Joe & Isaac's Adventure: Episode 2 - Chapter 1

In spite of our contempt for the integrity of great rivers, the Mississippi will shrug off our abuse and move on. This is the fine delight of rivers. They are born traveling, wanting always to move on, intolerant of restraint and interference -- itinerant workers always rambling down the line to see what's around the next bend, growling or singing songs, depending on how things suit them.
--John Madson

Late in the fall of 2001 we found and purchased a used pontoon boat. It was precisely what we were looking for. The deck had been stripped of the usual assortment of furniture and accouterments. Only the control console and captain's chair remained. The fellow in Peoria who owned the boat agreed to deliver it to St. Louis for a total purchase price of $4000.00. Included we got the 1985 Riviera pontoon, a 1986 Mercury Mariner 115 hp engine and 1995 Tracker trailer. The pontoons were in good condition and the boat was structurally sound. The control cables to the engine were rotting and rusted. The deck had some soft spots that we assumed meant it was starting to wear out. The control console was a mess and the captain's chair was worse. Our next-door-neighbor graciously allowed us to keep the boat on the concrete pad in her back yard where a garage once stood.

Our decision to switch from a canoe to a pontoon boat was based on a number of factors. We were going to travel the next section of the river from Redwing to St. Louis -- basically the dam pools. There are twenty-seven locks and dams on the Mississippi between Minneapolis and St. Louis. Dams mean dam pools or lakes. Lakes, especially recreational lakes, as many of these are, can be very difficult to canoe. A combination of wind and large powerboats will raise waves on even a small lake that can overturn or swamp a canoe. Talk to anyone who has tried to canoe through one of the dam pools near a city on a Sunday afternoon and, you're going to hear a stream of expletives primarily focused on the ignorant drunken pigs piloting large cruisers. We had a smaller but sufficient taste of the same last summer on the outskirts of St. Cloud and Minneapolis (see Episode 1 Chapter 5). I didn't relish the thought of suffering that again -- especially not on a larger scale.

This section of the river is not particularly dangerous. However the towboats are very dangerous if you get in their way. The parked barges at the river's edge can be dangerous and the recreational boaters can be extremely dangerous. Isaac is now big and strong and basically a very bright young man. I am immensely proud of him. He is also however fourteen -- that marvelous age when you become at least temporarily immortal and all knowing. This condition of early puberty can also be extremely dangerous. In a few more years I might like to canoe this section of the river with Isaac, but this year the safety of a larger boat seemed appropriate.

The most important reason however that we selected the pontoon boat for this trip was The Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. This is the most beautiful, most amazing and most unique feature of the entire river. The Refuge extends for nearly 300 miles from Wabasha Minnesota to just above Rock Island, Illinois. We wanted the pontoon boat as the ideal platform from which we could explore the Refuge. We took the canoe with us. It rested on its side on the pontoon boat deck and stuck out the front about three feet. In the backwaters of the Wildlife Refuge, we could anchor the pontoon boat and proceed into shallow waters with the canoe.

In the early spring Isaac and I made repairs to the control console and replaced the captain's chair. We attached storage bins to the deck and started buying the supplies we would need. In April, Bob and Cher (friends) helped us (big truck) haul the boat out to John's Boat Harbor on the river. There Patrick, the marina's mechanic, went to work on the engine and electrical system. Patrick was amazing. A few times when we were at the marina he decided to make some last minute adjustments to the engine. He would take his tools, climb up over the top of the engine and hang there upside down while he worked. He never dropped so much as a washer into the water. To his credit that twenty year old engine ran like a champ for over twelve hundred miles. By mid May everything was ready -- we had only a week to make a few test runs and load our gear.

On May twenty-third Clare drove us to the marina and saw us off. The river had just four days before dropped back below flood stage. It was still high and running muddy as we headed for the lock and dam at Winfield. Behind the boat our wake looked like coffee with cream and chocolate shavings swirling in a blender. The chocolate shavings were pieces of floating debris washed down by the flood waters. This debris posed a hazard as mixed in with it was an occasional log or even entire tree large enough to damage our engine in a collision. Often these larger pieces of trees were waterlogged and just barely visible. Isaac had to remain vigilant guiding the boat to avoid striking the big ones. Isaac we decided would be the pilot as we set off. He quickly became so skilled at the job that the post became his permanently. The river was higher than we thought for when we reached Winfield we were surprised to see the dam gates wide open and the river pouring through. The lock in this case was only necessary to control the current. We probably could have made it right through one of the dam gates, but that's highly illegal.

Once we cleared the first lock I felt like our journey had really begun. The next lock was at Clarksville -- Lock Number 24. About fifty highway miles from St. Louis, Clarksville is a quiet little one-intersection town. In winter the dam is a popular place to look for bald eagles who have come south in search of open water. A public boat launch brings fishermen the rest of the year who work the same section of river as the eagles. Here we had to wait for a tow to finish locking-through -- a process we would repeat time and again throughout the trip. I'll explain it in more detail later. Ten more miles up river was Louisiana, Missouri. We had gotten off to a late start, our progress against the current was slow and waiting for a tow to lock-through can take nearly two hours. As we approached Louisiana it was getting late and we needed to look for a safe place to spend the night. There were two islands in the middle of the river just below town at mile 280. We decided to position the boat behind them well out of the channel and drop anchor. Our first night was difficult for me. Although out of the main channel, the river current was still strong behind Gosline Island. We set two anchors, but I was apprehensive when we finally zipped the netting shut on our tent and lay down to sleep. I kept having visions of the boat breaking loose and drifting off down the river.

The map just above is a cropped section of one of the Upper Mississippi River Navigation Charts that are published by the Corps of Engineers. The river is meticulously mapped and measured. The mile mark (280) I referenced in the paragraph above is visible on the map as is every mile beginning with 0 at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Mile markers also exist on the river attached to channel markers. It is rare not to encounter at least one every ten miles. The yellow labels you see on the map indicate channel markers that include a mileage measurement. The Corps of Engineers break the river into three sections: The Headwaters -- Lake Itasca to Minneapolis, The Upper Mississippi -- Minneapolis to Cairo, The Lower Mississippi -- Cairo to the Gulf. The charts are free to download from the Corps' website.