Page 14 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

“Source to the Sea”

While investigating the Mississippi Riv-
er and the Missouri, I encountered this

phrase on the internet mostly, but also
some books stating the person had
gone from “source to sea”.

I didn’t think much about it until one
outfitter said to do the Missouri River

you had to “HIKE” not “KAYAK” to the
dripple of a glacier or bubble of a spring

and hike down the miles it might be be-
fore you could actually launch a kayak
and then if it’s private property you

work your way thru it…..

I thought this guy was a crackpot till I

encountered some more “purist” canoe
and “trollers” on the internet who were

seeking to “qualify” those who did and
did not do the Mississippi River accord-
ing to how “they” said it had to be done.

To quote a “river angel” descendant
from Lewis and Clark I met at Chain of

Rocks: “You only listen to people on
the River, you don’t pay attention to
those off the River”

I admired that wisdom. That moment on
I chose to call my journey “headwaters

to gulf waters”. The way I figured it,
they didn’t have the actual spot for the
Source, so lets call it the headwaters.

And like true Mark Twain tradition, who
would call the Gulf of Mexico a Sea?

”