Missouri River has been on my "bucket list" of rivers to travel down for several years...I'd really liked to have traveled the entire distance from the headwaters in Rocky mountains to St.Louis but that would have required running the length of five big and windswept reservoirs in Montana,North and South Dakota....something my small boat isn't designed for....My son Mike has been with me on most of my other river trips so I both wanted and needed him (at my age 74) to accompany me...His business allows him limited time away this time of year so we decided to schedule our trip over the 4th of July holiday and run the 786 miles from Yankton,South Dakota to mouth of the river at St. Louis........
My wife Peggy and I left our home in Albany,Ga. on Monday June 30th and spent the night with Mike and his wife,Rebecca,at their home in Flowery Branch,Ga.Next morning we switch the boat over to Mike's Ford diesel van...to cut down on the days Mike has to be away from his business,Peggy and I will tow the boat to Omaha,pick up Mike,Rebecca and Rebecca's sister (Jane Barkley) at airport and continue on to Yankton on Thursday July 3rd...
Missouri river is supposedly navigable( I use that term loosely and go into more detail later) to Ponca,Nebraska which is about 60 miles below the dam at Yankton....the first 60 miles or so,it's a shallow river with no marked channel,numerous sandbars,snags and logs to dodge...probably the biggest challenge is picking the right channel in those areas where the river splits into 2-4 channels around and through sandbars and islands...
Fortunately we had a friend,Mark Foss whom I've known for several years through fishing forums to help us...
Night before launch,we meet Mark and his really nice wife Molly, for dinner.Mark is veteran kayaker and has made the trip downriver to Sioux city several times so he was a valuable source of info about what to expect on the first 60 miles of the river...a few weeks previously there had been heavy rains and flooding in this stretch of river,consequently they had cut the normal discharge of water from the dam for a week or so.Mark assured us the water discharge was back to normal now and would give us enough water to navigate around the various sandbars and shallow areas if we chose the right channel to go down...Mike and i had both studied the river on Google earth but it's impossible to remember which little channel is the best choice for 60 miles of river....we would just have to rely on our experience at reading the water in front of us......Mark also assured us the river in that stretch did not have rocks in it...very important to know because had there been rocks or rocky shoals in the river,we would have had to idle most of the first 60 miles or risk tearing up the prop or lower unit...
we had stopped at a marina in Sioux City and determined gas was available there so we decided to run light on gas for first 60 miles....reason being, a lighter boat floats higher (and we know from experience,it is much easier to drag it off a sandbar if you screw up and ground the boat).....
check weather report...and it's not good...no rain but 20 mph south wind gusting to 30 mph....no problem for first 60 miles because we are running almost due east but the river turns south into the teeth of the wind at Sioux City....
Launch day... Friday July 4th.....
wake up call at 6:00 a.m.,quick motel breakfast,stop to buy ice and we head west to launch ramp on Nebraska side about 1/4 mile below Gavins Point dam....
before we start downriver,a brief description of what we will be traveling in.....16 ft Xpress flat bottom duck boat,25 hp Yamaha 4 stroke,two 12 gallon gas tanks and a Minn-Kota 74 lb thrust,24 volt trolling motor, Humminbird 788 CI depthfinder with built in GPS, chart plotter and all safety equipment......GPS shows us our speed and position on the river plus miles traveled......boat has a bimini top which we chose not to use for most of the trip because of stiff headwinds....we start with 10 gallons of gas......
Destination today is launch ramp at Council Bluffs,Iowa directly across river from Omaha,Neb.
Mike backs trailer in far enough to submerge foot of motor and I crank engine and let it warm up while I check everything I can think of.....after you have trailered a boat for 1265 miles,you hope nothing has vibrated loose..everything seems ok,so off the trailer and I hold boat in the current....
our pit crew (Peggy,Rebecca and Jane) are busy taking pictures),they will follow us in the van as they did each day...nose boat on the ramp,mike hops aboard and we turn downriver at 8:00a.m.
first 5-6 miles we had a defined channel to run in and 15 feet of depth then the river starts to split around sandbars/islands,depth hops up to 4-6 ft and fun begins....when you've got 183 miles to go,you can't do a bunch of idling along so you just keep the boat up on plane and hope you make the right choice.....
I'm sure most "river rats" will agree that if you have run enough rivers with similar conditions,you can look downstream and see where the "current is running the "easiest and deepest" and that's usually the right way to go....and that's what we did......
9:00 a.m .... we've only traveled 19.8 miles,not too concerned because we've slowed several times to pick the right channel plus bumped over a couple of places...weather is cool with temps in low 60's so Mike and I both wore our rain suit jackets first two days until mid day...
10:00 a.m..tea,pee and switch driver break.....we agree watching the depthfinder is useless-it's all shallow but we only grounded the boat once where we had to trim up and idle off a "skinny" place....river is full of snags and logs caught on the bottom and we're constantly zig-zagging around them...many of them are just under the surface but the current is strong enough that a "hump" shows where something is under the surface..#1 rule in shallow water river travel..never run over a "hump" because there is something (rock,log,snag) under the surface causing that hump and you don't want to hit it....Mark had told us there were no rocks in the river but a few miles upstream,I spotted a pile of rocks in mid stream...maybe somebody dumped them there but glad i didn't see any earlier or I would have been a lot more concerned about running this stretch of river...
11:00 ..we've only covered 58 miles and this is starting to concern us because at times our indicated speed is 24-27 mph....when we turn into the wind,our speed drops 4-5 mph because the bimini top's resistance... we adjust the straps and pull the forward part down but it doesn't help so we end up taking the top down and it stayed down almost the entire trip....actually we had noticed the slowing down part earlier but were more concerned with dodging logs/snags and "too shallow to run" places...river is becoming more defined now and we can run more in a straight line...
11:30 a.m. we pull into Sioux City marina and fill the tanks...(with $4.54 a gallon gas)....as soon as we turn south,we can feel the full force of the south wind and the waves are starting to build in middle of the river....fortunately there was enough depth to hug the outside bends and avoid the really rough water...with top down and full load of gas,we can still run 22-24 mph and we know that will increase later in day as gas load lightens....we've learned that when you are running long distances in a relatively slow boat,2-4 mph, can mean an hour or more less travel at end of a 10 hour day...
12:30 lunch break...Mike had smoked a turkey the day prior to us leaving-Rebecca made us turkey sandwiches as she did each day of our trip......turkey sandwich,potato chips and couple of Peggy's cookies makes a pretty darn good lunch.....and with engine idling in gear,the current is pushing us 8-9 mph downstream while we eat lunch.........
3:30 p.m. we pass mile marker 655.... launch ramp at Council Bluffs where we plan to take out is mile marker 619.....wind is starting to die a little and waves are not as high when we have to switch sides of river but still very few stretches where we don't have to hug the outside bends... there are thousands of rock dikes(wing dams) all the way down the river but on this stretch almost all of them are on the inside bend of the river.....we are also able to consistently run from 25-27 mph.....
4:30...starting to see planes descending and taking off in the distance...launch ramp we headed for is directly across river from Omaha airport so we are getting close....
5:10 spot launch ramp ahead and our pit crew plus Dave seppuhn whom I've known for many years on a couple of fishing forums....he knew about my trip and I had texted him couple hours earlier with our ETA....speaking of texts-we did that throughout the day letting our wives know we were OK and the progress we were making...GPS indicates we've traveled 183 miles....
Mike backs trailer in and after visiting with little while with Hutch,(thanks again Hutch for the great cookies your wife baked for us)we head for the Comfort Inn in Council Bluffs....
Peggy and I had stayed in this motel two nights previously and it was in a location that didn't look entirely safe to me(if there is such a thing at a motel)..sure enough,a guys truck parked near us that had some bicycles and lawn furniture in the back that were stolen during the night but they didn't mess with our boat...I've got two metal lockers with heavy duty hasps and locks on them which so far has worked on my trips to secure depthfinder,rainsuits,lifejackets etc.
It's 4th of July and we are wondering where to get something to eat...turns out Outback Steakhouses were open...Mike punches in the address on his GPS to the closest one across the river in Omaha...Going to an Outback in Omaha with all the great steak houses they have is about like going to Pizza Hut in Rome but it was open and the good places weren't.....
When we get back to motel,it had been a long day for an old dude so it was a shower and lights out for me....
launch ramp is just below Gavins point dam in Yankton,South Dakota
just one of several hundred snags in first 60 miles
logs and snags stretch all way across river in places...just pick a path and go..(with fingers crossed)
only two places to buy on Missouri river...Sioux City Marina is one of them.
mile marker 719 means it is 719 miles to mouth of Missouri river at St.Louis...
hugging bank to stay out of waves in mid-river
typical river scenery from Sioux City to Omaha...
My wife Peggy and I left our home in Albany,Ga. on Monday June 30th and spent the night with Mike and his wife,Rebecca,at their home in Flowery Branch,Ga.Next morning we switch the boat over to Mike's Ford diesel van...to cut down on the days Mike has to be away from his business,Peggy and I will tow the boat to Omaha,pick up Mike,Rebecca and Rebecca's sister (Jane Barkley) at airport and continue on to Yankton on Thursday July 3rd...
Missouri river is supposedly navigable( I use that term loosely and go into more detail later) to Ponca,Nebraska which is about 60 miles below the dam at Yankton....the first 60 miles or so,it's a shallow river with no marked channel,numerous sandbars,snags and logs to dodge...probably the biggest challenge is picking the right channel in those areas where the river splits into 2-4 channels around and through sandbars and islands...
Fortunately we had a friend,Mark Foss whom I've known for several years through fishing forums to help us...
Night before launch,we meet Mark and his really nice wife Molly, for dinner.Mark is veteran kayaker and has made the trip downriver to Sioux city several times so he was a valuable source of info about what to expect on the first 60 miles of the river...a few weeks previously there had been heavy rains and flooding in this stretch of river,consequently they had cut the normal discharge of water from the dam for a week or so.Mark assured us the water discharge was back to normal now and would give us enough water to navigate around the various sandbars and shallow areas if we chose the right channel to go down...Mike and i had both studied the river on Google earth but it's impossible to remember which little channel is the best choice for 60 miles of river....we would just have to rely on our experience at reading the water in front of us......Mark also assured us the river in that stretch did not have rocks in it...very important to know because had there been rocks or rocky shoals in the river,we would have had to idle most of the first 60 miles or risk tearing up the prop or lower unit...
we had stopped at a marina in Sioux City and determined gas was available there so we decided to run light on gas for first 60 miles....reason being, a lighter boat floats higher (and we know from experience,it is much easier to drag it off a sandbar if you screw up and ground the boat).....
check weather report...and it's not good...no rain but 20 mph south wind gusting to 30 mph....no problem for first 60 miles because we are running almost due east but the river turns south into the teeth of the wind at Sioux City....
Launch day... Friday July 4th.....
wake up call at 6:00 a.m.,quick motel breakfast,stop to buy ice and we head west to launch ramp on Nebraska side about 1/4 mile below Gavins Point dam....
before we start downriver,a brief description of what we will be traveling in.....16 ft Xpress flat bottom duck boat,25 hp Yamaha 4 stroke,two 12 gallon gas tanks and a Minn-Kota 74 lb thrust,24 volt trolling motor, Humminbird 788 CI depthfinder with built in GPS, chart plotter and all safety equipment......GPS shows us our speed and position on the river plus miles traveled......boat has a bimini top which we chose not to use for most of the trip because of stiff headwinds....we start with 10 gallons of gas......
Destination today is launch ramp at Council Bluffs,Iowa directly across river from Omaha,Neb.
Mike backs trailer in far enough to submerge foot of motor and I crank engine and let it warm up while I check everything I can think of.....after you have trailered a boat for 1265 miles,you hope nothing has vibrated loose..everything seems ok,so off the trailer and I hold boat in the current....
our pit crew (Peggy,Rebecca and Jane) are busy taking pictures),they will follow us in the van as they did each day...nose boat on the ramp,mike hops aboard and we turn downriver at 8:00a.m.
first 5-6 miles we had a defined channel to run in and 15 feet of depth then the river starts to split around sandbars/islands,depth hops up to 4-6 ft and fun begins....when you've got 183 miles to go,you can't do a bunch of idling along so you just keep the boat up on plane and hope you make the right choice.....
I'm sure most "river rats" will agree that if you have run enough rivers with similar conditions,you can look downstream and see where the "current is running the "easiest and deepest" and that's usually the right way to go....and that's what we did......
9:00 a.m .... we've only traveled 19.8 miles,not too concerned because we've slowed several times to pick the right channel plus bumped over a couple of places...weather is cool with temps in low 60's so Mike and I both wore our rain suit jackets first two days until mid day...
10:00 a.m..tea,pee and switch driver break.....we agree watching the depthfinder is useless-it's all shallow but we only grounded the boat once where we had to trim up and idle off a "skinny" place....river is full of snags and logs caught on the bottom and we're constantly zig-zagging around them...many of them are just under the surface but the current is strong enough that a "hump" shows where something is under the surface..#1 rule in shallow water river travel..never run over a "hump" because there is something (rock,log,snag) under the surface causing that hump and you don't want to hit it....Mark had told us there were no rocks in the river but a few miles upstream,I spotted a pile of rocks in mid stream...maybe somebody dumped them there but glad i didn't see any earlier or I would have been a lot more concerned about running this stretch of river...
11:00 ..we've only covered 58 miles and this is starting to concern us because at times our indicated speed is 24-27 mph....when we turn into the wind,our speed drops 4-5 mph because the bimini top's resistance... we adjust the straps and pull the forward part down but it doesn't help so we end up taking the top down and it stayed down almost the entire trip....actually we had noticed the slowing down part earlier but were more concerned with dodging logs/snags and "too shallow to run" places...river is becoming more defined now and we can run more in a straight line...
11:30 a.m. we pull into Sioux City marina and fill the tanks...(with $4.54 a gallon gas)....as soon as we turn south,we can feel the full force of the south wind and the waves are starting to build in middle of the river....fortunately there was enough depth to hug the outside bends and avoid the really rough water...with top down and full load of gas,we can still run 22-24 mph and we know that will increase later in day as gas load lightens....we've learned that when you are running long distances in a relatively slow boat,2-4 mph, can mean an hour or more less travel at end of a 10 hour day...
12:30 lunch break...Mike had smoked a turkey the day prior to us leaving-Rebecca made us turkey sandwiches as she did each day of our trip......turkey sandwich,potato chips and couple of Peggy's cookies makes a pretty darn good lunch.....and with engine idling in gear,the current is pushing us 8-9 mph downstream while we eat lunch.........
3:30 p.m. we pass mile marker 655.... launch ramp at Council Bluffs where we plan to take out is mile marker 619.....wind is starting to die a little and waves are not as high when we have to switch sides of river but still very few stretches where we don't have to hug the outside bends... there are thousands of rock dikes(wing dams) all the way down the river but on this stretch almost all of them are on the inside bend of the river.....we are also able to consistently run from 25-27 mph.....
4:30...starting to see planes descending and taking off in the distance...launch ramp we headed for is directly across river from Omaha airport so we are getting close....
5:10 spot launch ramp ahead and our pit crew plus Dave seppuhn whom I've known for many years on a couple of fishing forums....he knew about my trip and I had texted him couple hours earlier with our ETA....speaking of texts-we did that throughout the day letting our wives know we were OK and the progress we were making...GPS indicates we've traveled 183 miles....
Mike backs trailer in and after visiting with little while with Hutch,(thanks again Hutch for the great cookies your wife baked for us)we head for the Comfort Inn in Council Bluffs....
Peggy and I had stayed in this motel two nights previously and it was in a location that didn't look entirely safe to me(if there is such a thing at a motel)..sure enough,a guys truck parked near us that had some bicycles and lawn furniture in the back that were stolen during the night but they didn't mess with our boat...I've got two metal lockers with heavy duty hasps and locks on them which so far has worked on my trips to secure depthfinder,rainsuits,lifejackets etc.
It's 4th of July and we are wondering where to get something to eat...turns out Outback Steakhouses were open...Mike punches in the address on his GPS to the closest one across the river in Omaha...Going to an Outback in Omaha with all the great steak houses they have is about like going to Pizza Hut in Rome but it was open and the good places weren't.....
When we get back to motel,it had been a long day for an old dude so it was a shower and lights out for me....
launch ramp is just below Gavins point dam in Yankton,South Dakota
just one of several hundred snags in first 60 miles
logs and snags stretch all way across river in places...just pick a path and go..(with fingers crossed)
only two places to buy on Missouri river...Sioux City Marina is one of them.
mile marker 719 means it is 719 miles to mouth of Missouri river at St.Louis...
hugging bank to stay out of waves in mid-river
typical river scenery from Sioux City to Omaha...
