Days 70 and 71

The nice unseasonably cool spell has ended and I went from waking up cold to waking up hot but that is summer in Mississippi. I would say that the section of the river from below Tunica Ms and Greenville MS is the most wild and remote yet. Other than the few buildings and bridge at Helena I haven't seen much sign of human life. What I have seen are Asian carp by the millions, mile after mile of them swimming along under the surface eating the plankton. In addition to the live ones the river is also full of dead ones floating on the surface, washed up on beaches and generally rotting in, on and around everything. This morning I thought I would count all the dead ones I saw floating as I paddled but after counting over 50 in the first 30 minutes I gave up. Yesterday when I went to shore to grab a oil bottle I saw on the beach, I noticed a large carp eaten almost entirely. On closer inspection I discovered it was a black bear that had eaten the carp. I know there are bears in Mississippi but not many so I was excited to take a picture of the track and left hoping to see one walking along a sand bar. I haven't seen any gators yet but I have seen their tracks and tail drags on the sandbars. They like the bears and coons simply walk down the sand bar till they find a dead carp they like, eat it and go back to hiding.  One good thing I can report is that with no one around I finally landed at two separate sand bars and was not able to find even one piece of trash, only took 1600 plus miles and a few hundred trips to shore! I am happy to find so little trash in this area of the river. Another difference is the mosquitoes down in the southern delta, everywhere along the river has them but not like these. They aren't any bigger or itch any worse but they have a mean blood lust. They don't fly about bothering, you trying to decide if they want your blood, no they go straight for open skin and suck. Most mosquitoes will take some blood but fly at the first sign of danger but not these girls. They suck and suck, ignoring any attempts to dislodge them from the task. They greedily fill their body with blood until they can't even fly, they just buzz towards the ground and lay there like a fat tick. Outside this is no fun but in the tent at night it is a blessing. I get in and the 20 minute game of hide and seek for them is shortened to a minute. While I chase one down in the corner the other few are sucking up pints of blood and then fall to the floor where I am rewarded with a bloody smear when I smack them. The only other items of interest in the last few days have involved the barges that grow in number every day. I was entering a bend below Rosedale called Victoria Bend, that unknown to me had some strong side currents and a very narrow and sharp 90 plus degree turn. Coming into the turn with a barge behind me I saw a strong current running across the channel towards the opposite bank. Seeing the current would push me into the barge if I tried to stay on my side I let it quickly push me to the left hand shore. A short time later I saw how tight and narrow the turn was and got over within a foot of the bank to give the 7 barge wide by 7 barge deep fully loaded tug as much room as possible. I don't think the captain saw me till he was committed to the turn. Suddenly he stopped all three engines and started to blow his horn at me while being pushed ever closer to the bank by the same side current I had encountered. I simply stepped out of the canoe onto the bank because I was that close and threw my hands in the air. He continued to drift towards the shore and blow his horn. I grabbed my radio and told him to shut up and drive! He didn't like my advice and started to yell about he couldn't because I was in his way. I told him that if he hit me standing on the shore he had bigger problems than me. He continued to blow his horn and not dive so I told him in 10 seconds I will jump on your boat and drive it for you because you will be on shore, so you drive or I will. He responded by working all three motors at full power and completed the turn even when I thought it was too late to save it. I found out today that more tow boat captains get fired for wrecking there than anywhere on the river. The older river boat guy told me it is the only place he knows that rookie captains pull over to wait for an old timer to show them how it is done. The other pucker moment was coming into Greenville today. I have been to Warfield Point Park where I planned to camp for several blues festivals and know it is a high traffic tight turn area. I also knew I would have to cross the channel to reach the old river channel to access the park. As I entered the turn above Greenville I saw a line of 10 tug boats pushing upstream towards me. Most of the barges were less than 100 yards apart, strangely close together. I got completely out of the channel and drifted slowly through the turn. After clearing the bend I was presented with open river and then barge after barge stacked up clean through the Greenville turn 4 miles away. I decided I would need to cross now and ride the wrong side the entire way down if I was going to land at the park. I cut on the radio and listened to all the chatter as the captains tried to keep moving without a wreck. Making my way down I kept to the side and noticed 20 or more recreational boats on a sandbar above town with many more snaking in and out of barge traffic headed that direction. The radio chatter was almost at a panic now that the Sunday boating crowd was showing up in droves. I decided to float as close to shore as possible and stay off the radio unless it was an emergency. As I reached the last mile I came on a barge pushed into the bank letting other traffic pass, just as I reached him I saw him power up to move off the bank. I knew he didn't see me but I decided to stay close to shore and we would pass close to one another but safe. As his barges were swinging out and I was cutting in, the barge passing me saw me and radioed the captain to stop movement because of me. I heard him saying he couldn't see me and all smoke from his engine stopped. I tried to contact him on the radio but with all the boats talking I couldn't t get through. I tried an Army radio trick and yelled Break, Break, Break all unnecessary radio traffic stop transmitting time now! It worked the radio traffic stopped and I told him to continue as he had panned. He resumed his movement and I informed everyone why I was on the wrong side of the river and my intention to make land at Warfield point. I covered the last half mile to shore without issue. After I landed I meet an old river boat pilot who told me a barge had caught on fire downstream and blocked all traffic for the last several hours, hence the traffic jam. I tried to find the camp ground attendant but I guess he does not work Sunday. I was further disappointed to find the shower house required a key. I settled for a shower using the hose and decided the cool clean city water was better than a hot shower.