We saw an open invitation by adventure extraordinaire and friend, Dan Strieker to come out and paddle Dresser Island. Dan often goes off on paddling adventures and posts them out to Facebook. I didn’t want to be left out this time and it sounded awesome. Danelle was able to come with me. Dan was there along with Mark Fingerhut.
We met at Upper Mississippi, Dresser Island and Pool 26 Conservation ramp. We started by going clockwise (upstream direction) and looking around.
The water was a little shallow in the back channel, but the Asian carp stayed away from us. We continued forward, realizing we were getting close to the power plant. When we went under the conveyor for coal, we knew we were real close!
I was surprised how close we were able to paddle to the coal power plant and how loud it was. If I was working around it, I would want full time hearing protection!
Eventually we decided to move on. There appeared to be a place where we could portage the boats over to the Mississippi river to go downstream. Much to my delight, there was a derelict concrete pad with rollers built into it. The only thing that makes sense is that it was built to portage over to the river. Minding the small patches of poison ivy, it was actually really easy to go up and over with the rollers back to the main Mississippi river to go downstream.
Again, it doesn’t look like much, but was perfect for my aluminum canoe to assist me. For higher end boats, a carry is a better choice. It didn’t take long and we were putting back into the water!
I should mention that I learned a neat trick from Dan during this portage. We all had a can of beer and I needed a place to put it during the portage. I found out that it fits perfect in the front of my Mocke PFD. A trick I used later in the year for my Red Bull can during the MR340.
The rest of the adventure around the island was pure delight with a wonderful sunset to help us finish off the paddle.
There are so many micro adventures all over St. Louis that I need to do a better job of enjoying. This was a hidden treasure just waiting for us to explore. I’ll be back again!
Hogan Haake