We Finished the Mississippi River today; Little Diversion Canal to Lock 53

Day 162 … Fri, Sept 29, 2017 … 68.84 miles, 9 hours

Today is the day no Looper enjoys and all dread … Olmstead Lock, Lock 53 & Lock 52. You never know how long it will take to get through any or all of these locks. Could be an hour or a 22 hour wait.

Up early for a quick cup of coffee and to shore the dog before we all pull out and start a long travel day. Today we will finish the Mississippi River and turn up the Ohio River, into the current ... making a slower passage.

The 4 hour trek down the Mississippi went well, passing tows with lots of notice and room.

It was quite congested at the turn up into the Ohio. Luckily most of the traffic was holding still on the side banks. The group had planned to anchor for the night by the new Olmstead Lock, under construction. Our group stays in communication on a specific VHF channel. Once contacted the lock master at Olmsted said no anchoring above the lock. Too many construction support vessels in the area and moving, I guess. So, he arranged for us to get thru him and then to get thru the next old lock #53. These 2 locks and the one above are notoriously slow, broken or busy with commercial tows causing Loopers lengthy delays (upwards of 6-9 hour waits). Matter of fact, several days later we heard Lock 53 was closed to everyone … they had a hydraulic issue needing repair before they could start locking anyone through. Once again … glad we made it through before the shut down.

Not a long wait for Olmsted. No one is allowed to anchor between the two locks. Once thru Olmsted must be able to pass thru 53 ... hence the lock master coordination for us to all get thru. Half the boats wanted to continue to lock 52 and the Paducah docks. Half wanted to stay the night below lock 53. This was coordinated also.

We left at 7:30 am and got thru lock 53 at 4pm. We did not want to go any further and were allowed to stay on the land side lock wall just outside of the small boat chamber that is not in use. 3 Other boats were given permission to stay on the opposite wall inside the chamber. Being land side, we were able to walk Cally across the ancient, crumbling wall to shore ... if I wore my life jacket. Cally didn't have to wear hers.

OLD, decaying lock wall top to cross to get to shore with Cally. This “small chamber” or 600 lock is not in use.

Trying up was interesting, too. Not much to tie to here. All in all it was quite a welcome stop ... at least for Cally. Plus we didn't want to lock through #52 at night. Stopping for Cally potty time was a good decision for us. The others that pressed on were happy with their decision and handled night docking in Paducah with the help of other Loopers already there.

Tows did continue to lock the the main chamber through the night. Was kind of cool to be so close and yet, mostly, protected from the wakes by the lock walls. I did hear a couple go thru during the night. Commerce never seems to stop on the rivers.

Scenes along the way today

Kaskaskia River Lock Wall to Little Diversion Canal

Day 161 … Thurs, Sept 28, 2017 … 69.5 miles; 6 hours

Kaskaskia Lock to Little Diversion Canal

There are few places to anchor off the Mississippi River, especially now that the water is so low. Several potential anchorages are too low water depth for our boats to enter. SO?? We make a long run of 69+ miles to a well known canal for the night.

There isn’t anything here, but a place to stop for the night with a spot for Cally to get to shore by the rocks under a bridge and then get up to dry, hard ground for business. the canal banks are too wet, muddy for her; she would sink in the mud.

Tomorrow we move on.

Hoppies to Kaskaskia Lock Wall–Puppy Palooza!

Day 160 … Wed, Sept 27, 2017 … 42 miles, 3:45 hours
Hoppies to Kaskaskia Lock Wall

Large tow passed us … look at the WAVES his wake creates … staying away from that turbulence

Just a day on the Mississippi, traveling with 3 other Loopers (Firestorm, Gypsies Palace and One Eye Dog). Steve (GP) was in the lead, contacted the approaching tows to coordinate how they wanted us to pass them and conveying each direction back to the group. All went smoothly. GP & OED are faster and on a long day got ahead of Firestorm & us.

Finally, we reach Kaskaskia River, turn up and to the Kaskaskia Lock. This is not a lock we will do, but instead a lock for boats going from or to Kaskaskia River. We had contacted the lockmaster for permission to tie to the outside of the lock wall for the night. All 4 boats fit and all 4 boats have dogs.

The lock wall was SO much fun. Though Fern said you weren’t allowed on the lock wall without a Captains License (2 of the 4 boats had such) … we all got off onto the wide wall and the dogs got to play on the wall. This was also time for more puppy grass matt training for Cally. Though we took her to the boat ramp and RV park on the other side of the lock, we did get her mats re-scented AND she actually went on her mat … now if she will only do it on her mat on the boat. One thing at a time, I guess.
THANKS PEE DADDY!!
AIS targets on the Mississippi as we are docked off the Mississippi for the night. See the 4 close blue triangles? Those are a dredge and 3 support tugs moving south.

Alton Marina to Hoppies … Fern & Hoppies Place

Day 159 … Tuesday, Sept 26, 2017 … 43 miles, 5:45 hours

Alton Marina to Hoppies Barge Marina

Decision made at docktails, we are heading on down to Hoppies. We aren’t waiting, but trying to get ahead.

8 Boats left at 8am and headed for the lock. Lock master was basically ready for us, having been alerted earlier by our spokesperson & a delivery captain (who joined into our merry band of boats) and specifying 8am would work in his schedule.

For the first time we rafted off a boat while locking. We were beside the delivery captain, who was moving a boat for an owner. We did the same thing at the 2nd lock.

The lock master warned us of all the debris in the lock … OMG … a lot of stuff to maneuver around

The approach to the second lock is through a canal … All Boats Enter Here

After the 2nd lock, we passed by St Louis … we all took pics of other boats and had our pics taken by the famous arch.

Unfortunately, St Louis is one of the few water front towns WITHOUT a water front presence for boaters. No town walls or town marina … no way to stop by boat and spend time or money in town. Such a shame, I bet most of our group would have stopped.

Scenes along the way to Hoppies …

Couple pics of the WING DAMNS … rock piles that stretch from shore out into the Mississippi. They are built to reduce sediment in the navigable channel.

In years of normal or high water, these wing damns are under water and not visible. I like that we can see them, even if they are outside the buoy marked channel.

On to Hoppies, quite the institution. Fern & Hoppie own and run the marina (now in their mid 80’s), which is a series of barges tied together by a small town. Fern is famous for her 4:30pm “briefing” on the water conditions we will see further down the Mississippi and onto the Ohio, where we can anchor, where not to go and basic local education on traversing the Mississippi. The town is popular for the Blue Owl Restaurant with Mile High Apple Pie.

Upon arrival the 7 of us had to wait our turns in the hot heat … Hoppies was clearly going to be packed. Each boat had to come in when called, boats had to be moved to squeeze the next boat in … but, we all made it! no one had to raft and Cally could get to shore. The barge we were on was red hot on top; I thought I would have to put Cally’s non skid booties on her to run across. I waited just a bit for the sun to go behind a cloud and then ran her across the short section of the hot barge onto the rest of the barges which were white and not hot.

Did I mention it was hot?? Our AC wouldn’t stay on … not enough juice from the power pedestal. A dock hand checked and the local electric company had less than full electric flowing into Hoppies. A dock hand said we could split onto different phases and that should work. It did!! This meant stop using our big expensive splitter cord. No problem, right? Well, it is if you forget to take it with you when you leave. Yep. that’s what we did; without knowing it.

With the dog dooty and the AC issue, we did not roll into town for the late lunch with everyone else. Fern even had to call the restaurant to “tell” them to stay open until our group got up the hill to them. Everyone knows Fern and everyone listens to Fern! However, Mike on Gettin Looped called and asked if we wanted him to bring us back the Mile High Apple Pie … YES!!!

Fern’s briefing was full of info with mile markers of places to be careful, names of places that we could anchor (lots of usual anchorages are not available as water is too low for us to get in). She also warned the river can drop 2’ in a day, so pay attention to depths when anchoring to allow for this drop. AND??? In the morning, the river was down almost 2’. Still plenty of depth at Hoppies.

Early to bed … it will be an early morning departure again. This stretch is the most dreaded on the Loop. You just basically have to get it over with. Having buddy boats makes it much more doable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!