Page 164 - Louisiana Loop (manuscript Edition)

We killed part of the day collecting firewood for that night and I told Salty Dog that I had been watching the weather and
might have to leave the next day with a break in the weather as I was watching a Weather front coming in and higher
winds were do later the week.

My plan was to be outside Donaldsonville on the shore over the levee at a place I had camped before so if the weather
did not break soon to spring I could at least go into town for supplies. It looked like the winds were going to be there for
awhile so I at least wanted to make one last “hard push” to get to that camp and weather it out.

I told Salty Dog that it looked like I was pulling out in the morning but He could spend the night in the tent so he could
get a good nights rest. I did warn him that I would be packing and so might pull out really early in the AM to avoid
barges.

Salty Dog tried to tempt me to stay with promises of fish and I told him I would eat the fish but I really had to manage to
get to my next camp to be closer to town. He knew where I was talking about and said the current had been pretty fast
thru there.

We both worked on our boats and I passed on some gear I saw Salty didn’t have as I knew he had a ways to go and
limited resources. He offered to go with me several times and eventually I told him he was always welcome at my camp
but if the wind died I would have to leave with the calm.
We both watched several times as tows passed by us and the wake looked to wash over his rear of the boat with the
motor. I still had my kayak on shore and had made a “bank slide” so I could launch and then add the skeg. We noticed
the low part of the island in the south was taking a lot of water that was not rushing off and it appeared from my sticks
the river had risen 6 inches or more.
A few more inches and I would have to move the tent.

Nothing remains the same on the Mississippi River. A few days I had taken my kayak floor out and cleaned the kayak of
sand and silt that had bonded under the floor of the kayak. The place I had taken the kayak apart was not being
threatened to turn into a lake or underwater and it had been 1 foot about the water when I landed a week ago.

Flooding was common to the Mississippi as was water levels rising in Louisiana. My previous camp a dirt company
pulled sand and silt from the river and stacked it on shore to be hauled away by trucks and sold locally. A common
occurrence up and down the lower Mississippi River where land was a premium and at times underwater.

Even the bank where I staged my kayak to load was eroding from tow wash and I was debating if I should just launch
my kayak and tie up to shore. That question was solved a few hours later as the river rose some more and I went ahead
and added the skeg and launched the kayak then tied off. (later to prove a wrong move)