National Geographic Adventure Magazine story featuring an expedition with Quapaw Canoe Company hit the newsstands last week: Kimberly Brown Seely's ten page feature article "Where the...

June 14, 2007

About Quapaw Canoe Company:

Celebrating 10th year of operation...

June 11, 2007
Wanted: Muddy River Rat! For paddling, canoe-building, and all around fun on the June 01, 2007

Big Muddy River stuck out her Big Muddy Tongue: Everyone’s been wondering how big the water got down here with all of the flooding early this month pouring down the Missouri and swirling into the confluence above St. Louis, water...

May 24, 2007

Blessing of the Canoes
Tonight (May 24, 2007)
7pm – Quapaw Canoe Company
291...

April 24, 2007

Quapaw Canoe Company Carving Workshop - April & May 2007 Have you ever wondered how to carve dugout canoe?  Have you ever wanted to swing an adze into fresh Cottonwood?  ...

April 11, 2007

Paddle the Pearl!  Saturday, April 14^th, the Mighty Quapaws will be paddling big canoes on the Pearl River for NatureFEST at the Mississippi Museum...

April 10, 2007

Wanted:

 

1) We will buy your old Grumman Canoes!  We use them for training purposes on the Mississippi River. ...

April 09, 2007

While most of their peers were busy taking in the sun on beaches along the Florida Panhandle, Auburn Biodiversity Lab founder Dr. Johnston and three of her best donned wetsuits and waded chest-deep into the chilly waters of the Lower Mississippi River to see...

April 02, 2007
Earlier this year we committed Quapaw to tithing its profits amongst worthy endeavors, individuals & organizations who are making the river a better place for paddlers.  Well, our accountant has crunched the figures and the numbers are in.  First...

March 26, 2007

Quapaw to Greenville: 100 miles in 3 days

 Last extended...

March 22, 2007

Sorry about the mailing: I forgot to add a couple of items to Tuesday’s dispatch, some photos from the river, and an announcement of a Water Music performance...

March 21, 2007

Ever feel like you’re at the end of your Log?  Bring in the Spring along the Chickasaw Bluffs! ...

February 15, 2007
First General Membership Meeting for Friends of the Sunflower River, a new organization committed to improving the health & understanding...

January 16, 2007
We go when you are ready to go!  Have paddle will travel!  We run any section of the river from the confluence of the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois to St. Francisville, Louisiana.   Our favorite runs include...

January 09, 2007
River Resolution for the New Year 2007: Quapaw Canoe Company has decided to commit 10% of our annual income to support projects directly improving the health of the Lower Mississippi River – and we want your help in deciding who this should go to. ...

December 05, 2006

The legendary Chickasaw Bluffs of Western Tennessee, let me tell you good people, you’ve never seen the bluffs until you’ve seen them from the river (hee-hee, in fact there’s no place you can drive to view them, save remote landings...

November 13, 2006

Fall expedition last week with river expert and intrepid outdoorsman extraordinaire Paul Hartfield (US Fish & Wildlife) for National Geographic writer Kim Brown Seely & photographer Andrew Kornylak (& sister...

October 16, 2006

Congrats to the top three paddlers in this weekends 5th Annual Phatwater Challenge, 1^st Place Shawn Wilber, 2^nd Joe Royer, and 3^rd Wim Nouwen, this new thanks to John Gary who reports it to be an exciting finish,...

October 09, 2006
Mississippi has dropped ten feet (after rising 20 feet last week), unpacking from a three-day Harvest Moon Excursion, the water now retreating from all of the backwater lakes and channels which it was violently entering...

October 04, 2006
We set out five paddlers (a sixth who failed to show after a two-hour wait) into a strong Northwest wind, gusting 25-30mph, Ladybug the Queen of the Lower Mississippi River fully loaded, superstitious sailors...

September 27, 2006
Swing Low, Sweet Dugout Canoe
Coming for to carry me home...

September 23, St. Louis, Missouri, Mississippi River, high noon, overcast and south winds 10-15 mph, morning prayer and drumbeats in the air, Churchill Clark's tear-stained face reflect the common feeling as 100 paddlers join...

September 18, 2006
I've been doing some hard paddling

September 18, 2006, Chamois, Missouri, Mile 118, this dispatch being composed at the Chamois High School Computer lab, a beautiful town Chamois, as many river towns are, picturesque downtown with a few small establishments, local pub, small post office downtown,...

September 05, 2006

Omaha, NE - market district

 -- sorry for the misspellings and mis-strokes -- but i wanted to get sometghing otu and let y'all know how we are doing -- and if you've evber seen the original lewis & clark journals you would see that...

August 29, 2006
Yankton, SD, Rejoining Churchill Clark and all of the men for the final thousand mile push into St. Louis -- there might not be any update for three weeks due to the tight schedule and low water. We have 23 days to paddle 1,000 miles in slow water. Back atcha late September folks. Keep us in your...

August 24, 2006
   The canoes are negotiating the reservoirs of the Dakotas. Mike and I have had to return home to settle business and raise funds for the final 1,000 miles& and guess what? You can help out!

Ruskey & Clark Return!

Attention! Help us complete this expedition with Scott Mandrell, Churchill...

August 10, 2006
To date: The expedition has paddled 306 miles in 8 days downstream the wild Yellowstone River from Livingston to Miles City, Montana in 2 dugout canoes, the 23 foot Wanbli River Dancer (Western Red Cedar) and the 26 ½ foot Chante Mato (Ponderosa Pine), through rapids and diversion dams not negotiated...

August 07, 2006
Mayor's Landing, cool morning, in the 50's, gentle breeze out of the northwest, smoke still issuing from some of the mountain canyons above us, forest fires visible in the night, lingering layers of smoke slicing across the Absaroka Mounatin Range.

At the Yellowstone river the sunrise reddish-tinged,...

July 31, 2006

The Eagle Dances

July 22, 2006

On the YellowstoneRiver returning with the waters to the Mississippi
July 17, 2006
Livingston, Montana: this dispatch may be rather disjointed. I am writing on the fly -- in between filling cracks and laying layers of varnish on five canoes sitting in the shade of some cottonwoods along the Yellowstone River, below the Absoroka Mountain Range in Southern Montana. Our site: Livingston...

July 12, 2006
Master Dugout Canoe Builders Coming to the Yellowstone Master dugout canoe builders John Ruskey, Clarksdale, MS and Michael F. Clark, St. Louis, MO with the assistance of Tom Eier, Lewiston, ID and members of his First Squad, including Churchill Clark, Denver, CO, and Willow Bill Gulardt, Wheeler,...

July 03, 2006


Paddle For Peace

On September 10th at Long Branch Park on the northwest corner of Onondaga
Lake people will gather to honor the earth and the birthplace of democracy.

http://www.onondagalakepeacefestival.com

A water blessing ceremony will take place and a group of us...

June 14, 2006
Full Rose Moon on the Mississippi, approaching Summer Solstice, love is in the air! A special celebration with the 2 big canoes full of paddling celebrants: the evening of the full moon (Saturday, June 10)we put in at Montezuma and paddled against a light head-wind to Island 61 where fresh ears of...

June 08, 2006
Last week the Mighty Quapaws paddled an entire wedding party (congrats to John & Kate Martin!) out to Montezuma Towhead for a beach picnic & game of sandbar blob tag, 25 adults in all, Mighty Quapaw Clifton Carr manhandled the Clipper, I took the Ladybug, and two experienced wedding party paddlers...

May 30, 2006
...Just returning from a L-o-n-g weekend: put in at Terrene Landing (Rosedale) take out Warfield Point (Greenville), paddled up the mouth of the Arkansas River, and many paddling adventures thereafter, island circumnavigating, inlet exploring, birds, insects, strange mud, security check, full story...

May 22, 2006
Another adventure on the Big Black: severe thunderstorms, dead gators, slackwater paddling (made flat by the rising mother river, the Mississippi). In the short list of Treasure Rivers within the State of Mississippi, the Big Black must rank high: it is a treasure and a gem, wild & mysterious, full...

May 15, 2006
Mothers Day Weekend with a group of nurses from Jackson, celebrating Mother Earth on the Mother River, my favorite section of river, over thirty miles of lonely meandering river, known by tugboat pilots as the wiggles, no industry nor bridges, just a few hunting camps -- no highways, no towns or...

May 08, 2006
Very impressive & informative was a presentation by Dr. Martha Honey, the executive director of the International Ecotourism Society (go to: www.ecotourism.org) Dr. Honey outlined the history of ecotourism, which (in its modern form) emerged out of the wilds of South America and Africa during the...

May 02, 2006
Pack up your canoes & kayaks and join in the paddling fun in Memphis, the Annual 25th Outdoors Inc. Memphis Canoe & Kayak Race, the largest & oldest such race on the Lower Mississippi, celebrating 25 years, the Grand-daddy of races led by the dean of Lower Miss. paddling proponents, Joe Royer. For...

April 25, 2006
Happy Earth Day to All (Saturday, April 22nd). Cottonwood fluff filling the channels of the Lower Mississippi River, falling like snow and floating downstream on the face of the river, slipping in textured streams into shadowy back channels, hidden currents made visible, cottonwood leaves emerald...

March 30, 2006
April 22 Paddle the Sunflower River in conjunction with Clarksdale's Juke Joint Festival www.jukejointfestival.com, $5/person in downtown Clarksdale, or $25 for an adventure paddle through the Mississippi Delta wilderness, take out at historic Hopson Plantation!
April 25-27 Audubon "Nature Tourism...

March 23, 2006
Day One: tales from the land of the Great Chinook Nation, St. Helens Oregon, on the banks of the Mighty Columbia River, the Big River of the West, a cold wind blowing out of the South and a steady drizzle falling, in front of us lays a 28 foot Western Red Cedar that we are to craft into a dugout canoe...

March 03, 2006
Announcing: Friends of the Sunflower River: You can become a charter member of this exciting new organization in process of being chartered as a mississippi not-for-profit, keep reading: Friends of the Sunflower River is all about appreciating and caring for the lonely little river that winds its...

February 25, 2006
Three temperatures to report from down in the Delta. First, the air temperature hovered in the low 60s all afternoon. The water temperature was in the high 40s, dipping about 5 degrees upon entering the main channel. Last and most importantly, my own temperature was between 100 and 102 forcing a...

February 23, 2006
Ice & snow along the Sunflower this weekend, an artists paradise! A fresh way to see the delta, hoar frost and iced purple blossoms of Japanese Magnolia, iced oak branches cracking and sighing in the north wind, cardinals slipping as they come in for a landing, the owls shaking ice off their feathers,...

February 14, 2006
Death of a River Guide: "I feel the water swirling and whorling about me and over me and now through me, and joining it is my head forming similar swirls and whorls, my life essence spilling out from my eyes and nose and mouth and arse and tangling itself into untieable Celtic knots with the water,...

February 07, 2006
Several storms passed up the Lower Mississippi Valley last week and cleaned the air - remarkably so, one of the clearest skies of the year - a brilliant night sky falling on the eve of the new moon (the snow moon).

The Mighty Quapaws took advantage of the spectacular weather to hit the river...

January 30, 2006
Announcing the 2006 Sunflower River Expedition: February 13-25, 2006, $50/day/person, join us for as many days as your schedule allows. 250 miles through the heart of the Mississippi Delta: Clarksdale, Dockery, Sunflower, Indianola, Anguilla, Rolling Fork, Yazoo River, Vicksburg, with St. Louis...

January 16, 2006
Salutations from the Big River, The Mighty Lower Mississippi, the longest un-dammed river in the US (some people would argue that the Yellowstone is America's longest un-dammed river (671 miles), but the Lower Mississippi far exceeds that - 953 miles. If you add on the Middle Mississippi, the 180...

January 03, 2006
Announcing the return of Eridanus, the "Celestial River," see below for description.

Next week: upcoming expeditions on the Lower Mississippi, the Big Sunflower, the Missouri, and the Yellowstone, (the longest free-flowing river in the western states), along with various full moon floats,...

December 29, 2005

O children of the wind & pines
O sons of Manitou
The Holy Child of Earth & Sky
Is born today for you
Come look upon the radiant face
That brings you love and peace and grace

-Laura Nelson Baker

Merry Christmas and a Happy Canoe Year from Quapaw Canoe Company!

We...

December 07, 2005
North-easterly wind predominating along our section of the river this week, the moon-three-days-old has moved past Venus, winter is settling into the Lower Mississippi Valley, every paddling day this past week we have had to build a fire at some point to warm our hands, brew a cup of tea, the driftwood...

November 29, 2005

Quote of the week:

"The only avenue of escape was along the river. The river was the one thing that lived, moved, glittered, changed,--a highway along which men could travel, taste the sun and open air, feel freedom, join their fellows, reach the open sea . . . reach the world, even!"
Willa...

November 09, 2005
Mississippi River Sonnet by Jen Ruskey, of Victoria, Canada: The flicker-sound of fire upon the sand/ And endless stars, so many stars alight./ The river flat and wet beside the camp/ And barges rumbling by, all day and night.../ If ever I should wander once again/ To Southern skies and cotton...

November 02, 2005
I was out on the river yesterday when the storm hit here, and guess what? A grizzled old bald eagle was out there as well, winging his way over the rock dikes at the bottom end of Is. 61, patches of grey on his wings, wearing his war wounds proudly & fiercely. Halloween Bonfire on the river, sparks...

October 26, 2005
Bear Tracks at the mouth of Mellwood Lake! Last week I was out on a 5 day birthday excursion with my brother Chris and his two boys and a reporter from Oxford, England who came to be known as “Mad Max the River Warrior.” We were cordelling up the channel at the mouth of Mellwood Lake (which is on of...

October 10, 2005
Transformation on the Snake: Artisans carve out canoe worthy of Lewis and Clark Andrea Heisinger Published: Lewiston Tribune 2005-09-30 Page: 1A Chunks and shavings of ponderosa pine litter the ground as its former 7,000-pound girth is molded into a new life as a dugout canoe. The...

October 05, 2005
canoe camp: day 10, 2 more days left to complete the craft! we are 95% of the way there, we carved until midnight last night, finishing out the interior of the 26 foot canoe, after completing the exterior and applying a layer of spar varnish. after we put sall of the adzes, axes, chisles and hand...

October 04, 2005
hello from hell's gate, snake river canyon, above lewiston, idaho, we've finished carving & smoothing the bottom of the canoe, now to finish the inside, we've removed maybe 3/4 of the original 7,000 pounds of log. last night we were visited by members of various first peoples nations: the chinook,...

September 29, 2005
hello from hell's gate, snake river canyon, lewiston, idaho, quapaw is with the corps of discovery II, the lewis & clark re-enactment, "discovering lewis & clark," the men emerged yesterday from the bitter root mountains to settle into "canoe camp" where meriweather lewis and william clark and 35 men...

September 19, 2005
harvest moon weekend on the lower mississippi river: we put out friday from helena at the base of crowley's ridge and paddled into sunset at montezuma bend, eight of us, from clarksdale, carrolton, georgia and new zealand. campfire on west montezuma island, blackened catfish in the cast iron skillet,...

September 13, 2005
i was not alone out there as 58-mile and hour gusts of hurricane katrina wind were being whipped over the bottom end of island62 and into the chute of island63, the tattered & ragged shreds of clouds flying phantom-like overhead, the waves mean & marbled, murky green with foam being blown over their...

September 02, 2005
hello everybody: we are "okay" here in the mississippi delta, emerging a little wind beaten and water-logged from hurricane katrina, but we were spared the brunt of its devastation, in clarksdale we clocked 58 mile/hour gusts without sustained winds of 35-40 mph. it was wild, it blew that hard for...

August 29, 2005
Quapaw Canoe Company, your key to the wilderness of the Lower Mississippi River. Hurricane Katrina barreling its way up the mouth of the Mississippi River this morning with an estimated 18-30 tidal surge - not only will this inundate the marshes of the birdsfoot river delta, but it will make the...

August 16, 2005
hello from the hot & dry mississippi delta! whew! nothing but cracks in the mud and low water down here. we're feeling it for any of you long distance paddlers on the way to the gulf. if you happen to one of those entrepid souls braving the ever-narrowing channel and hot sand, be sure to give...

June 18, 2005
mayflies have hatched on the lower arkansas river in a big way, clouds of them hanging around all of the bankside vegetation, some of them flying in mesmerizing patterns to and fro, swooping upwards, praying arms uplifted, others hovering above, so many the air is filled with the sounds of their wings!...

June 02, 2005
within two days i've had my oldest and youngest out on the river, yesterday: 7 month-old miss samantha karrmann, who rode the waves in her cradle under the bow deck of the big canoe. the day before yesterday: mrs. faye neinabor, who just celebrated her 90th b.d. and whose earliest childhood memory...

May 31, 2005
snakes are awakening! there was a water mocassin coiled up like a cobra in the back channel of is. 63 as we paddled in last night, floating on the water & ready to strike. recently seen baby copperheads and something small that looked like a baby puff adder except it had "goggle eyes," it reared up...

May 13, 2005
The MISSISSIPPI KITE made its reappearance two days ago, back from its winter excursion to Paraguay, its the first time i have noticed them this year, now it really feels like spring! Yesterday an amazing viewing: i was circumnavigating some of the channel-side towheads & transitional bars opposite...

May 04, 2005
MAYFLIES my first mayfly of 2005 - greenish yellow & recently hatched on prarie point towhead, directly above helena. so its officially may! but it sure hasn't felt like may, chilly north winds have been blowing this week, highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s. great floating weather. what's been...

January 28, 2005
Happy Canoe Year! High water on the Lower Mississippi River! I'm just returning from my annual survey of the River including the Chickasaw Bluffs, Tunica, Helena and the St. Francis River bottoms, Montezuma, Kangaroo Point, the White River Confluence and the Mouth of the Arkansas, everything from...

October 11, 2004
Flying Fish! Every time i have been on the river in the past month, big fish have been jumping out of the river in my path, one hit the canoe with a loud bang! this is no "stretcher" folks, i have witnesses: yesterday betsy howell of pt. townsend, washington saw a long skinny shape propell itself...

September 21, 2004


Hello, Happy Equinox and welcome back to the Quapaw Canoe Company Home page!

We've been shut down for the season - that is the Summer season. Its just too damn hot to really enjoy yourself (unless you are an avid swimmer and don't mind muddy water). It’s going to be a great...

June 16, 2004
Out on the river this weekend (June 11-13) with Boy Scout Troop 302 from Jackson, Mississippi, we put in at Montezuma Landing (which was flooded due to high water) and paddled 63 miles, taking out at Terrene Landing (also flooded), the storms of the previous weeks in the Midwest states scouring out...

May 21, 2004
I got up at 3:30am this morning and paddled my kayak out to island 62 to watch sunrise and paint - and pick dewberries, which are now in season. What’s happening out on the river these days? Scorpios is spiraling brightly in the southeastern sky, its heart, Antares, sparkling yellowish. Sagittarius...

April 28, 2004
I just got back from a week on the river with Denver's PS1 Charter School, 18 students and 3 teachers. We got grounded on Island 68 for three full days while the wind was gusting up to 30mph out of the South. Whew! It is Spring time on the river! Please find following a letter I received from...

April 18, 2004
Memphis Artist Angi Cooper did a list of birds from the recent Easter Artist's Retreat, and was so kind to send a copy, as follows. Note: Angi offers a unique service: pet portraits! Go to www.angiart.com for more info. (From Angi) Hey John, here's a bird list to the best of my knowledge from...

April 07, 2004
on the big sunflower river: some random journal notes to give you an idea of this wierd (and according to american rivers, endangered) landscape: (with michael clark of big muddy adventures, st louis, missouri) its 11:30pm somewhere near the mouth of the hushpuckena river, moon-approaching-full, a...

February 04, 2004
Important Updates! Big Sunflower River Expedition: March 20 - April 3, 2004 Artist's Float IV: Easter Retreat April 9-13, 2004 -------------------------------- Big Sunflower River Expedition: Purpose: To Connect Kids to the River. Paddlers welcome to join and help document America's...

January 22, 2004
i have been so busy working on the newest dugout canoe, the "double eagle dugout" is what we're calling it for reasons to later be explained, that i have neglected my updates. it comes from a cottonwood tree. it was a 54 year old cottonwood that lived within the batture near Rena Lara, the floodplain...

November 18, 2003
the storm blew over this afternoon leaving long trailing clouds and a brightly backlit sky, i carved all day on the double eagle dugout, and then sat on the banks of the sunflower and waited for venus to appear, later mars came out. i could see the silhouette of a squirrel plucking some nuts from...

October 20, 2003
Quapaw Canoe Company/Big Muddy Adventures is pleased to announce its 2004 river expedition: Rivers of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. Mike Clark of Big Muddy Adventures (St. Louis, MO) and John Ruskey of Quapaw Canoe Company (Clarksdale, MS) will be conducting a two-month expedition surveying the rivers...

October 15, 2003
some recent news from quapaw landing on the sunflower: mercury just becoming visible in the morning sky, venus getting stronger in the evening. i have been puzzled this fall by the absence of beavers in the river and its back waters. i hope this isn't some statement on the deterioration of water...

October 06, 2003
King Biscuit Special! Quapaw Canoe Company will be offering a special four hour float trip on the Mississippi River from Helena, Arkansas, to Friars Point, Mississippi, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the King Biscuit Festival Weekend. $50/person includes shuttle and refreshments. Call 662-627-4070...

September 27, 2003
On Tuesay, Sept 23rd, Marjorie Ryerson's book WATER MUSIC was released at the United Nations, (the same day President George Bush was there to address the UN about rebuilding Iraq!). Quapaw shuttle driver Wesley Jefferson "The Mississippi Junebug" and owner John Ruskey are one of 66 musicians from...

September 27, 2003
On Tuesay, Sept 23rd, Marjorie Ryerson's book WATER MUSIC was released at the United Nations, (the same day President George Bush was there to address the UN about rebuilding Iraq!). Quapaw shuttle driver Wesley Jefferson "The Mississippi Junebug" and owner John Ruskey are one of 66 musicians from...

September 04, 2003
I forgot to mention that i camped out on island 69 last week, mars was rising as the slice of new moon one day old was setting, I went for a long walk along the edge of the sandbar as his yellow light shimmered in the current of the passing river, easily outshining any other star or planet in the sky,...

August 22, 2003
Mars in the morning sky, to the west, sinking low over the forests below Kangaroo Point and Island 61, the moon opposite, waning away over the eastern horizon, mist rising off the cotton fields, wafting over the levee, clouds of fog emerging from the forests, saturated by yesterday’s thunderstorms...

August 20, 2003
This morning Mars was setting through the trees as first light began to enter the sky. Yesterday we were blessed with an afternoon thunderstorm. I went for a long swim in the chute of island 63, and then lay back in my kayak and watched the storm shake the willows and splatter the water surface....

August 14, 2003
A new flower I have never before seen. It grows on a bush of ovate leaves which come to a point. It has a globular head in which the stamens extend from the globe of petals and form an outer globe of anthers. I saw a small white spider which made its home within the anthers. I found it growing in...

August 12, 2003
Full moon float: seven of us in the Ladybug put out from Montezuma at 7pm and paddled into the gloom of sunset, some hazy cloud cover over the western horizon, this a benefit, the intense afternoon sun diffracted, us happily paddling. There were actually eight of us, one of us being a seeing-eye-dog,...

August 11, 2003
Saw my first Wood Storks last night! (Mycteria americana). Gends and I were paddling up along W. Montezuma Island at sunset. Gends is from Norway, he is in Clarksdale for the Sunflower River Blues Festival weekend. His name is pronounced "Yends." I saw a big flock of White Pelicans upstream several...

August 06, 2003
Voluminous thunderheads erupting from the delta forests this afternoon. Sarah and I went out to Montezuma Landing and paddled over to W. Montezuma and then upstream, new sandbars being formed behind the dikes set out last year and the year before, new upstarts of willow forests where once was nothing...

July 30, 2003
Went to Colorado to attend the wedding of former intern Ethan West with Sarah Becker (who crossed his path during a river float in the spring of the millennium year). Came back to find Memphis in a state of chaos, big trees down everywhere and power out to 306,000 homes & businesses. Finally back...

July 14, 2003
Full moon setting low in the horizon through the hardwood forests of the river valley, a gentle wash of yellow in fields of a thin cobalt blue, the shadow of the earth slightly purplish. Last night at sunset i paddled upstream from montezuma landing into the face of severe thunderstorms charging out...

July 09, 2003
Located a tree in the forest near Hillhouse Landing and dropped it - this will be for the next dugout canoe, which will end up in the children's room of Clarksdale's Carnegie Public Library. Although this cottonwood appears to be between 50 and 75 years old (going by a quick inspection of the tree...

July 04, 2003
July 4, 2003. There is a fresh hatch of dragonflies, the Green Darner, i believe, locally known as the "Snake Doctor." The other day when is was out paddling i passed a nymph Snake Doctor floating on the river surface. As usual, i didn't want to break stride, but then i suddenly went whoa!...

July 03, 2003
july 3, 2003, got up at 4:30am and paddled out to island 63. there was a log i had seen the previous day hung up on the 2nd dike and i returned to measure it. why did i get up so early? To avoid the heat of the day. My skin seems to be becoming increasingly sensitive to the effects of the sun, perhaps...

July 01, 2003
a great day for wildlife watching! a fresh hatch of mayflies, i lifted one out of the river, its body albino, its beady black eyes the only darkness. also a fresh hatch of dragonflies. put in at quapaw at 5pm and paddled up around the backside of island 63, greeted by the calling of several screech...

June 30, 2003
did a circumnavigation of island 62, wind out of the southeast, storm clouds swirling around the counterclockwise spin of tropical storm bill, just making its landing on shore 300 miles to the south. i went for a swim in the chute of is. 63 but the was stale and alkaline. no tugboat traffic. the...

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