Friday July 14 44 miles paddled Around Cairo Illinois I kayak through 40 foot sheer mud bank walls. I meet the Ohio around 6:30 pm, and I'm on a new map. The Ohio River is enormous, it dwarfs the Mississippi it flows into. The muddy Mississippi meets the steel grey waters of the Ohio. I missed a flood that flushed down the Ohio to New Orleans by a week. The banks of the Mississippi are ringed by the receding water line.
I had, had a great day and it was time to search for a campsite. The sand shores were so wet that they had turned into quicksand. One step out of the boat and I was up to my knee cap. The wing dams are under water and running with a hard current. Five barges go by with the engines running with full screw, to make it up the river. These barges gave off enormous 14 foot wakes that I had to roller coaster ride to get to the other side. The kayaks bow would slice through a wall of water and then come slamming down into the trough, and then I would ride back up again.
I stop at a boat ramp that seems implausible to use. The boat ramp is steep, and 150 meters long. I would not want to back a car and boat down this high slide to water.
I camp in a gravel parking area near a 12 foot cross that looms over the Mississippi River.
Diary entry from the book {Prometheus Lives} by Artist Troy Richard Thomas
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