Page 62 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

The bank was muddy, I wore Mudders. The river was shallow, I wore wadders. The river was
les than 5 feet wide, I looked for a channel. No matter what I saw I had to adapt to and so I did.

As Lori watched I conquered many obstacles walking the kayaks, paddling the kayaks, drifting
the kayaks. In barely 300 yds to get to the bend what should have been a simple float or pad-
dle, I was discovering was curse for me on the Mississippi Creek.

SHALLOW WATER

Oh sure I felt confident on the Mississippi River where ever it became a river, or the lakes bogs
and streams as long as there was 4 inches of water………..but this? I wasn’t frustrated because

I knew it would get better, I just knew I had to accept this section of the River was going to be
a real drag……….literally.

And so I did at times….have to drag the two kayaks. 1000 lbs easy to float, my Inflatable Kay-

aks (IK) could handle that. Not so easy to drag. One kayak I had prepped in case of this, the
other was rated and guaranteed to handle it, but “Mississippi in Drag?”…... It just didn’t seem
to fit.

Stage Three Paddling

Needless to say
while I did a lot
of walking,

standing, drag-
ging, pushing,

pulling, I did
little paddling.

Stage Four Walking Stage Five Pushing

Stage Five Pulling

All I really wanted to do was
get around the bend so my

wife could leave and sadly I
was dragging the kayaks on
Mississippi Creek Bed