Day 58

Day 58
I climbed out of the tent and greeted a river heavy with fog and barge traffic. I took my time with my breakfast of granola and a carnation instant breakfast drink, hoping the barge traffic would die down. I packed the boat and shoved off just after 9. I have been using a website called Rivergator, it was developed by Muddy Mike and John Rusky. The site lists all the islands, bluffs, boat ramps and other major places of note along the river. In addition to listing each location by river mile number it also has a section to tell you some information about each site. I had been reading ahead the night before and knew several geographical locations of note lay ahead today. The first location of note is Fountain Bluff, it is a large bluff towering over the river, large boulders some as big as houses have fallen to the waters edge. I slowly paddled along amazed by the size and shape of the boulders and imagining the splash they must have made when it fell into the river. The river smashes into the bluff base and creates a huge eddy of swirling confused water from shore to shore. Just below Fountain Bluff stands Tower Rock. Tower Rock is a large semi round  tower of stone standing 100 feet out of the water. The top is covered in trees and would hold a small house nicely. As I get closer I can see the water is a massive eddy circling around the tower. I paddled into the eddy and am taken for a spin all the way around the massive pillar of stone. Tower Rock is the only rock like this in the river all the others have been removed. Between Fountain Bluff and Tower Rock I paddled over to a a boat landing to get some water and stretch my legs. I meet a tug boat crew preparing to start their two week rotation running the river. They asked me lots of questions and informed me they will go to New Orleans and back during their two weeks. I paddled the rest of the afternoon without incident. There were several large chutes on the river I would have liked to paddle but from reading Rivergator I knew I would run into problems  with rock dams trying to do so at the current water level. Towards early evening I made camp at the point where Picayune Chute reenters the main channel. I made a nice fire and enjoyed a bottle of Jim Beam I had tucked away for today, my birthday. I enjoyed yet another amazing sunset before crawling into bed.