APRIL 28 THURS DAY 19 ON THE WATER – I stayed up a little later than normal last night to make sure I had my waders, the insides of them dry. It paid off because I was up at about 6 and it was cold and everything was dry. What a blessing it was for someone to leave all of that wood there for a fire for hours and I am glad I had some fire starter/wet striking matches in some baggies.
On the water about 7:15, little breeze but no wind and what a joy to not have any rain or snow. I made good miles by 11:00 and reached Savage, MT. I have been thru there many times on the trips back and forth to ND and walked up to the Cenex C Store to get just a few things to make sure I had enough water and “sweets†for the next few days to finish up the Yellowstone. It surprised me with a High School in town, there wasn’t 1 single place to get a hamburger, but somebody mentioned to me that on Wednesday the senior center has a lunch. So for $3.50 I had goulash, salad, corn, pickles and brownies and ice cream plus had some nice conversations with some Senior Citizens who couldn’t even begin to fathom what I was doing and what was obvious to me, most of them weren’t as old as I am.
I found another good place to camp for the night, once again up off the bank, it is a bit of hike with all the trips it takes but well worth it to be out of the wind if it were to come up and just as importantly I won’t have the beavers smacking their tails in my face if I were to be down on the bank.
I may not make it to the confluence tomorrow and it doesn’t matter. It is going to be the weekend and I will stay busy organizing my gear, doing some shopping in
Williston, wash my clothes and get packed up for the beginning of the Missouri trip so when I get off the plane from St. Louis and call a taxi all I will have to do is go to the grocery store and get what will be needed for the ice chest. I hope to be able to get my sleeping bag and insert dry cleaned on Monday in a day, I also have to find somebody/sheet metal shop to help me fix my rudder it has really gotten beat up.
One of the things I beat myself up over is not tying the kayak up the first thing I do when I hit the bank. I didn’t do it this time and looked out towards the river and saw my orange flag I have on the back of the kayak floating down the river. I had plenty of time, but it is something I just have to remember. When I get out of the kayak and remove all of the gear, the kayak probably now weighs about 80 lbs. instead of 300lbs and floats like a feather in very shallow water.
I am breaking this trip into 4 sections. The Yellowstone the 1st, the first 600 miles plus or minus of the Missouri the 2nd which gets me to the other side of the last of 3 dams, then the section from that dam down to St. Louis the 3rd section, then the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Gulf/S of New Orleans the 4th.
If I can possibly keep the daily miles up, then once I spend a couple of weeks of Lake Saskatchewan I should have a pretty good idea of how long it will take me to finish the 2nd section. Not going to worry about the 3rd until I get there.
APRIL 29 FRIDAY DAY 20 ON THE WATER – Once up and the kayak packed and I was on the water this morning, it was evident it was going to be a nice day. It took me until 5:00 in the afternoon to reach the Confluence of the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. I saw a lot of beaver today. The water has risen several feet because of all of the rain/snow this past week and a lot of their “beaver houses†have been washed away, so they were spending their day in their holes along the bank of the river. When I would come by, they would in twos and threes leap into the river and slap their tails long after I was way down river, they did not like being disturbed.
At the boat ramp, I completely cleaned the kayak out, went thru all of my gear and cleaned it up. With the water being so muddy, everything looks dirty. Once I had done that, I put everything back, made my list for in the morning and finally got to bed about 10:00.
APRIL 30/31 SATURDAY/SUNDAY IN WILLISTON/JAMESTOWN, ND – I was in town by 4:30AM, couldn’t sleep and was anxious to get things done in town and go back out to the kayak and finish preparing/packing the craft, so it was all ready for me upon my return from St. Louis. I washed clothes, bought everything I needed off my list at Wal Mart and was back out at the kayak by 10:00 in the morning.
Once I returned to town, on my way out of town I stopped at a coffee place and got somewhat caught up with my email/etc.
I left Williston, ND about 3:00 in the afternoon. I got no further than a few miles on the other side of Minot, ND and my van started to run very poorly. Long story short, it turned out to be a bad head gasket, after spending all day Sunday in Jamestown, ND working on the Van with a guy I met in an O’Reilly’s parts store.
MAY 2, MON IN JAMESTOWN, ND – I decided to leave the van with an auto fix it shop about 21 miles north of Jamestown. The owner, a very nice guy, gave me a ride back to Jamestown and I had to rent a large U-Haul truck to get back to Williston, in order to continue my trip. It was the only vehicle available in all of Jamestown.
I got back to Williston at 7:00PM, just in time to return the U Haul truck and walked back into town and got aa room in Williston, so I could take a shower, get caught up on things and I have arranged a ride from a gentlemen back out to the kayak, which is 20 miles away, whom I met at the laundromat while washing my clothes last Saturday. He works for a company that negotiates/purchases rights a ways for all of the gas pipe lines they are now putting in up here to capture all of the Natural Gas they have been burning off from all of the new oil wells.
I expect to be back to the kayak by 11:00 and on the water shortly thereafter. All I have to do is put a few things in the ice chest, put my hip wader boots on, untie the kayak and get in and go, which I am very anxious to do.
