As for expedition adventure, Wednesday had a chart topper.
The reunion of the German film crew and the raft crew at New Madrid. Loading the gear and supplies.
We met the Monsta Movie crew at 8 AM at the New Madrid boat ramp and loaded the usual supplies of ice, food and water. Our friends, the Berliners stacked their mountain of film gear and personal gear on board the Junebug raft which seemed to groan under the weight of it all. John, the Quapaws and I had spent the early morning hours cleaning and repacking our own gear and the expedition gear in preparation. By the time we pushed off, the winds out of the South / Southwest had grown to about 20 miles per hour. The Mississippi River was frothy, swirling and capped in white. There was simply no way to move many miles downstream safely so we decided just to cross the channel and make our way to famous
Island 10.
The Junebug raft moves steadily in a wind whipped Mississippi River.
Our plan was to land at the large sand bar on the island, an ideal spot to stop and enjoy the pleasures of a full day of exploring and filming, life on a river island camp. The Junebug raft made the short trip without trouble. The paddling crew was strong- Matthias Seiffert, Monsta Movies resident artist for the trip, Lutz Neumann, the good natured production manager, Marcus Hanish, the efficient assistant producer, Mark Meusinger, the very cool sound technician, Heiko Kohler, the quiet and friendly assistant cameraman, Volker and Patricia, the funny, bright and good natured “movie stars”, Sabinne, the uber talented camerawoman, and of course, John and two of the Mighty Quapaws, MQ Lil Jer and MQ Dinky. I took my place in one of the canoes with MQ Mike while MQ Popeye and MQ Darius crewed the other.
Filming the landing of Junebug raft on Island 10 just below New Madrid MO.
We landed the Junebug raft in a pocket of deep water on the island bank, then pushed off to do it over so that it could be filmed from shore. As we unloaded the raft and canoes and brought the kitchen, tents and all gear to the willow forest, the sand scorched everyone’s bare feet. It was quite humorous to watch the crew bolt across the sand and dive into the protected waters behind the wing dike after each 200 yard trip to the trees. “Oooh! Oooh! Ow! Ow!” then “Ahhhh!” as the cool waters provided relief. The blazing hot afternoon was spent napping beneath the willows, eating a great lunch, taking cool dips in the river, writing, drawing and listening to John play his guitar. A film session was planned for the late afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Sippi, Volker and Patricia, plant our American and German flags in the sand on Island 10 marking our camp site for the day.
Our marine radio weather station had been warning of a storm all day. Still no sign of the bad weather at the time John, Volker, Patricia and the film crew set off for a hike in the woods, but soon thereafter I spotted a super cell rolling towards us from across the boot heel of Missouri. If you have ever been down that way, you know that these storms are often ferocious with tornados or straight line winds preceding the downpour. The Mighty Quapaws and I had started the cooking fire and were preparing a rain fly to sit under when I realized that this was going to be a real bad blow. We hurried to secure all loose gear in camp, on the raft and to try and secure all of the tents with stakes and guide lines. I had just finished tying off the last of the Germans’ tents when it hit. 60 mile an hour winds rushed across the river and began a 30 minute onslaught.
I heard one of the Mighty Quapaws yell that my own tent had blown away. I ran towards it only to witness our cooking fire actually lift off the ground. The wind had shifted just enough that my supposed safe tent site was now in the path of pieces of burning wood. A few began to land on it. “Poof”, the rain fly burned. Lil Jer, Popeye and I rushed to grab the rest of the tent and succeeded in disassembling it while we were pinned against some willows. The other Quapaws began a frantic and heroic effort at catching all of the tents of the camp which had uprooted their stakes, broken the guide lines and had begun blowing away, gear and all. They miraculously saved every tent and all gear while being pounded by the wind and heavy rain. We were all oblivious to the huge lightning strikes and booming thunder all around.
Matthias Seiffert, the Berlin artist, at work on the Monsta Movies Expedition.
Meanwhile, the only member of the German crew not on the hiking film session, Matthias the artist, made a run for the raft where he retrieved the second camera from its hold and ran it back to what was our blown apart camp. He stuck it under a kitchen box and saved it from ruin. As I watched him, I realized that something must have happened to the raft for the camera to be exposed. I immediately rushed to it and found that Junebug had been turned sideways along the bank and that the tops of the dry boxes had blown off. They were scattered about on the sand and two were actually under the raft in the water. I grabbed them one by one and like a sailor in a North Atlantic storm, I leaned forward into the winds to make it across the raft and secure them back on board using a rope tied along the length of the Junebug thus lashing them down. The thunder and lightening flashed and boomed all around. My next move was to try and get a dry bag to our hiking film crew to cover the big camera. I began a mad dash through the woods yelling and looking for them. As it turned out, John had tucked them in beneath a sand berm somewhere near the camp and they were safe and sound. Whew! as the storm front passed, I made it back to camp and began to hear all of the versions of what happened in that 30 minutes of Mississippi River Valley fury. And then a rainbow appeared as we repositioned the raft and began the task of fixing our camp. John got a roaring fire started and despite the frazzled state of things, he somehow managed to cook one of the best meals of the trip, a delicious pork roast with corn on the cob and baked potatoes. We all ate and laughed and relished the good fortune and great efforts of all to safely survive the big event.
In the aftermath of the super cell storm, a rainbow appeared over our scattered camp.
I left the expedition yesterday night at Caruthersville, MO to grab a Greyhound bus back to St. Louis. I arrived around 1 AM. No I am not sick nor have I been banished by the crew. I have returned home for two days to fulfill a long standing river trip booking this weekend here in the Great Rivers region. This trip was planned and booked back in early May before I got the Monsta Movies Expedition gig. I really hated to leave, but the biz of Big Muddy Adventures and the policy of first come, first serve is very important to me. So I will get a chance to see my wife and boys for a day and then lead a family group on a tour of the Confluence area. I will return on Sunday to Memphis where the Monsta crew and the Quapaws will be arriving. From there it is a few weeks more of expedition life and river time to New Orleans.
