The rain continued through the night and finally stopped around 10:00 PM, but not for long. The rain continued off and on all night long. Richard woke up many times throughout the night.
He would fall in and out of sleep. He woke up at 12:15 AM and ate some Fig Newtons and drank some Gatorade. He was just waiting for the sun to come up – he began to think that this was the longest day and night of his life. I think he was starting to get bored with staying in camp, trying to take shelter from the rain. After his midnight snack, he went back to sleep, woke up again around 3:00 AM and then once more at 5:30 AM. He told me that the sun begins to set around 5:00 each day and by 5:30 in the evening it’s dark. He was definitely ready for the sun to come up.
When he woke at 5:30 AM, he found that the sky was full of clouds and it was still raining. He described the rain as the kind of rain that is just annoying enough to make you turn on your windshield wipers to drive, but then it’s not raining enough to leave them on.
He wasn’t sure how much the water came up during the night, but the water level did increase. He had 2 cups of coffee that morning before breaking camp and he ate chocolate pudding and fruit cocktail for breakfast. He finally left camp at 8:00 AM that morning. The rain still continued to fall, but he figured since he turned in early the day before, he couldn’t afford to sit around all day waiting for the rain to stop – he had to get some mileage in on Tuesday. Richard was happy when the rain stopped just after he started paddling for the day – around 8:30 AM. However, it had rained enough in the 30 minutes that he was on the river to soak his clothes, but at least there was some hope of being able to dry out his things now that the rain had finally stopped.
During his paddle that day, he noticed how the river became busier and busier – he was nearing Mobile and the merge of the Tombigbee River and Alabama River – where they form the large, busy and industrial Mobile River. While paddling that day, he did not see much along the banks, but he did see what looked like an oil rig pumping oil from the depths of the earth. He also noticed large oil storage tanks stationed along the river nearby.
Further down river, he saw a mile marker that read 15.5 miles to the Mobile River. His GPS read that he was at mile 779.4 on his trip. After passing the mile marker, he continued paddling down until he reached the confluence of the Tombigbee and the Alabama Rivers – the beginning of the Mobile River. He kayaked down the Mobile River for 4 miles until he reached the Tensaw River and then continued his paddle down the Tensaw River.
Because the Mobile River was so wide and so busy with barge traffic, he took the advice of Jerry DeBin and opted to paddle the Tensaw River down to Mobile. The Tensaw runs parallel to the Mobile River and it is more scenic and less busy than the Mobile River. Another added benefit of paddling the Tensaw River is that there are platforms that have been built along the river that Richard can utilize for camping each evening. The platforms were built as part of the Bartram Canoe and Kayak Trail along the Tensaw River. Richard planned to stay on one of the on Tuesday night.
He tried for hours to find the platform for the Bartram Canoe & Kayak trail in the area but he was not successful. Searching for the platform in the dark was fruitless and after burning through more than one set of batteries in his head light, he spotted a dock and decided to pull in there for the evening. He camped on the lawn of a cabin along the river.
When he was done paddling for that evening, he had paddled 28 miles for the day. He was so tired when we talked that I actually heard him yawn a few times during our conversation. In all the time I’ve known Richard, I have NEVER seen him yawn. He admitted that he was really tired and was happy to be in camp for the night.
A game warden from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is planning to come out on the river in a motorboat to meet up with Richard to bring him lunch and talk with him about the Bartram Canoe Trail. He will spend another night on the platforms built along the Bartram Canoe Trail.
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