Archive for the ‘Big Muddy Adventures Info’ Category

A Day of Mourning

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Six months after I met John Ruskey, I had the great pleasure and honor of meeting Wesley “Mississippi Junebug” Jefferson. “Junebug” has been the Quapaw Canoe Company’s shuttle driver since its beginnings. Before that, he adopted John into the great Blues fraternity and made him a member of the Wesley Jefferson Blues Band.

Wesley "Mississippi Junebug" Jefferson performing at Red's in Clarskdale, MS.

Today, we are in mourning. “Junebug” passed away last evening after a long struggle with cancer. His death leaves a great hole in our hearts. He was as good a friend as one could have, forever loyal and dependable, kind and courteous, funny and wise.

Wesley was born into a sharecropper family in a place he called “Stumpy-Knee-Dead’n-End, MS.” He was raised to be a keeper of the old songs, and lived in a way that is of the greatest traditions of a “Blues man.” He was simply an important and cherished classic in the home of the Blues, Clarksdale, MS.

For John Ruskey and the entire Wesley Jefferson family, this is a sad loss. He will be forever missed, but his spirit will travel with us in his songs, our cherished memories, and our loving hearts.

Peace be with you Junebug.

Sympathies and Condolences can be sent to
The Wesley Jefferson Family
737 Maple Street
Clarksdale, MS 38614

Wesley "Mississippi Junebug" Jefferson bidding us farewell on the Sunflower River Expedition, February 2006. Wesley "Mississippi Junebug" Jefferson.  March 23, 1944 - July 22, 2009

Watch the birdy

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

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.

Stewardship

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

As I continue to do my own web site work, I am struggling with a great variety of issues. First and foremost is my lack of current skills with the tool sets. Back in the day, I had a pretty good grasp of Dreamweaver, but now, the latest and greatest versions with their multi-media integration, web 2.0 functionality and ability to scale from desktop to iPhone or Blackberry browse-ability have me frustrated. To wit, I am just going ahead and designing and publishing as I know how in the moment.

After a great meeting this morning with Dr. Patty Haugen, executive director of the St. Louis Audubon Center, I decided to do some rearranging. The new home page of Big Muddy Adventures will highlight the third component of the mission, stewardship.

What does BMA do in terms of stewardship? We clean up trash. We test water. We do presentations and teach and preach. We belong and participate in a number of watershed coalitions. Mostly, we bring others to see on reality’s terms how beautiful the rivers are. And when my time and talent catch up, I’ll have a web site that can produce something that my kids will find awesome and inspiring, like Will Steger Foundation’s Globalwarming101.com, with its “sick” Youth Action Video.

Happy CaNoe Year

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Following up on a series of CaNoe Year resolutions, I have redeveloped the web site and am reconstituting the once well read Big Muddy Adventures Blog. I hope that the information and river rat prose that fill this blog are pleasing to you, and moreover, entice you to get out and explore the wonder filled Great Rivers.

Today is the Full Wolf Moon and true to our nature, Big Muddy Adventures’ band of merry “lunatics” are braving the freezing temps, the feisty north winds and the forecast of snow to do a full moon float. Maple Island to Duck Island, “where Eagles Dare!”