Forecast

10-day forecasts are meaningless, basically. They have no idea. But since we're under 10 days and they publish it, we will too.

Watching the Gauges

This is a tricky time of year to float the Red River. It hasn't rained in months, but it looks like it's about to and we'll need to keep an eye on the river level. Too much and it's dangerous, too little and it's a hike instead of a paddle. Especially with loaded canoes. Although as long as we're not hauling a bunch of cast iron cookware and beer, I'm sure we'll be fine...

There's a link on the right that shows the USGS gauges for Tennessee. Scroll down to Montgomery County and find the Port Royal gauge on the Red River. Ignore the first graph ("Discharge/cubic feet per second") and go to the second that shows gauge height in feet.

Here's what it looks like today:
















Here is the "What It Means To Us" scale for this section of the Red:

3.0 Anything with a 3 in front of it is very low. Upper 3's is passable but lots of dragging. Lower 3's is probably just not worth it and we'll go to a different river.

4.0 Low 4's is ok. Occasional dragging with an empty boat, more if heavy. Upper 4's and our section can be floated pretty much the whole way without dragging if you know how to find the deeper channels.

5.0 Ideal. When the Red is in the 5's it makes a perfect, lazy float trip.

6.0 Ditto. Except add adjectives like "fast" and "fun".

7.0 Getting pushy.

8.0+ Time to go to Knoxville for the big game.

Also, before praying for rain and a 6.5 next weekend, keep in mind that some (maybe most) of the best gravel bars may be underwater at that level. The RRCC archives say that the river was at 4.1 feet when the pictures of the campsite were taken (see below). We might float right over the top of that one if the river is two feet higher.

Getting Serious About the Washtub Bass

Here are some choices for building plans.

Bass #1 is simple. Maybe too simple, even for us. We'll need a tennis ball.

Bass #2 looks like the best overall set of plans, and not just because it uses a toilet plunger and an "eye hoe". It looks like the best bass we could realistically build in one night.

Or just go to Tubotonia (The Washtub Bass Homepage) and click on WTB Designs for all kinds of choices and building tips.

Red River Campsite Proposal

The choice of campsites on the Red depends on water level to some extent, but I say we aim for the small, second island at the mouth of Sturgeon Creek. The big island is high and wooded, but the one just downstream has a nice, long bar with water on three sides (it's really an "island" only in flood).

The islands are about two-thirds of the way through the 16-mile trip. Probably four hours of paddling assuming low water.

Click on any of these to zoom in...










This is a photo looking upstream from below the islands. The two tall trees in the center background are on the large island:



From La Pavilion to La Penninsula! Standing on the gravel bar, looking downstream:



This shot is taken from the large island, looking downstream at the campsite:


Keep in mind, the scenery won't be quite the same in November. Stuart, can your guys superimpose a light dusting of snow on these images?

Meeting/Washtub Bass Workshop - November 10

The RRCC will meet next Thursday, Nov. 10th at 8:00 pm. in my garage.

We need volunteers for the following:

1. Washtub Bass design selection
2. Purchase the materials
3. Purchase the Yazoo

Jim and Rob, bring your cook books.

There's No "E" in "Whisky"

We're not going to give up taking beer altogether, but everyone agreed after the spring trip that we need to start emphasizing brown liquor. Bringing enough beer to stay completely drunk for 24 hours is just impractical in a canoe. We experimented with the Yazoo Party Pigs thinking they would be more beer with less packaging, but the Pig is unwieldy and when the tap malfunctioned someone started hacking at it like a sacrificial beast by the firelight, and Rob started playing The Doors on his guitar and Mullowney's head rose slowly out of the Stones River with his camo paint. And Josh kept saying "the horror, the horror" over and over in his camp chair.
















This is the End
Beautiful friend
This is the End
My only friend, the End

The Killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he WALKED ON DOWN THE HALL

Disturbing, and all we managed to do was puncture the CO2 pouch inside the Party Pig and the beer was really salty the rest of the night.


This beer tastes like shit. Bring me another."

~

So we're switching to whisky. The Liquor and Spirits Editor from the newspaper will be on the trip and he has approved the selections, but this is a Tennessee based canoe club and the choice for Tennessee Whisky is easy (there are only two). We drink George Dickel and we drink it neat because "Dickel's for drinkin', water's for sprinklin'"….Merle Haggard said that.

"Jack Daniel's is for tourists"…. I said that.

Since the Red River bends north up into Kentucky, we also get to bring the official Kentucky Bourbon of the RRCC on this trip: Basil Hayden. Drink fast, though, because we'll only be in Kentucky for a couple of miles.

Here is a dusty bottle of Basil Hayden that the RRCC found high on a shelf at Dante's Inferno in Big Sky, Montana.




















Here is the same bottle after the club drank it one bar drink at a time at ski resort prices.
















Here is what we will drink if the club is ever lucky enough to take a canoe trip in the Yukon Territories.