Day 87 - Slowing… Down…

Jean-Canot(J-C) Walker

Oct 04, 2022

Below is a map of the final section of my journey. You can follow along with these somewhat tentative dates:

Oct 2nd - Baton Rouge

Oct 4th - Plaquemines

Oct 5th - Donaldsonville

Oct 7th - New Orleans

Oct 10th - Venice

Oct 12th - Pilottown and the Gulf of Mexico (via the South Pass)

Original artwork by John Ruskey - For the RiverGator navigational project

Day 87: Baton Rouge → Manchac Point

Date: October 3rd, 2022

LRM 229 → LRM 214

Distance today: 15 miles

River Time: 4 hours

Countdown to New Orleans, LA: 111 Miles

Local Gauge: 5.0 Baton Rouge Gauge

Today was a short, but jam-packed day. I began my day where I left off yesterday, in the middle of the Port of Baton Rouge. The port still had something in store for me, as I was met with heavy barge and ocean liner traffic (I say ocean liner and ocean-going vessel interchangeably) like these:

A (moored) ocean-going vessel. This one is an oil tanker.

It was pretty congested for the first 5 miles or so, with constant radio traffic and coordination. I’ve found that when going through ports, I’m safer if I remain in the middle of the channel. Because I can’t go fully off to the side anyway (fleeted barges everywhere), this lets me maneuver better and allows me to go left or right depending on what the other vessels are doing. I guess you could say I’m more nimble or agile, in a way — I’m better able to get anywhere in the channel I need to be, faster.

Still, it requires constant situational awareness, and all my focus is on carrying on safely. Whereas I sometimes listen to podcasts, talk on the phone, etc, I don’t do anything else but navigate when I’m going through a port like this. I’m tuned in to the sounds around me, and if any get too loud I investigate. My head is constantly on a swivel, and I’m alert for southbound barges which truly can sneak up behind me.

Difficult to tell, but this is 3-4 tows ahead of me. More behind me. It’s tough to convey the chaotic nature of a port with just a picture.

Dow Chemical Wharves. Loading a chemical barge container.

After 10 miles, the port faded behind me, and I was well and truly past it. Phew. I enjoyed my return to the normalcy of paddling along a quiet River.

I didn’t want to do a super long day, since I got a bit of a late start, so I pulled over to make camp 15 miles into my day at the first great spot I found.

I’m camped in a serene and peaceful willow forest. This is exactly what I needed after the chaos of Baton Rouge the last few days.

Slowing Down

The River is slowing down. I’ve noticed it for the past few days, but it seems to have downshifted significantly through Baton Rouge.

Essentially, this is happening because the ocean is “pushing back” against the Mississippi. I’m beginning to feel the effects of the tides on the flow of the water. When the tide is coming in, the River gets backed up a bit and slows down; as the ocean goes back to low tide, the River speeds up slightly again.

You may have noticed I’ve been keeping track of the local gauges. Well the newest one is at Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge gauge is at 5.0 today. Since this gauge is calibrated to sea level itself, it means the water I’m floating on today is 5 feet above sea level. I will paddle 229 miles and drop only 5 feet. Compare that to spring when the gauge quite often will get up to 40. You can see how dropping 40 feet over 229 miles would lead to faster flows.

If I go swimming above my head, like I did today, my feet are below sea level.

As seen here, the tide is beginning to affect Baton Rouge on a daily basis

This is the historical averages data on discharge volume for October 3rd. This is the lowest October 3rd in the 18 years this has been tracked.

Fifty-mile days are no longer in play, unless I get up before dawn and paddle past sundown. At which point the trip becomes less enjoyable. Luckily, I baked this into my mileage plans, and I have mostly mileages in the 30s going forward.

Cancer Alley aka The Chemical Corridor

From the Upper Port of Baton Rouge through to New Orleans is affectionately known as the Chemical Corridor or Cancer Alley. Take your pick.

There is basically industry the entire way between these two cities, and quite a lot of them are chemical in nature, like the Dow Chemical docks I passed earlier today (pictured above).

Next Up: New Orleans

My next major stop is New Orleans. Because the River passes through New Orleans for many miles, there is no single river mile that New Orleans sits on. I have chosen mile 103 as my next milestone, because that’s where I will stay for a night with a friend.

He lives inside the levee (unprotected from floods), and I will have the unique opportunity to visit the “Batture Colony” where he lives. There is a small community of “camps” inside the levee there, which is somewhat clandestine in nature, and which I am very excited to see.

I also realized yesterday that I am in the single digits for number of days remaining. If I get to the Gulf on Oct. 12th as planned, that means I have 9 days on this trip remaining. That doesn’t even feel real.