man's reverie . . . The Brazos runs wide there, with a large-gravel bottom about a foot and a half down like the Test's, and that was why they were alike. I wished it might also have held such trout, and in memory of not having been able to fish those rigidly owned foreign waters, I began to cast a little golden spoon with the spinning rod as I drifted.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 102-03.

~

Eleven Point Turn

2010-11-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

Maybe this will help on the last part of the drive. You can hit fullscreen or you can just print it out like a regular document. If nothing else, the topo contours of the river valley should get you fired up for the trip!

Eleven Point Roads

Conference Call

2010-11-08T16:30:00.003-06:00

If you did not dial in you were nominated, seconded and elected for firewood gathering, K.P., latrine entrenchment, guitar re-stringing and cooler re-icing.

There are 8 confirmed members for this trip. Jim M. and the other Jim M. and Vernon are leaving Thursday. Sands will be coming up from his lakehouse in Arkansas. Rob is arriving late on Friday. That means leaving Nashville with the trailer Friday morning are the three stooges Skip, Josh and Kirly. We will leave Friday at 6:00 am. That's early but it's only 7-o'clock under the old Daylight Savings Time and it's going to be worth it to get some daylight on the river the first day. Regardless of where you are coming from, the plan is to meet at the put-in at 1:00 pm. Friday afternoon.

The put-in is called "Turner's Mill North" which is one of the public access points on the Eleven Point River. The closest town is Alton, Missouri, but the river is east of Alton so those of us coming from Tennessee will hit the country roads before reaching Alton. If you can get "Riverton, Missouri" on your GPS, that is our take-out and would be even closer. Here are the maps and directions:

Tennessee-to-Missouri:

Take I-24 West to Paducah about 135 miles

Get off I-24 at Kentucky EXIT 4 onto Hwy 60 West

Take Hwy 60 west about 115 miles all the way to Poplar Bluff, Missouri which is tricky and involves the following: crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois, driving all of 5 minutes across the State of Illinois and into Missouri, following I-57 a short way (but still on Hwy 60), then continuing into Poplar Bluff, Missouri (still on Hwy 60)

In Poplar Bluff, turn south on Hwy 67 and go about 10 miles to Hwy 160

Take Hwy 160 west about 45 miles to the Eleven Point River in Riverton, Missouri

You are now at the river, but the Hwy 160 bridge in Riverton, Missouri is our take-out. About 6.5 miles before you get there you will pass Hwy J which is the way to the put-in. There are no landmarks, but if you see it you can turn right onto Hwy J before Riverton and save yourself 15 minutes. Otherwise, from Riverton see below:

To get to the put-in from Riverton, Missouri do the following:
Turn around. Retrace your route (i.e. go east) for 6.5 miles back up Hwy 160
Turn LEFT (north) off of Hwy 160 onto Hwy J (may also be called County Road J)
Go 7.5 miles north on Hwy J
Turn LEFT on County Rd. 164
Go 3.8 miles on County Rd. 164
Turn LEFT on County Rd. 158
Go 3.1 miles on County Rd. 158
Turn LEFT on County Rd. 3152 (I know it sounds like you're going in circles)
Go 0.9 miles on County Rd. 3152
Turn LEFT (it's true) on Forest Road 3190
Go 2.6 miles on Forest Road 3190 to Turner's Mill North Boat Ramp.

That's the put-in. We will meet there at 1:00 on Friday. Note that there is also a "Turner's Mill SOUTH Boat Ramp" on the other side of the river. You won't get there by accident, it's fifty feet away but an hour's drive by car. Just wanted you to know another one exists to avoid any confusion or in case you stop and ask for directions.

The other things we decided are:

1. Definitely BYOB. That includes beer and brown liquor;
2. BYO Ready-rolls too;
3. Jim M. will bring both his canoe and the other Jim M.'s canoe on his truck. Chris will bring his own. We will bring canoes for Vernon, Kirk, Rob and Skip. Josh, drop yours off this week if you can;
4. Guitars are covered. Rob is bringing two and Chris is bringing one. Kirk: do not bring a guitar;
5. Jim M.: we still need to figure out Saturday lunch, and bring your big dining fly if you still have it;
6. Our float time on Sunday is short - about 90 minutes. Everyone on this trip has personal experience with RRCC Sunday departures so do your own estimate of ETA for the return. But allow time in your calculation for the shuttle, a six hour drive to Nashville, and a long lunch stop at Lambert's Cafe for some throwed rolls. It can be a long wait for Sunday lunch but we're going right through Sikeston and we have to do it.

Food and Drink

2010-11-05T20:30:00.003-05:00

In case you thought the cooks would be at a loss just because our river doesn't bear the name of some edible game animal. Announcing the Fall 2010 menu:

Friday dinner:
Brats and Kraut on Ol Smokey

Saturday breakfast:
Provencal breakfast potatoes, sausage and scrambled eggs

Saturday lunch:
TBD (will discuss on conference call)

Saturday dinner:
"Eleven Points of Asia" Pac-Rim-Oriental-Fusion-Stir-Fry
Ga Ngu Vi Huong (spice grilled chicken)
Tom Kha Goong (lemongrass coconut milk soup with shrimp)
Potstickers with dipping sauce
Bhutanese Red Rice

Sunday breakfast
Cofee and Ready-rolls

We also need to talk about how to handle beverages when we're on the call Sunday night. We may let everyone BYOCooler, even though there is some risk to the individual in an all-your-eggs-in-one-basket way.

Canoe trip 2008 Pennsylvania Rednecks

Metafor Myspace Music Videos

Virtual Pre-Trip Meeting: Sunday at 7:00 pm

2010-11-02T20:09:00.001-05:00

We ran out of time to have a real one, which is a shame because the patio is now open at Brown's. Instead we will have a Club conference call this Sunday (Nov. 7) at 7:00 pm. Dial-in instructions are:

(866) 506-1416
Passcode: 6157267381

Don't forget Daylight Savings Time ends Saturday night Nov. 6.

It will be helpful if you have a computer and a cold beer in front of you. The RRCC uses the Acme Mapper at http://www.acme.com/ instead of MapQuest or Google Earth because you can switch back and forth between satellite, road maps, "terrain" view, and the USGS topos. We'll need all of them to figure out access points, shuttles, potential gravel bars, etc. Search and zoom to Alton, Missouri and we'll go from there.

There will be lots more to discuss because there are all kinds of moving parts for this trip. Tim still has a yeast infection and can't go so we need to address the beverage situation. Rob has a major transaction closing on Friday the 12th and may need to arrive late. That will, of course, make choosing the put-in and campsites that much more challenging, but that's half the fun. We did get the official phone call from the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge telling us that our trip is cancelled, so at least that is settled. We also need to get a head count, a canoe count, a guitar count, set a departure time, etc. Here's an agenda you can follow during the call:

By the way, since we are not limited by our permit or by the space on the platforms, anybody who still wants to go can join this trip. It also means we can paddle solo, overloaded canoes again.

RANDOM, INSPIRING ELEVEN POINT RIVER PICTURE

So Much Older Then, Younger Than That Now

2010-10-31T14:53:00.008-05:00

It's been hard to do any serious planning for this trip without knowing where we're going to be, especially because the new destination is so completely different from the old one. We are changing from swamp to river, we're going northwest instead of southeast, and instead of moderate November temperatures it's pretty much guaranteed to be freezing cold. But Ozark rivers are like so many rivers we've done before (the Stones, Duck, Piney, Green, Buffalo, Sequatchie, Yellow Creek are all similar) that we should be able to do it with our eyes closed. For a Club like ours, this is not rocket surgery. Still, we should cover a few things.

If you bought a plane ticket to Jacksonville, save it. We will try again in the spring. March and early April are the best times to go just FYI.

Departure: We had planned to leave for the Okefenokee after work on Thursday the 11th because the park and the alligators demand that you put in before 10:00 am. Lest darkness should fall before you reach your platform. Now, according to MapQuest, it is 5 hours and 27 minutes from Brown's Diner to our new put-in in Missouri and we have no real deadlines. So, since we were all planning to miss work Friday anyway, it seems the thing to do is leave Friday morning and still spend two nights on the river. We'll decide on an exact time later but count on leaving early Friday.

Camping options: The land along the Eleven Point is all public. In addition to Wild & Scenic River status, it is within the boundaries of the Irish Wilderness Area which itself is in the Mark Twain National Forest. Not only does that make the gravel bars fully legal (not that we have ever really cared), but the Missouri D.N.R. has built what they call "Float Camps" at various points along the river. Like this one called "Barn Hollow":

The existence of the Float Camps creates a dilemma for us. Our first choice is and always will be to camp on gravel bars, preferably next to a riffle or rapids. But having not been on this river in, oh, about 25 years, we don't really know where they are. We know exactly where the Float Camps are from the maps and they would give us complete certainty in planning, but they are a little less desirable because they can be grassy places with muddy banks. And there is also the problem of working out the right mileage between them. We know we want to put in at Greer Spring to get the best water level and we do know there is a Float Camp ten miles downstream which would work well because Greer Spring has a developed campsite at the put-in.

So this is our choice: (a) take the cautious approach - with the first night at a drive-in campground and the second night at a DNR Float Camp or (b) roll the dice and spend both nights somewhere downstream on two gravel bars we hope we will find. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a conundrum. The last time we did a trip without knowing where we were going to stop was on the Green River and we were sweating bullets until we found (what turned out to be) the last gravel bar before the take out.

But it was a good one.

Young, one moves in upon the country and thinks himself a tile in its tessellated ecology, and believes that he always would have been such a tile, and hoots with the owl, and scorns even tents.

Older, one knows himself an excrescence upon the landscape and no kinsman to any wild thing; one hears the bass drumbeat and the gabble of the rapids below and the roar of the rain and feels abrupt depression and wonders why he barged out alone into the wetness and the winter. And thinks that perhaps, in the old time, he would have been one of the cautious who stayed in the jammed East.

I lay awake for a long time with a kind of three-o'clock-in-the-morning apprehension on me. The pup shivered against my side. The river boomed and burbled against its rocks. The night was black but starry. The wind kept on in the darkness, unnaturally; later I woke once or twice as it popped the tent flaps. Big wind depresses when it continues without the normal wanings of evening and night and dawn, whether it's called sirocco or khamsin or whatever. I lay feeling soft muscles ache and wondered if they would tauten to the work or whether I'd finally arrived at that point where the body won't snap back into tone with a few days' misuse, and wondered too what weather the wind might portend, and what idiocy had brought me out there to lie on the graveled ground, in November. . . .

Goodbye to a River, p. 67

Member Recognitions

2010-10-28T12:09:00.017-05:00

The RRCC would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Sands who helped select the the Eleven Point as our alternate river after hours of subcommittee meetings in the parking lot of Municipal Auditorium last week.

CONSULTING WITH THE AUTHORITIES

And a double dose of Vagisil goes to the Beverage Manager, who intends to be "too busy at work and home" in mid-November to go on the trip. Note to Tim: if you thought you were avoiding the swamp trip you're in for a big surprise. We'll be back at the Waffle House about January.

~

~

2010-10-27T13:45:00.002-05:00

Here's a good, slightly funkadelic video shot on the Eleven Point by a couple of blackberry eating hippies. Probably a little farther upstream than we will float but it shows some of the springs that will be helping us along downstream...

Another good one:

"Show Me" Another River

2010-10-25T17:12:00.004-05:00

It did rain a little, but the Okefenokee canoe trails are all still closed and would have to come up almost two feet for us to make the trip. That is looking pretty unlikely, so with less than three weeks to go it's time to seriously consider another option.

For our selection criteria, we decided to go with knee-jerk reaction and overcompensation - prized attributes in the RRCC. We figured that if we're getting shut out because of low water levels, then we'll just go wherever the biggest, baddest high-volume natural springs are within a day's drive of here and we'll be drought-proof.

The Ozarks of southern Missouri are famous for that - all of the canoeable rivers there have headwaters called "Mammoth Springs" and "Big Springs" and other names that suggest massive discharges of water that will sweep us and our cast iron happily downstream. One of the best rivers in the Ozarks, and the one with the most springs of all, is the Eleven Point. Therefore, we decree that the Eleven Point River is the Official Alternate River of the RRCC for Fall 2010.

ELEVEN POINT RIVER

Nice, isn't it?

The Eleven Point is in southern Missouri just west of the Bootheel, right on the Arkansas border.

It gets most of its flow from fabulous Greer Springs, which is like having a whole nother river come gushing out of a cave in the middle of the trip. 222 million gallons per day.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of smaller springs all up and down the Eleven Point. Not to mention perfect gravel bars, limestone bluffs and (because of the springs) crystal clear and ice cold beautiful blue-green water.

In 1968, Congress passed the "National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act":

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.

The first eight rivers to receive the Wild and Scenic designation under the law were the Middle Fork of the Clearwater and the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho, the Feather in California, the Rio Grande in New Mexico, the Rogue in Oregon, the St. Croix in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Wolf in Wisconsin, and the Eleven Point River in Missouri.

Although now there are 156 rivers on the list, there is only one in Tennessee and the RRCC will never canoe it.

OBED RIVER, TENNESSEE.
No fun for dogs or drunks.

And even though Missouri has legendary canoeing streams in the Ozarks like the Current River and the Jack's Fork, to this day it still only has one on the Wild and Scenic River list. Unless the swamp rises dramatically, we're going to be on it in about three weeks.

2010-10-18T17:58:00.003-05:00

The answer to the question you're all asking is we don't know. RebelRivers.com is paralyzed with indecision until we know more about the water levels in the swamp. But if we don't go to the Okefenokee the trip will still be that same weekend, so don't pack away your swinging beverage holders for the winter.

Come On, Paula!

2010-10-12T16:28:00.002-05:00

Now lean to the right.

Our Permit Has Arrived

2010-10-06T14:56:00.000-05:00

Regulation No. 7 sounds like a job for the Beverage Manager.

And an item of interest from the court docket today:

2010-10-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

Come On, Nicole!

2010-09-29T13:49:00.001-05:00

Everybody lean to the left.

This Ship Right Here is Kinda Crazy

2010-09-24T11:06:00.002-05:00

Don't be too alarmed by the odds we were quoted for keeping our permit. As Dr. Sands always says, everything is 50/50. It either happens or it doesn't.

Also, the Suwannee Canal into the swamp will be open for sure - it's not affected by water levels. We may be able to get Canal Run shelter or they may open the day use shelters along the canal for us for overnights.

What you should be alarmed by is the alligator count. According to the Famous Alligator Forecast, the canal is a quite a popular hangout.

Even the fall forecast of "Very High" is a slight downgrade from the summer when the canal red-lined at "Gators Galore."

That probably had something to do with the rare "cooperative feeding event" that occurred there on July 10, 2010.

Here is the unedited footage:

But please, if you only watch one version, watch it narrated:

Ok, it's true that low water level is a contributing factor to these feeding frenzies. But the chances of it happening to us are still just 50/50.

~

Rock Me Like a Hurricane

2010-09-21T10:17:00.001-05:00

You would think since we're not on a shallow Middle Tennessee stream this fall we could take a year off from worrying about water levels. Turns out that is not the case at all. When we called back this week to pay for our permit, the rangers said that we can only pay by check because there is a "50/50 chance" we won't get to go at all. A check is easier to refund than a credit card payment.

The Okefenokee is 13" below normal and we are about to enter the dry seasons of October and November. All of the trails except Canal Run are currently closed. Apparently it takes a hurricance to really fill it back up, and there are only a couple of weeks left in hurricane season. So everyone needs to sacrifice a coon or oppposum to the rain gods and pray for about a Category 3 (don't want to overdo it).

"Swamp's got to rise or no boat's gonna row."

Only in the RRCC will you get to use a line like that at a cocktail party and have it mean something.

Travel

2010-09-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

For those of you who plan on flying, here's an itinerary that should work. Kirk's already on these flights.

But following the trailer is a lot more fun. You never know when it might pull over for a guitar pull.

Making the Big Dance

2010-09-14T15:33:00.002-05:00

You may have noticed there is a finite amount of space in those Okefenokee overnight shelters. Unfortunately, it means the RRCC has no choice but to take the rare step of limiting attendance on the Fall 2010 trip. Basically, we need to be half the size of the Spring trip on the Buffalo.

We regret having to do this and are aware there will be a lot of competition for the chance to sleep on a hard wooden platform in a mosquito infested swamp 18-inches above an alligator nest. So for that reason we are announcing the following criteria for determining who gets to go. In order:

1. Participation in reservation call parties;
2. Postmark of checks received for full payment of Fall trip;
3. Number of previous RRCC trips attended;
4. Essay contest.

If you are really interested in going, send your money to Josh ASAP because you're already behind the Waffle House Seven. $150 mailed to 4015 Hillsboro Pike, Suite 203, Nashville, TN 37215.

CANOE TRAIL INTERSECTION, TERRITORY PRAIRIE
OKEFENOKEE SWAMP

~

Jackpot

2010-09-13T16:52:00.002-05:00

On our second try, we doubled our cell phones and got the exact route and weekend we want. So it is official. The 2010 Fall Trip will be the weekend of November 11 - 14 (leaving after work on Thursday the 11th, returning very late on Sunday the 14th).

Our permit is for Route #5 on the Green Trail. See this map.

Put-in: Kingfisher Landing
First night: Bluff Lake shelter
Second night: Floyd's Island
Take-out: Stephen Foster State Park

When we put in at Kingfisher Landing on Friday, the 12th, we have to be in our canoes by 10:00 am Eastern Time. Water level permitting, we will have a very doable 8 mile paddle through Durdin Prairie and should arrive at Bluff Lake with plenty of daylight.

Here as some pictures of the Bluff Lake platform:

Can't wait to see Mullowney try to sneak off to his tent on this one.

Here's the Bluff Lake Throne Room.

Note to cooks: Let's eighty-six the Chili Verde this trip.

Reminder

2010-09-10T11:37:00.001-05:00

This week was a practice round of sorts. We're meeting again on Monday (Sept 13) at 5:30 am to try again for the next November weekend, which is what we really want.

We are not the only ones who think Waffle House is the best place for important events, by the way.

~

Early Success

2010-09-07T11:10:00.005-05:00

It took twenty minutes and four cell phones just to get through, but we have a permit. Our current reservation is for November 5 - 7 on Trail #3, which is the northern route that begins at Kingfisher Landing, has overnight stops at Maul Hammock and Big Water shelters, and ends at Stephen Foster State Park.

We will meet again at the same place, same time, next Monday, to try for a permit for the November 12 - 14 weekend.

If we decide to keep the current reservation, we need to send our confirmation and fee to the Wildlife Refuge within sixteen days which will be Thursday, September 23.

SUNRISE OVER OKEFENOKEE SWAMP

SUNRISE OVER WAFFLE HOUSE

~

Dial-a-Swamp

2010-09-02T22:40:00.004-05:00

This is our Okefenokee strategy.

- On Tuesday morning, September 7, we will meet at the Waffle House on White Bridge Road at 5:30 am to try to call in for a reservation for Friday, November 5 and Saturday, November 6.

- Competition for the overnight wilderness canoe permits is intense and there are only a few sites so the weekend of November 5 is actually our back up plan. Our first choice is the weekend beginning Friday, November 12. Which means that EVEN IF WE GET A PERMIT for the first weekend (November 5) we will still return to the Waffle House one week later to try for our first choice departure date (November 12). The earliest date to call in for that will be Monday, September 13. So go ahead and plan to start your day scattered, smothered and covered two weeks in a row.

- At exactly 6:00 am we will all start dialing like mad. Once someone connects, everyone else should stop trying because we will make our reservation with the first phone to get through. They only have one incoming line at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

- If you are not at the Waffle House, don't try to call from another location. The route selection process is complicated and full of variables (as you are about to find out below) and you'll just be holding up the reservation line.

- Space is limited on this trip because of the platform campsites. Priority will be given to Club members who help call in for the permit. Showing up for both call parties will guarantee you a spot.

- There are a lot of maps out there that show the canoe trails and campsite options. After looking at all of them, we have determined that the best one for route planning purposes (but probably not for navigation) is "Hannah's Very Best Canoe Map of the Okefenokee Swamp" with bonus floor plan of the Round Top platform and Zachary's Alligator. Here is a clean copy and below that a copy where we added the mileage between each site. The campsites we might use are highlighted in yellow. The big black triangles are the three possible put-ins.

Also, below is the O.N.W.R. official list of routes and trail numbers.

There are a lot of factors that will affect what routes are available to us and which ones we prefer (if we have a choice). Print out the map, wash a glass, pour yourself a drink and keep reading:

- We can only stay on any one campsite for one night. For a two-nighter we need to reserve two separate sites. We would probably want to do that anyway, but it impacts the reservation planning process.

- Although there are 10 campsites in the Refuge, several of them are on dead-end trails so they cannot be part of a two night trip. Several more are too far away to reach in one day so they can only be considered for the second night of a two-nighter. That means there are only FOUR sites that are eligible for our first night, and if someone already has a reservation on one or more of those (either as part of an earlier multi-night trip or because they beat us on the reservation line) that will reduce the number of sites we can choose from even more.

- Therefore, the possible sites for the first night out are, at most: BLUFF LAKE, MAUL HAMMOCK, ROUND TOP and FLOYD'S ISLAND. Consult your map. CANAL RUN may be one as well because it is part of an approved two-night trip (Trail #8) with the first night at FLOYD'S ISLAND and second night at CANAL RUN...but it is not clear if they allow reversing that trip as an option.

- Any trip we design that begins at the Stephen Foster State Park put-in will require paddling upstream on the Suwannee River. The current is not strong but it is not insignficant either. Ask Tim.

- Round trip routes (ones that return to our trucks) are hard to find for two-nighters because the second night is usually too far away from the original put-in to be able to get back in one day.

- On the other hand, one-way routes that cross the swamp will require a shuttle. The highway shuttle around the swamp is 100 miles each direction. Most outfitters in the area will run the shuttle with you but will not drive your vehicle because of insurance limitations. We have found one outfitter willing to drive the shuttle without us while we are paddling which will save us a lot of time but cost us a lot of $$$.

- Fires are not allowed on the platform campsites for obvious reasons. The only exceptions are CANAL RUN (which is a platform built up against a little dry land) and FLOYD'S ISLAND. Ideally, one night of our trip will be on one of those sites, especially FLOYD'S ISLAND which has lots of firewood, room to spread out, and a super creepy Legend-of-Wooley-Swamp type abandoned cabin on it.

CANAL RUN

FLOYD'S ISLAND

Then there are things to consider like distances per day (especially the last day when we have to paddle, take out, and drive to Tennessee), the character of the different trails (bald cypress vs. savannah/prairie, for example), and even some factors that could change between now and the day of the trip. They may close entire trails due to low water, but if the water is low for a long time they sometimes open platforms to camping that are normally for day use only. Usually those are MONKEY LAKE and COFFEE BAY, which are both off of the Suwannee Canal Recreation Area put-in.

Just to get the discussion going, let's start with the following as our first and second choice routes based on the factors above:

1. BLUFF LAKE (Friday night), FLOYD'S ISLAND (Saturday night)

2. MAUL HAMMOCK (Friday night), BIG WATER (Saturday night)

Feel free to weigh in with the pros and cons of other routes. The whole thing is just delightfully complicated and hopefully will require hours of good pre-trip deliberation. In fact, it already has.

Early Morning Meeting: Tuesday, September 7 at 5:30 am

2010-09-01T10:05:00.002-05:00

As discussed in the previous post, we need all hands on deck next Tuesday for the call party to reserve our Okefenokee permit. JJ's doesn't open early enough for this job, but since we are right on the buckle of the Waffle House Belt we'll meet at the one on White Bridge Road at I-40 (Exit 204) at 5:30 a.m.

We have done Club business there before.

2010 Fall Trip

2010-08-30T14:50:00.012-05:00

Let's go ahead and turn a poorly kept secret into an official announcement. The Fall Trip destination is the Okefenokee Swamp. The swamp is the headwaters of the Suwanee River and thus qualifies as one of "the rest of them rebel rivers."

Because it is way down upon the Suwanee River, that also means it is far, far away - far from the old folks at home - on the Georgia/Florida border. We will need to leave on a Thursday after work and drive late to complete a two-nighter because we are required to launch before 10:00 am Eastern Time on Friday to avoid getting caught by darkness and spending the night in our canoes. That is just one of the many rules we have to follow to get a permit and keep from getting eaten.

Camping is on designated sites only, most of them on platforms built on stilts in the middle of the swamp like this one.

They are in the same architectural style as Mrs. Cooper's place on the Duck River (Spring Trip, 2005).

There are only a few sites available and demand is high. Applications for permits have to be made by phone EXACTLY TWO MONTHS PRIOR TO OUR RESERVATION. We are going to try for one of the first two weekends in November. The phone lines at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge open at 7:00 am Eastern Time. Exactly two months prior to our first target weekend falls in the middle of next weekend, which is also a holiday weekend, so we need to start calling on Tuesday morning after Labor Day. All of which means we need to start calling at 6:00 am Central Time on Tuesday, September 7.

The club will gather at a convenient, centrally located Waffle House with our cell phones to increase our chances of success. Check back frequently this week for details. This is important.

~

Race Results

2010-08-27T12:57:00.014-05:00

Just one week after the rules controversy that cost Dustin Johnson a shot at the PGA Championship, Kirk had the Rebel Rivers car in position to win the 2010 Demolition Derby but was docked points in a pit violation. Officials at the Wilson County Fair determined that a crew member was caught on camera failing to display the minimum required inches of ass crack while changing a tire. The penalty effectively ended Kirk's chance to make it back into what the PA announcers referred to all night as the "constellation" round.

This is how to ignore the paparazzi and do it right:

Here are the rest of the pictures Bob took of an otherwise very successful outing by the RRCC car:

It's Demolition Time in Tennessee!

2010-08-18T09:23:00.009-05:00

Kirk will be driving the RRCC car again at the Wilson County Fair this Saturday the 21st at 7:00 pm. Pre-race ritual requires us to meet at Brown's beforehand so if you want to ride out together let's gather there about 4:30 Saturday.

Here's the 2010 entry:

Last year's model:

Teaser 2

2010-08-09T14:23:00.001-05:00

Fall Trip Teaser

2010-08-03T10:55:00.006-05:00

"In my opinion, one has only matured in the sport of paddling when you can discover as much adventure in exploring a swamp or marsh by canoe as in running whitewater or traveling to far-off lands." -Ralph Frese, Chicagoland Canoe Base

Exile on the Buffalo

2010-07-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

We interrupt this summer to bring you two important offseason announcements.

First, in the biggest RRCC development since the kitchen fire, Brown's is building an outdoor patio.

Right next to the Citgo dumpster and already popular with the homeless population.

What this means to the RRCC is that after 3 smoke-free years, ready-rolls are back at Brown's, just like the first 85 years. Since we were there for the last day of smoking indoors (Link, Link, Link), we should be on the patio for the first day of smoking outdoors. Watch for a Grand Opening date soon.

Secondly, in the very same year the Stones released the Exile on Main Street outtakes, some secretly recorded and previously unreleased "Jack and The Root Balls" bootlegs have surfaced from a late night session on the Buffalo River. Very late night.

Follow the links, then click play:

"I Know You Think I'm the One Who Cut the Wood"

"Go High"

"Sometimes She Forgets"

"I'm Glad I'm a Man"

"That's Good Stuff There, Buddy"

~

Meeting is Tomorrow

2010-05-05T10:15:00.000-05:00

Don't forget the Post-Trip Meeting is tomorrow (Thursday, May 6) at 7:00 pm upstairs at Savarino's.

In addition to the usual activities or lack thereof we will be conducting a Trucker's Hitch clinic to address what some of you politely described as a "bottleneck" at the take-out. The general rule has always been: whoever's pulling the trailer ties down the canoes. But we will now train an elite force of knot tie-ers who are willing to take the time and effort necessary to master the Trucker's Hitch ("Lorry Hitch" if you're Ian) and can help tie down the boats. If you want to get certified, start by reviewing the instructions previously posted here: CLICK.

Meanwhile, our asset management group reports that the RRCC investment in the Kentucky Derby was painfully close but ultimately resulted in a net gain of approximately zero dollars, plus or minus zero.

Pete successfully picked Super Saver, who won it all, but missed the second half of the exacta with Lookin' At Lucky when Pride passed him on the backstretch with Heartache a-goin' to the inside.

Our Handicapped Handicapper

So instead of dinner at the Four Seasons in Manhattan next trip we'll just be paddling to Joe's Crab Shack downtown.

Happy Hours

2010-04-26T15:18:00.006-05:00

We need another one.

Post-trip meeting will be Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 pm. Upstairs at Savarino's.

~

Memo to File

2010-04-22T10:30:00.001-05:00

We've decided to leave the following items locked in the trailer and stored at Phil's year-round. If anybody needs something between trips, we'll give you the key to the warehouse and you can go dig through all that expensive engineering equipment that turns contaminated water into a strawberry daiquiri.

Washtub Bass
Big Daddy Skillet
Grub cooler
Grate
Kitchen tripod
Machetes (x2)
Sports bag
Short shovel
Long shovel
LTD hood ornament
Trailer balls
Water cooler cups
Lifejackets (10)
Canoe seatbacks (4)
Greg's canoe

__________________________________________________

"F.Kirk" is the winner of the Spring rebus contest.

1. Smoke...
2. On the water...
3. And fire in the sky
(Buh, buh, BUH. Buh, buh, BUH, BUH. Buh, buh, BUH. BUH. BUH).

Although "BrerBear" should get some kind of consolation prize for "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker."

F.Kirk, here's one for Catherine so the whole family can enjoy Blue Ribbons this weekend.

The entire chorus of a classic rock song in just one picture.

Hallmark Moment

2010-04-21T09:48:00.004-05:00

Thanks, David and Jim...

From the Sunday Guys!

~

Spring Rebus

2010-04-20T10:53:00.000-05:00

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures for words or parts of words.

See if you can solve the Spring 2010 RRCC Rebus.
Hint: it's the entire chorus of a classic rock song:

1.

2.

3.

Whoever is first to post the correct answer in the Comments section wins the...

2010-04-19T09:33:00.004-05:00

Right-click and select "Save as [Rock] Wallpaper"

~

Last Word

2010-04-14T22:40:00.001-05:00

Until this week, nobody thought we had pictures from the original RRCC trip on the Buffalo ten years ago. But they just turned up.

Real, 35 mm film pictures from a different era when canoes were aluminum and paddles were plastic and just in time for the Club's aluminum anniversary return to the same river.

Some folks say it wasn't really an official RRCC trip. But it sure looks official.

See you down there.

~

Miscellania

2010-04-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Phil, did you find the Heckometer we left on your desk? Just wanted to make sure you knew we got the trailer out of the warehouse.

Everyone with a canoe that needs to go on the trailer go ahead and bring it by. Just leave it in the driveway. The trailer is currently at Nashville Spring Service getting groomed for its twice-a-year moment of glory (new safety chains and a heavy duty trailer jack among other things). The welder said that safety chain placement is "all about the dangle" and he didn't even know about our trailer balls.

If you are meeting up on Friday to ride down with the trailer (or follow it) the gathering place has changed. We're meeting in Brown's parking lot at 1:00 Friday unless you are riding down separately. If you are driving down on your own and you weren't at the Pre-Trip meeting, let us know and we'll send you the maps.

The most direct and scenic route is down the Natchez Trace.
Warning: the Natchez Trace Parkway is owned and patrolled by the National Park Service. For those of you who get all Ruby Ridge about federal officers, the alternate route is down I-65 through Columbia, Tennessee.

Likewise, if you are offended by the government regulating your right to take fish and game in the wild, you can skip getting a license. Otherwise, go get one at Friedman's because fishing on the Buffalo is outstanding.

This is Mike fishing on Dale Hollow Lake on the Spring 08 trip:

This is the 50 lb. Musky that Mike almost caught on Dale Hollow Lake but somebody else caught just last week:

The article says he landed it off Goat Island which is only a mile or so by sail canoe from Jackson Creek Island where we were camped. We would have needed a Bigger Daddy Skillet.

What the Cooks Have Created

2010-04-11T22:40:00.002-05:00

Friday Night

Sheboygan Bratwurst and Hard Rolls
Gaucho-style Buffalo Hangar Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Saturday Night

Artisanal cured meats and cheeses (cocktail hour)
Grilled Magret Duck with Black Truffle Butter Sauce
Hand-delivered Minnesota Wild Rice with Wild Mushrooms and balsamic-marinated roasted Red Pepper
Sauteed Rapini with garlic
Black Skillet Cornbread
Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Sunday Breakfast

"Pigs in a Poor Girl's Pashmina"

(Sourdough Beercakes & Sausage)

It looks like we're going to set a new attendance record so we really need a firm head count for the cooks. If you want to eat Duck on the Buffalo with a Fox you better make sure we know you're coming ASAP.

2010-04-09T13:43:00.004-05:00

The 7 mile/11 mile question occupied a big part of our time at the Pre-Trip Meeting, as it should have. We discussed the pros and cons at length - weighing the drawbacks of stopping too soon against the risk of paddling too far. While it did seem like a preference emerged, we didn't reach any definite conclusions and ultimately it will probably be a game time decision.

It is times like this when it's nice to be able to turn to The Book for guidance (and a clue as to how it will probably turn out):

It showered yet again. I knew that around the next curve, a mile and half below, I'd be able to see the Dark Valley bridge, and knew too that that was the place to quit. But the river was pretty where I was - wide and clean and even-flowing, with curious, arching, limestone overhangs along the right shore(*) - and after the rain had stopped I dawdled, reluctant, only steering in the current, wondering if a home I remembered near the bridge would have a telephone, or if I'd have to hitch to Palo Pinto. On those country roads the first car along usually gives you a lift.

I said: "Hell, bridge."

The bridge said nothing.

I said: "Passenger, are we going to quit?"

The passenger construed it as an invitation to play, and came scrambling back to gnaw on my pants cuff. There is a big rapids under the bridge, an ugly one. It has old rusty car bodies sticking up out of it, and crashes straight in against a rock bank before veering left into a long shallow chute. Smart boatmen don't run it when the river's high, but walk the gravel bar on its inner curve, letting the boat down gently by a line.

But I had a feeling that if I stopped there, I might be obliged to quit, and dawdled still until the sucking funnel at the head of the rapids caught me. Because my stupidity didn't deserve good luck, I had it. We flicked the jagged remains of a Ford and then I was pulling deep and hard on the right, the paddle spring-bending in my hands, to bring the bow left and clear of the stone bank at the turn, and did bring it left, and rammed the paddle head-on against the rock to keep the stern from hitting, and yelled aloud as we straightened into the long run.

A mile below, I stopped on a gravel bar and made bouillon on the little alcohol stove, and with it ate crackers and cheese and slices of onion. The sun bit warm into the knotted muscles of my back as I ate, and relaxed them. The sky and the water and the multicolored chert gravel of the bar shone with a brightness that I'd forgotten, and made me a little sleepy. It was payment for three bad days and I took it so, and lay down for a while, and threw pebbles up into the air and heard them fall in the current, and drank coffee and smoked.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 43-46.

_______________________________________________________

(*) There are only a few pictures in existence from the Goodbye to a River trip and they were not published with the book. This is one of them. It's a photo of the "curious, arching, limestone overhangs" referred to above, taken on the Brazos River by the author, in 1957.

This is a picture of the same limestone overhangs, taken on the Brazos, by the truly obsessed, in 2002.

7-11

2010-04-08T00:15:00.001-05:00

Don't forget the Pre-Trip tonight at 7:30. Although we have a lot to cover - like departure times, directions, menu, and boat count - there is only one issue that really keeps us awake at night: how far to paddle. Or in river planning terms: which bridge?

Based on the location of RRCC-worthy gravel bars, and in order to avoid development and "camping in a cul-de-sac" (Stuart Frankel, Fall 2000) , the decision comes down to whether we want to paddle 7 miles or 11 miles in one day. We'll go over it on the maps at Brown's.

Seven miles is easy when you wake up by your put-in.

Eleven miles is not setting any long distance records either, but when you do it solo in a loaded canoe you'll feel like you've really done something. It may not be the leisurely style of travel we are accustomed to. On the other hand, it is still less than the "adult sized serving" (Josh May, Fall, 2008) we paddled in one day on the Sequatchie. The Sequatchie water level was very low, which didn't help. And it was hot. But there are other factors that could slow us down on this trip: the number of canoes (looking like a lot), the kind of Friday night we have, log jams across the river, shallow water again, and worst of all - head winds.

Then the wind slipped in behind us. I cut a little willow and jammed it upright in the bow and we sailed up out of Post Oak into Hart at a good five knots with no paddling.

Speeding along with no effort was pleasant for a change, though the wind was cold and I disliked the thought of fighting it later when the river twisted back south. Canoeing, most of the time, you prefer no wind at all; it destroys quietness and whips yours scent about and makes animals lie low and even squelches the birds. And if it turns against you, it makes a trip pure labor.

But preference hasn't got much to do with it.

Goodbye to a River, pp. 56-57

Metal Ford

2010-04-06T22:02:00.001-05:00

One of the first things we'll pass after putting in Saturday morning is where the old Natchez Trace (the real one) crossed the river. It's about one mile downstream from the cabin.

There is a great chute at Metal Ford that is fun in high water, although it can be a tight squeeze for XL paddlers.

Fords were dangerous if you were on the Natchez Trace back then.

Not just because of the current. Ambushes were common and fords were a favorite place to lay in wait because travelers were vulnerable when they crossed.

In another drifting mile or so it was four thirty by my guess time, and I pulled out at the mouth of Ioni Creek, above a tumbling rapids. I wanted to get settled before evening brought whatever weather it might bring.

Jesse Veale fought the old, useless fight at a ford just up Ioni, one day in 1873. . . .

I ate about dusk and sat staring at a little stick fire that needed constant fueling. The pup had dry dogfood with squirrel gravy, and sought the tent. Aloneness is most striking at evening, however it may happen to be striking you at the moment. Day's absorbent busy-ness is past, and the dishes are stacked dirty, and you are confronted with yourself and confronted too with whether or not you like being where you are, by yourself.

I sat and listened to the rapids and thought for no good reason about Jesse Veale, who rode to Ioni with two of his brothers and a friend from Palo Pinto town a few miles away, to fish and to hunt turkeys and to camp and, probably, to stick cockleburs under one another's saddles and tie knots in one another's bed rolls and laugh the kind of laughter you laugh with friends out that way, young.

In '73 there was not much reason to expect Indians in that neighborhood - in fact, Jesse Veale was the last man killed in that county by them. The fighting had gone on hot and heavy all during the War and afterward, in the bitter Reconstruction years, when the Northern whites at the Oklahoma agencies had not only tolerated but sometimes abetted the raids down across the Red, with the full moon. But by '73 it was last-ditch and sporadic, and its center had moved out north and west of the Brazos country. . . .

Inheritors of the old sharp-edgedness, though, Jesse Veale and his companions likely went around hoping for trouble, any kind. If so, they got it.

One afternoon, setting fishlines near the Garland Bend, they ran across some Indian ponies staked out in the cedar, and some saddles, and took them. (The assumption with Indian ponies was always that they had been stolen, or if not that others had been.) The next morning Jesse Veale and Joe Corbin crossed Ioni at the ford a half-mile above its mouth, on their way back to camp from checking some hooks at the river. At the crossing, in a race to see who'd come second and get splashed, they hit the water hard at about the same time and sprayed each other mightily and raced on through, yelling. On the other side Joe Corbin pulled up and knuckled water out of an eye and unholstered his old cap-and-ball Colt.

"You scutter," he said. "You done wet my loads."

"You ain't gonna shoot nothin' nohow," Jesse Veale said.

Joe Corbin said: "Jesse."

"What?"

"Jesse," Joe Corbin said, "they's two Indians a-lookin' at us from on top of that bank. They's more than two. . . ."

Afoot, likely because it had been their ponies the boys had taken upriver, the Comanches began to shoot, and an arrow hit Jesse Veale in the knee, and his horse went to bucking off to one side. Joe Corbin yelled: "What the hell we gonna do?"

Jesse yelled something back. To Joe Corbin it sounded like: "Run it out!" He did, snapping his useless pistol at an Indian who tried to grab his reins and ducked aside from the misfire, lashing his pony on up the bank's rise. . . .

When he last looked back (how many times did he see it again, the rest of his life, how many times did he wonder if what Jesse Veale had said was: "Fight it out"?), Jesse was on the ground shooting and clubbing with his pistol, and they were all over him. And when Joe Corbin came back with help from a ranch not far away, they found Jesse Veale sitting dead but unscalped against a double-elm tree, his pistol gone, Comanche blood on the ground around him. Though the Indians were gabbling over their wounded in a ravine near at hand, and someone's dog went there and bayed at them, the whites were only three and did not follow them, then. . . .

Some of the lines they had been checking must have been set where I was camped just then, a good fish hole still.

Chop Shop

2010-04-05T20:29:00.007-05:00

Kirly had a whole class full of students who paid cash money to dismantle his car for him, plus several RRCC-ers who volunteered their time to come get in the way. The second session is this Saturday at noon.

Some Details

2010-04-04T21:50:00.008-05:00

By now you've figured out that we're spending Friday night under a roof again. We won't publish the actual name of our host since the last thing he wants is to be in the same Google search result with this club but it rhymes with Ravid Rox and he shares his name with a medium-sized, reddish fur-bearing animal.

For a general description of the Buffalo, you can go back and read here and here from Fall 2007 when we did the very lowest section all the way to the confluence with the Duck.

Second Night Campsite on Lower Buffalo River

We also did the middle Buffalo in the Fall of 2000 way back before we were really the RRCC. Which was also before we had cameras which means no pics to show you.

So now we're going to complete the Buffalo trifecta by going all the way up to the section where it goes under the Natchez Trace Parkway in Lewis County. The upper part is small and pretty like the Piney or Yellow Creek, but unlike those rivers it's spring fed so we should have good water levels no matter what.

Our put-in on Saturday morning will be right at the cabin, giving us lots of pure paddling time on Saturday. We can even run the shuttle Friday night if we want to. In the map below, the Friday cabin is marked with a red X. The purple and white road that crosses the river is the Natchez Trace:

Our second night will be in Texas Bottoms (click below):

Texas Bottoms Riffle

Texas Bottoms Bluff

Texas Bottoms and Tops

(More reasons not to get yourself Googled with the RRCC)

________________________________________________

Oh what the heck, let's have a pre-trip meeting. How about Brown's this Thursday, April 8 at 7:30?

Cooks: the Minnesota wild rice total is 7.5 lbs dry.

Brer Jack: Texas Bottoms was "Hot Damn!" You know what I'm talking about.

~

Looking for that Buffalo River Home

2010-03-31T21:43:00.015-05:00

Friday Night Headquarters

Hay field out front.

"Hey man, watch this!"

~

Continuing Education

2010-03-29T21:50:00.010-05:00

April is going to be a very busy month for the Rebel Rivers Canoe Club. Before we even get to the Spring Float, we have all been cleared to audit Kirly's Derby Car Workshop classes. Click on "Zen and the Art of Demolition Car Building (#718)" for more information but don't register - tuition is free to Club members because the RRCC is a name sponsor. The course is two classes long - first this Saturday, April 3 and then next Saturday, April 10. Both days are from 12:00 to 2:00.

Participants will help tranform this 1978 Ford LTD...

Into this...

And then this...

Someone tell Frieda to tell Jim. When he watched us get knocked around by the illegal consortiums last year he swore he was going to race with Kirk in 2010. Now's your chance, Mulldog.

We Have a River

2010-03-29T09:00:00.012-05:00

Taking advantage of the loophole in the No Repeats rule, and a perfect Friday night set up (more on that later), we're going back to do a new section of the Buffalo for the Spring Trip.

Watch this space for details and a pre-trip meeting.

Yellow Creek is Over 4 Feet

2010-03-25T10:55:00.018-05:00

Tempting, but the No Repeats rule does not allow it.

That rule doesn't prevent us from doing the same river more than once, it just means we can't do the same section (and there's only one floatable section on Yellow Creek). Learn the difference.

"You can comprehend a piece of river. A whole river that is really a river is much to comprehend unless it is the Mississippi or the Danube or the Yangtze-Kiang and you spend a lifetime in its navigation; and even then what you comprehend, probably, are channels and topography and perhaps the honky-tonks in the river's towns. A whole river is mountain country and hill country and flat country and swamp and delta country, is rock bottom and sand bottom and weed bottom and mud bottom, is blue, green, red, clear, brown, wide, narrow, fast, slow, clean, and filthy water, is all the kinds of trees and grasses and all the breeds of animals and birds and men that pertain and have ever pertained to its changing shores, is a thousand differing and not compatible things in-between that point where enough of the highland drainlets have trickled together to form it, and that wide, flat, probably desolate place where it discharges itself into the salt of the sea.

It is also an entity, one of the real wholes, but to feel the whole is hard because to know it is harder still.

A piece, then..."

Goodbye to a River, pp. 4-5.

Hey Nonny Nonny

2010-03-23T10:33:00.020-05:00

Webmaster: we have hacked into the site because you haven't done squat in like 3 months. If you want to keep your job, these are our demands for the Spring Trip.

1. Another river that looks like this.

2. All Camo Busch in the coolers.

3. A pre-trip meeting at a neutral (Brown's) site.

That's it. And if you don't, we're going to drop a 9-Man Log on your dog.

What We Learned

2010-02-15T21:32:00.003-06:00

Professor Myers taught us the hard way that the myth about "good" tequila not giving you a hangover is . . . a myth.

Especially when your study breaks are at The Villager.

There was also a lot of progress made on the date for the spring trip but nobody remembers what we decided.

Thursday's Unofficial Meeting

2010-02-10T14:39:00.007-06:00

Have you signed up?

Discover the "Delicious Beauty & Mystery" of brown liquor out of the bottle.

~

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

2010-02-07T21:31:00.012-06:00

One more reason to sign up for Jim's class Thursday night: Bob is bringing samples of his new handcrafted cheeses to help the tequila go down.

If he can dodge the health inspector, expect to see his full cheese line unveiled on the spring trip.

Jim and Rob, you need to plan your menu around this.

~

2010-02-03T10:43:00.015-06:00

Let the RRCC spring season begin.

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever:
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.

To kick things off, two key members are sharing some of our institutional knowledge with the EPL public by volunteering to teach adult education evening classes at USN. Since the subject matters (alcohol and Smash Em Up Derby cars) make up a large part of our core values, the RRCC needs to represent.

First up, Jim Myers is teaching "The Delicious Beauty & Mystery of Tequila" (class #444). It is next Thursday, February 11 at Rebel Jeff Greenfield's house. Not the same thing as "Practical Steps to Natural Beauty" the same night.

In April, Kirk is teaching "Zen and the Art of Demolition Derby Car Building", class #718, and not to be confused with "A Passionate Relationship: Doing the Work of Repair".

The Derby Car classes will be on two Saturdays: April 3 and April 10. (Prime float trip weekends, Kirly...)

Register by following this link. Jim's class is in the 400s under "Food, Wine & Entertainment" (mainly Entertainment) and Kirk's is in the 700s under "Arts and Hobbies" (emphais on Arts). Sign up for one or both if you can. Let's all plan to meet at Camp Cookie's Tequila Drink-Off next Thursday and use that as an unofficial first meeting to talk about dates for the spring trip.

On Our Way

2010-01-29T15:06:00.004-06:00

http://weather.com/

Click right here.

This is us at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.