I woke early. Even having been in the Mountain time zone for most of a week, I was still waking at 3:30 am, or so. I tried to remain quiet, so I cogitated about what I really, REALLY needed, and what I could safely leave. Instead of “safely,” maybe I should say “comfortably.” I sat in the dark, looking out the screen door of the tent at the stars, thinking about those final decisions. As it began to get light, I escaped the tent. I watched a deer and two fawns on the foot of the island just upstream from where we were. It was something to do until the others got up.
People packing and eating at Coal Banks Landing drive-in campground."
When people started getting up, we were told to start taking tents down as breakfast was prepared. I may get specific meals out of order, but I believe the breakfast on this day was 3-4 types of cereal with milk, apples and oranges. There was also coffee and tea and cocoa. It was good, and it was quick, and we were ready to move along pretty quickly.
We moved the boats down to the landing and started staging equipment so it could be loaded into canoes. The guides had previously had us gather into a circle and told us how to paddle the canoes, describing forward, C and J strokes. Ethan told us who the boat pairings were to be for the day. I was to be a “duffer,” with Jesika in the stern and Nolan in the bow. We all helped carry stuff to the guides, so they could load gear into the canoes. While standing around, we saw a small softshell turtle floating in the landing area. Some people were in their boats quite early. Other boats weren’t ready for quite a while, as they still needed loading. It took a while to load boats because there was a LOT of stuff. It had to be balanced left to right, and then it had to be tied in. Stuff wasn’t tied tightly into the boat... if you went over, and the stuff was tied in, you’d have a dickens of a time getting the boat righted. So one end of the rope was tied to a thwart, then the rope was looped over and through gear, leaving the end free. That way, if a boat went over, the stuff would fall out, but it would stay with the boat like a long tail. The boat could be easily righted, and a tug on the rope would bring the one-time contents of the canoe back to be loaded again.
We work to load the canoes. Since this is our first time loading canoes, most of us don't how to do any more than carry things to the guides and let them load the gear. True confession - I never made it past that, but at least I managed to carry some stuff. Call me "Schlep."
It took a bit, but we were finally underway. The first few miles were pretty unspectacular. The ground around the river sloped upward, sometimes had Cottonwood trees, and generally had grass on the banks. The sternsmen seemed to be doing ok and controlling their boats, with a few moments of “bumper boats.”
At last, we're off. Our final view of "civilization" for a few days.
We stopped for lunch at Little Sandy Creek. We had turkey and ham sandwiches with some hot (spicy) pickles and cookies.
One of the people on this trip was Joe. He was a gentle and caring individual. He was good friends with Chris. He would regularly look at Chris and say, "Chris, Happeeeeee?" Often, Chris would respond, “Happeeeeee.” If so, Joe would look satisfied and say, “Chris, happeeeeee.” This was always accompanied by a little smile. If Chris didn’t respond, Joe would ask again. He seemed very relieved when Chris was happy. By the end of the trip, I think we all looked forward to Chris' response, and the satisfaction and comfort it gave Joe.
Because there were Prairie Rattlesnakes in the area, when we stopped, the guides were supposed to get out first and scare off the rattlesnakes. How do you scare away rattlesnakes? Take a paddle and beat the ground and swing it around. I don’t know how effective it really was, but we saw no snakes during the whole trip. Maybe I should take a canoe paddle hiking?
The guides would get out of the canoes first, and whack the ground with a canoe paddle to scare off any rattlesnakes. Since we didn't see any rattlesnakes on this trip, I'm beginning to think I should carry a canoe paddle when I hike on the Appalachian Trail.
At this site, as at many we were to stop at, the river bank featured thick mud. I ended up ankle deep in goopy mud, regularly. As the trip progressed, either the mud lessened, or I got more used to it, but it was always something to consider when taking that first step.
After lunch, we took a day hike to look at some old teepee rings. According to a book I had, Magnificent Journey, these were large teepee rings, which meant they were from a period after the natives had horses, which would be after the 1600’s. My own thoughts are that this location was pretty and strategic, and that it had probably been used before the reintroduction of the horse… and when the horses arrived, the natives just moved the rocks out a bit the next time they stopped by. Another point the book made was that these rocks were Gneiss... a rock found naturally 1500 miles north of here, but not here, at least not naturally. The site was on a bench well above the river level, providing a nice, strategic view of the river valley, but not so far from the river to be a big bother going to get water. We wandered about the bench a bit, checking out another ring, and then we headed back down to the canoes.
We all helped carry the lunch stuff back to the boats, and helped load. For some of us, “helping” meant staying out of the way. I was told that for the next segment of the trip, I’d be paddling in the bow of Martin’s boat. It had been nice being free to take pictures, but I was glad to be paddling.
We began to see White Cliffs, the physical characteristic for which this segment of the river was famous.
These are some of the first White Cliffs we saw as we descended the Missouri River.
I have carpel tunnel problems if I bend my wrist too frequently, so instead of using a canoe paddle and having to twist the blade (through wrist action), I used a kayak paddle. While a bit unorthodox, my wrist was fine the whole trip, and with the kayak paddle, I make a pretty good motor. We had a tail wind, if we had any wind at all, which no doubt helped.
As a group, we moved along nicely. I liked being able to paddle, and felt satisfaction at being able to contribute.
We saw a dark rock formation on the left, behind a ranch. It was a volcanic plug, of Shonkinite. Shonkinite is a relatively rare rock, according to the book I mentioned earlier. We were to see a good deal of it in the next few days. It was the only dark rock we saw. We would see it as volcanic “plugs,” as with Pilot Rock, which was the rock we just passed. Later, we’d also see it form dykes and sills.
We pulled in on the left bank, and waited while the guides got out and terrorized any nearby rattlesnakes. When the way was clear, we got out into the muck, and started to unload. Since we really didn’t know what we were doing, mostly, we carried our stuff up on the bank, and waited while the guides untied stuff, and started handing it to us. We started moving gear up to the campsite area. There were a couple of picnic tables under a couple of big cottonwood trees, and an area that was fairly cleared. When we got everything up on the bench, we dispersed to put up tents. Margaret and I put ours on the upstream edge of the camp area. I liked it because it was fairly near the picnic tables and the outhouse, and on one edge of the tents. Being on the edge of the tents meant that if there were any snorers in the group, we’d have a good chance at being far from them, and we couldn't be surrounded by them. At least that was my theory.
There was a two-track road leading back toward some rock formations. The rock formations were of Virgelle Sandstone, the white stone that formed the White Cliffs that were the big attraction in this area. The rocks were beautiful and intriguing.
I dumped my stuff in my side of the tent, and went back to see if I could help set up group stuff. I helped put together a table, after Lauren showed me how, and then helped Ethan hang a tarp over the cooking area. Actually, I didn't help much, mostly I held the rope. There were two trees, close together, and then more trees... but in the wrong direction. There were some other trees that were pretty far away. Ethan considered for quite a while, and Lauren suggested tying two throw ropes together and attaching the rope to one of the picnic table trees and one of the distant trees. I just stood while they discussed and debated and considered, and then my “contribution” was to support the middle of the rope up while Ethan tied the ends to the tarp and to a tree, respectively. It wasn’t going to win an engineering award, but it would be functional. Somewhere in this process, Lauren or Jesika showed me how to tie a butterfly knot. It apparently had some kind of an application that would be useful in hanging a tarp, but I was a poor student and we gave it up. I felt a little like napping, and headed toward the tent. I ended up fussing with my stuff in the tent, instead of napping. Out in the sun, the tent was pretty warm, so I really didn’t want to stay.
When I exited the tent, some were preparing supper, and Nolan and Martin were preparing to follow the two-track to the rocks out back. They left.
At some point, canoes began floating by. We knew there was a group that had left Coal Banks Landing after us. They seemed to be having fun. We weren’t sure if there weren’t two groups. I didn’t see it happen, but one canoe went over. I did see the turned canoe in the water. I think we were all amazed that none of the other canoes went over to help. Heck, so near as we could tell, no one even went over to see if the folks in the water were ok. After a few minutes, the swimmers pulled their canoe to the bank on the far side and emptied their canoe. They got back in their boat, and paddled away. I was amazed that no other paddlers on the river even went over to check on them. Sad.
For supper, we had chicken tortillas. There was canned chicken and sauted veggies and lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. It was really good.
The two-track to the rocks.
The Virgille Sandstone rocks behind the campsite.
Some (many) people hiked back to the rocks to watch the sunset, but I stayed at camp and watched the light on the rocks change. It was beautiful. Shortly after, I went to the tent for the night.
Margaret and I were both in the tent when Joe showed up at the door. He wanted to say good night to Margaret. Margaret responded kindly and gently and it was neat to watch the two interact. I was surprised when Joe turned to wish me a good night, too. He seemed unsure of my name, but confirmed that, and then wished me a good night. It was sweet.