Days Four and Five

Matt made good distance on Thursday in spite of not starting until about 5pm. He kept at it until after 11pm.

He has found it very difficult to pole in the dark. He needs to stay near the shore because the river at this point is too deep in the middle for his poles to reach. So when he encounters trees and other obstructions, he has to go out into the deep to avoid them.

He said he sometimes feels like Snow White when she was lost in the forest and the trees kept trying to grab and hold onto her. Matt is battling similar trees.

Rather than camping on the raft as he started, he now sets up his tent on the bank. His raft is too wet and cold to sleep on. The last two mornings he has woken to ice on his tent and on the deck of the raft. This is very unusual for the area—even in February. In the mornings he wears a woolen poncho. His gloves are too wet to wear so his hands are sporting painful blisters and worn skin.

His original pole started breaking down, so he cut two new bamboo poles. The shorter one is perfect except for the length. The taller one is too thin, so it has begun to bend like a fiberglass vaulting pole. Bamboo is a weed here. You can’t kill it and it grows and multiplies rapidly.

Matt has seen three automobile carcasses in the water. The wildlife he has seen include: Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Cormorants (in huge flocks), an opossum, several beavers, a few snakes, but no gators.

With the winding of the river Matt has been able to set up his canopy to act as a sail at times. It is especially helpful when he has to cross the river and his poles are too short to touch bottom.

Tonight he stopped at a well-lit dock with hopes to camp beside it. He approached the family and discovered that he knew some of them. They fed him catfish and shrimp and opened their garage so he could come in any time he needed to use their bathroom.

The area he is camping tonight (Friday) is called Melrose. It was originally settled and is still primarily populated by Creoles. These are mixtures of African and Native American slaves and their French and/or Spanish owners. Often the owners would have several children by their slave women. Due to disease in the middle 1700s, many of the European slave owners married their slave because of the lack of marriageable women in the area.

Some of the Creoles became prominent citizens—holding public office and owning very successful businesses. The culture of the area is very much influenced by this wonderful group.

Matt is fairly close to his original desired camping spot for Friday night. Barring some unusual challenge, he’ll reach the end by late afternoon on Saturday.