Trip Pictures Coming Soon

Hold on, we're still a little dehydrated.

Current River Eve

The final  headcount is 13.   We will take three vehicles:  Skip's truck, Rob's Suburban and Neil's SUV and we'll pull the canoe trailer and the jon boat behind the truck and the 'Bourbon.  Since Pete and Ian are meeting us there we'll have 11 riding from Nashville and we can ride 3, 4 and 4 with most of the gear in the trailers and the truck bed. A leaky jon boat still makes a great trailer.   No need to arrange a ride other than that, just show up and climb in.
 
The following 9 canoes are going:
 
Jim
Rob C.
Mike C.
Josh
Tim
Skip (x4)
 
That will allow for seven in solo boats, four riding tandem and two riding the Mule.
 
The Club will provide coolers and drinks for Ian, Bill and Pete who are arriving by bike and plane.  The rest of you know by now to get your own beverages.

We will provide sleeping bags, pads and a tent for Ian and Bill.  Pete will have this stuff on his bike trip.  The rest of you bring your own.

We will provide a personal box of Ohio Blue Tips to all the smokers.  The rest of you can fuck off and start your fire with steel wool and a battery. 

See you in the staging area at 6:30 sharp tomorrow morning. 

Directions

The Current River is just one holler over from the Eleven Point so the route is the same as the Fall 2010 trip until the very end.


The Simple Version

Take I-24 west to Paducah
Take Hwy 60 west (Exit 4) a long way, at least 150 miles
In Winona, Missouri turn right on Hwy 19
Take Hwy 19 north about 25 miles to Round Spring

The Full Version

Take I-24 west to Paducah
Get off on Exit 4 in Paducah ("Hwy 60/Hinkleville Rd.")
Turn west (left) on Hwy 60
Take Hwy 60 west about twenty miles
Stop at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for the Hanging of the Balls ceremony

Continue west on Hwy 60 about ten more miles to Interstate 57
Take I-57/Hwy 60 west
In about 25 miles, Hwy 60 splits off from I-57 again. Follow Hwy 60.
In about 50 more miles you'll get to Poplar Bluff, Missouri...

For those of you who were disappointed that The Pony Gentleman's Club was closed on the way back from the Eleven Point, you get a second shot here if you want to take a short ten minute detour. Just turn left after Poplar Bluff onto Hwy 67 and it will be on your right in 10 miles. Pretty sure you can't miss it.

...otherwise, continue on past Poplar Bluff on Hwy 60
In about 60 miles, turn right on Hwy 19 North near Winona, Missouri
Take Hwy 19 about 25 miles to Round Spring.

The meeting point will be at the canoe access on the river, not the campground.  Look for flashing blue lights and Ian and Pete Feldman handcuffed to the bridge.

Here are some things you should be doing during Trip Week:

1.  Oil your gunwales, wax your hulls, tighten the seat and thwart fasteners.  It is bad form to go on a good canoe trip without paying some attention to your boat first.

2.  Pick out which knife you're going to bring and your personal cup.   If this is the first trip for your cup, you should test it beforehand.  Choose a night that you can sit down with a copy of Goodbye to a River and practice pouring into it. 

3.  If you are not planning to play a guitar, watch this:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grLQcFK5oRY&feature=fvwrel

and then this

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Po0CTtJLl24&feature=endscreen.  

The perfect instructor for our Anglo-themed trip.  Continue practicing with your personal cup. 

4.  Gather your beverages.  Remember that it is BYOB for everything except coffee.  That means you are responsible for your own beer, brown liquor, water, soft drinks, etc. 

5.  It looks like there will be times this weekend it will be cold.  Mainly at night and anytime during the day that you take an involuntary swim.  Pack for both possibilities.

We will meet at 6:30 am Saturday morning.   We won't be stopping for breakfast and we'll just drive through somewhere for lunch.   Sometime between now and Saturday, when the final roster is in place, we will do a full accounting of the trucks and canoes that will be going and we'll post a map to the river.

T Minus 5

This weekend, cheering crowds lined the streets and hung signs from the overpasses as the canoe trailer made its semiannual trek up I-65 from Cool Springs.  It was made available to the public for photo ops at Brown's Diner on Sunday afternoon before being moved to the staging area on Barton Ave.   You may now bring your canoe for loading any time this week.  Thank you to those of you who already have. 

While we were at Phil's warehouse we helped ourselves to some useful looking equipment that was clearly being underutilized by ERM.   Is it stealing if you say you're taking it?  We grabbed a couple of extra collapsible tables thinking we'll need the counter space for the big veggie chop, even with the upside down Grumman.   We'll bring some more cutting boards too because there's probably been something worse than Gluvit on those tables.   We also got a nice, professional-looking utility box to hold the jon boat accessories (spotlights, tools, outboard oil, etc.).  It will give us lots of river cred because it says "Large Impingers" across the top so if we get pulled over by a MO DNR agent we can tell them we're impinging.  Only thing better would be saying we're sucker gigging. 

Mike is confirmed for the trip so he's still in charge of an axe.  Make sure it has a blade on one side and a blunt end on the other because we'll be using it for driving wedges as much as chopping.   Rob, if you forget the wedges we'll have to find something else to use like your cell phone.  Vernon:  you are the lube man. 

For those of you still worried about the distances, look at Float #24 (October 12) about half way down this "Float Log":   FLLOG.   They covered 44-miles on the Current River on a one night trip.   Granted, they were in kayaks but they also say they were heavily loaded with both gear and beer.   Nice pics, too.  Should get you fired up.