Day 42: The coldest night yet

Friday morning began early for Richard; he woke up at 5:40 AM and went for a 1 mile run. When he returned to his campsite, his hands were freezing (we should pitch in to buy him some gloves!).

He returned to his tent, gathered his toiletries and headed for the bathhouse. He showered, shaved & brushed his teeth and did a load of laundry while he was there. During his shower he heard a familiar voice “Good morning in the shower” - it was KK, the campground host. Richard responded, “Good morning KK, is that you?”. KK replied, “Just checking the bathrooms before I go up and unlock the gate. Come on up and have a cup of coffee with us when you get done”.

After moving his laundry to the dryer, he walked up to KK’s camper and joined them for coffee and shot the breeze for a few minutes. While he was up there, he met the park ranger, Roy Ellis. Roy called down to Claiborne lock to let them know that Richard would be paddling up there later that morning. Richard estimated that he would arrive before 10:00 AM, so Roy relayed this to the employees at the lock.

While he was up visiting with KK, the camper that had booked Richard’s site also inquired if he could set up on his site early - around 10:00 AM if Richard was going to be packed up and gone by that point. Richard and KK gave the gentleman approval to set up on the site early and Richard headed back to his campsite to begin packing up. On his way back to his campsite, Richard noticed that Colton was up and he was tending to the fire that he had built the night before - Colton had commented that the fire would burn all night long. Richard woke up a few times during the night and tended to the fire to keep it going until Colton woke up. On his way back to his site, Richard saw Colton tending to the fire and jokingly said “You’re welcome”. Colton replied “Yeah, it looks like somebody’s been taking care of my fire” and Richard admitted that he’d taken care of it all night for him.

Richard returned to his site to fold and pack up his clean clothes from the laundry and to begin packing up his things. A few minutes later, Clarence and Marie greeted Richard from their camper and Marie inquired “Are you ready for a cup of coffee?” Richard joined Clarence and Marie in their camper and before he knew it, he looked at the clock and it was 9:40 AM! He hurried over to his site, packed up his stuff and before he could completely empty his tent, the gentleman who reserved his site for that evening was already pulling up with his camper.

The gentleman with the camper offered to wait while Richard finished packing up, but Richard insisted that he could pull in, if he could just get a hand with moving his tent out of the way. The gentleman helped Richard pick up his tent and move it off of the tent pad so he could park his camper.

After he finished packing up, Richard ran up to the bathhouse to change into his swimsuit before getting on the river. When he came back from the bathhouse, he noticed 2 couples sitting out on the picnic table at an empty campsite. The 2 men from the couples came walking up to Richard and one of them said, “You’re the guy kayaking the river, aren’t you?” Richard confirmed that he was indeed that person and they all started visiting, getting to know one another. The couples were Kenneth & Virginia Bumpers and James and Mary Bumpers - James & Kenneth are brothers. The couples are from Mobile and Jackson, AL (in Clarke County). They remarked that it if they would have met him the previous evening, they would have invited him over to have bacon & eggs with them for breakfast.  Before leaving Isaac’s Creek campground, Clarence, Colton and Marie came by to say goodbye. They were heading home for the day - they live nearby in Atmore, AL.

Richard finally began paddling toward Claiborne Lock & Dam at 1:30 PM. This was well past his estimate of arriving between 10 and 11 AM. Because of his late arrival, the person that had been notified of his arrival had already left for the day. The new employee who was manning the lock was named Leon Leggett. Leon has a daughter that lives in Lawrenceville (a suburb of Atlanta) - it’s a small world isn’t it? Leon and Richard visited for a few minutes and finally Richard told Leon that he needed to get on his way downstream. He got a late start for the day and he was itching to get some mileage in before sunset. Richard climbed back into his kayak, put on his PFD and paddled into the lock at 2:30 PM. He paddled out of the lock at 2:55 — in that 25 minutes, the lock dropped him 24 feet in elevation. At Claiborne Lock & Dam, he was exactly 72.5 miles from the confluence of the Tombigbee River and the Alabama River. These two rivers meet to form the Mobile River – Richard’s last river before he paddles into Mobile Bay and then on to the Gulf of Mexico.

Claiborne Dam does not generate power, unlike the previous dams that he’s encountered on the river. There is a spillover area on the right side of the dam and it made for a rough ride when he paddled out of the lock. Out of the 7 gates on the dam, some of them were letting water through, plus there was water going over the spillway, so it was rough for a few hundred feet right out of the lock and then the river calmed down a bit.

A few hundred yards down river, Richard spotted another alligator sitting along the riverbank. He spotted the animal just as he was about to pass him sitting along the riverbank; Richard got his camera out and started snapping pictures. He stopped paddling to take the pictures and was alarmed when his kayak started drifting toward the bank, just a few feet from the alligator. When his kayak was about 10 feet from hitting the bank where the gator was, Richard let out a loud yell to scare the gator away. It worked! The alligator was spooked; he jumped into the water and swam away swiftly. Another potential crisis diverted.

Down river from the lock, Richard spotted water being drawn out of the river and being transported up to a plant nearby. As usual, his curiosity got the best of him and he got out of his kayak, walked around and took some pictures. He only saw a few signs nearby - one reading “Raw Water” and another labeled “Rain Water” - there was no one around. After paddling downstream past the plant, he found water bubbling up in the river and the water in the area is completely black. The water smells of fertilizer and he couldn’t help but notice the absence of any wildlife in the area. There weren’t even small insects flying around near the surface of the water, which were common along the river. He also noted the quiet, calm water - there weren’t any fish in this area. In his journey along the river, Richard has become accustomed to seeing fish jump nearby and swim up near his kayak. The stark lack of wildlife made the area seem eerie.

As the sun started to set, he started looking for a place to camp for the night. Around 5:00 PM, he spotted a large sandbar along the bank of the river where he decided to set up camp. He gathered some wood to build a fire and fashioned a fire pit using some large rocks he found in the area. He knew that the temperatures were going to drop during the night, so he wanted to have a fire to keep him warm.

For dinner, he warmed up his leftover Chili Mac meal from the night before and ate the leftovers dinner. His main concern was staying warm throughout the night and getting some rest for a long day’s paddle on Saturday. Because of his late start on the river, he only paddled a total of 9 miles for the day.

Little did Richard know, this would be the coldest night yet on his trip. “It would have to snow to get any colder than this,” he said in our nightly update. He sat around the fire until 10:00 PM, and then climbed into his sleeping bag to try to warm up. He woke up twice during the night to stoke the fire to keep it going - once at 1:30 and another time at 4:30. It was a long and cold night, but he would survive, he always does.