Day 46

Day 46
I slept good again last night and was up and on the water by about 6:30. I knew the high winds were coming again today but I was feeling recharged and ready to paddle. I paddled a steady pace all morning, running whichever tree line gave the most protection from the wind. I started to run into problems with some of the wing dams as well. Wing dams are large lines of rock the Corps of Engineers places in the rier. They are most often built 90 degrees from the bank, so long fingers of rock sticking from the bank. The wing dams force the current to the middle or channel, keeping the current strong and washing the sediment to the sides. These wing dams have mostly been under water and not an issue but as the water drops they are coming into play. They appear as a line of rippled and swirling water reaching out from the sides of the bank. When you reach the submerged wing dam you drop into a dip in the water of about a foot then the you slide into a belt of mixed up current, it is a rolling boil that gives way to swirling eddies that try to swing the front of the boat to the right or the left.  clearing that mess you find that there is no current and all your momentum is gone. Nothing about the process is violent or dangerous it just requires extra effort to keep a good pace. I stopped in the town of Clarksville MO for lunch. I had fried catfish and sweet tea, VICTORY, I have crossed into the land of Southern cuisine. I paddled out of town buzzed on caffeine and sugar making my way through the second to last lock. The Lock Master informed me of damaged lock gates at the last dam on the river 40 miles away. I paddled on till 7 that evening before finding a place to camp. A boat ramp and bathroom in no where Missouri. I set up my tent and started dinner. I meet a Linda, her husband and daughter fishing at the boat ramp. We talked and enjoyed one of the best lightening shows I have ever seen far to the north. Around dark they left and I noticed I could fell the ground shaking even though I couldn't hear thunder. I checked the radar app on my phone and saw a nasty storm cell was going to smack me hard in a few minutes. I put the rain cover on the tent, place logs around the edges, pulled the canoe way up the bank and squeezed in river bath. In the tent I kept everything in its waterproof bags and placed them around the edges. I could hear the storm tearing towards me and it slammed into the tent with fierce winds just moments before a wall of rain and hail. I sat in the center of the tent, out stretched arms holding onto the tent poles. All four tent stakes were yanked from the ground and I was the only thing keeping me, the tent and all my gear from becoming a large kite. I stretched my feet out to two corners to pin them down and piled gear in the other two. And just as suddenly as the storm hit, it was gone. I checked the radar app and all was clear. I went to the canoe and got the large sponge I use to remove water from the canoe only this time it was to remove the water from the tent. I mopped up the water and removed the rain tarp so the wind could dry the remaining water. I stood in the parking lot and watched another amazing lightening show from the powerful storm that had just smacked me. The storm was so close and bright i could clearly see what I believed was rain wrapped tornado riding a few hundred feet above the ground. Little did I know the same system spawned several bad tornadoes to the north of me in Iowa.