The Boy Scouts Canoe Merit Badge is one of our favorite awards. To achieve this badge, scouts are required to demonstrate knowledge of canoes and canoeing. To earn this badge by paddling on a flood stage Missouri River is a great feat.
On Monday, May 11, we assisted Mrs. Kathy Dolan and her troop of St. Ann’s scouts as they began their quest to receive this award. It was a beautiful day on the river and all of the boys overcame their fears and discovered the pleasures of a stomp in the mud!
Watch out all you lower Mississippi River rats, there’s some muddy water heading your way. We had a 15 foot rise in four days on the lower Missouri and Middle Mississippi River. It’s flood stage around here. And what are we going to do with all this mud and water? We’re going paddling, of course.
Maple Island / Mississippi River Birding Tours
After last week’s awesome Wings of Spring event, and to help develop our partnership with the St. Louis Audubon Center, we are now featuring sunrise and sunset birding tours of Maple Island. Maple Island is a pristine river habitat located just below the Alton Dam on the “free flowing” Mississippi River and is part of the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Our bird tours by canoe enable you to experience some of the best birding habitat in the USA. Sunrise trips usually put-in at 6:30 AM and finish at 9 AM. The sunset trips put-in at 5:30 PM and return at 8 PM. The basic fee is $30 per person. We have special group rates for this trip. Contact us to schedule and customize your trip.
Canoe Rendezvous and Mississippi Water Trail Dedication
On Saturday, May 16, 2009 Big Muddy Adventures will be a featured partner in the 3rd Annual Great Rivers Canoe Rendezvous being held here in the Great Rivers region. This year, the Army Corps of Engineers and its partners will be opening and dedicating the next sections of the Mississippi Water Trail. This great effort will extend the water trail and all of its benefits, right down to the Arch in St. Louis. Of course, that means, Big Muddy Adventures should be your guide to the trail. Nobody knows it better. Nobody cares for it more.
There are a number of great canoe and kayak events planned. BMA will be providing canoe rentals and guiding for the “social paddle” that is planned. Also, we will be running guided trips on “Angela’s Ark”(see below), an authentic 19th century flat boat. These trips will take you up Piasa Creek, a storied tributary of the Mississippi River. For event details, you can go to the web site of the event. To get involved via Big Muddy Adventures, contact us.
Angela’s Ark
Big Muddy Adventures is excited to be providing a completely unique and awesome, “old timey” river experience. Join us on an authentic early 19th century flat boat. “Angela’s Ark” is a hand hewn and constructed flat boat, the kind that Mike Fink made famous. It accommodates up to 10 guests. It is moored at the Great Rivers Land Trust’s newly purchased, “Piasa Harbor” complex. Contact us and we will schedule a Big Muddy Adventure on an especially cool river craft.
