I can see Cairo! Which is significant bc its the city that sits on the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi.

Woke up across from paducah and calculated I had to paddle 47 miles in 48 hours to meet my friend Rachael in Cairo on Saturday. Forecast looked good so very doable. Figured id spread it out over 3 x 15 mile paddles and take it easy.

Stopped at Ft. Massac in Metropolis, IL. Its one of the first French forts from the 1700s, abandoned after the French and Indian war then became an American fort during Washington’s presidency. It was closed however so I just walked around the visitors center and read about it. After that I thought about stopping at the riverboat casino in Metropolis (been feeling pretty lucky lately), but decided I’ll wait for the Harrahs on Canal St instead. 🙂

So paddle, paddle, paddle, there are no mile markers to be seen. They arent every mile like on highways, just sporadically placed on cut (outside) river banks (as opposed to lee banks – inside). Did not see any however and just knew the mile markers of the dams, so was using that as my gauge. Dam at 938, didnt realize was a dam so I kept paddling for hours thinking I must be going really really slow. So I picked up the intensity. Mile 962 and 968 were supposed to have dams but I only saw one of the two…prob 968. But I didnt realize I had paddled 40 miles and am now sitting within eyesight of Cairo. So much for 3 little paddles.

My new nemisis is the Asian Carp. They are really ruining the peaceful vibes of my night rides, completely soaking me through. They just get spooked when you ride by them and jump out of the water (sometimes in the boat w you–not yet happened to me). But over a 4 hour paddle you will get splashed hundreds of times…no exaggeration. I felt like a WW2 bomber with flak blowing up all around me.

But, I see a boat ramp around 1am on the IL side w a truck just sitting there , lights on. Curious of where I am, I pull up to it flashing my headlamp as not to spook them…I did anyway, haha. But made another friend out of it, ricky. Ricky was a good source for a number of things. Pointed out a good spot for me to sleep, telling me a canoeist had stayed there last week (maybe I’ll catch up to him soon).

He came back to check on me this morning and ended up taking me to the convenience store and a little restaurant called Afton’s. Afton, a very sweet woman, made me a big breakfast and I talked to her and ricky for about an hour about this and that.

So ricky drove me back to the ramp where a couple fisherman pointed out a nice beach for me to wait on until tomorrow morning. They sent me off with a michelob ultra and now Im washing everything and chilling to the max today, in preparation.

Tomorrow is the big dance, the big water…actually the biggest water in North America. You have to switch continents to go bigger. So patience and we’ll begin tomorrow!