Day 82

So last night I set a finish goal for this trip of next Saturday or Sunday. The last leg of the river from here to the gulf is supposed to be very industrial on the banks with lots of shipping traffic. I plan to do a quick 7 day resupply in Baton Rouge and paddle for the salt water. I only passed a handful of barges the first part of the day and most of them were nosed up into the muddy bank like sleeping giants. The water was slick and  I was able to paddle across many of the large sandbars that are now under water. I guess I was able to cut off at least a handful of miles versus if I had been forced to paddle around the outside of the bend. The river has been coming up about half a foot a night and between Friday and Sunday it is fore casted to go up four feet. At noon I reached St. Francisville, planning to walk to town for lunch. I discovered a stand of large willows on the shore and decided to have lunch there. During lunch a large line of thunderstorms blown in from the gulf drifted over the river. The wind was blowing, waves smashing the shore and slow rolling thunder but no rain. The storm to be, drifted north as I paddled off. The storm was gone but a strong wind was still chasing it to the north creating the 3 to 4 ft choppy waves I hate so much. Not only do these waves beat up your body but they are just big enough to flip the canoe, requiring 100 percent focus. The river finally made a bend and the pounding was over. I drifted with the current for about 30 minutes till I noticed a sand bar with an old channel marker close to the edge. On closer inspection I decided that the slope of the bank and the placement of the old marker would make a good spot to tie up the boat for the night. The sun came out shortly after I set up camp, it was nice to air out some things and clean out the canoe. There was another amazing sunset.