- ipgray
Venice, Louisiana, USA
over 5 years ago
The Minneapolis and the St Paul, with the longhaul crew (Andrew, Emily, Stephen, Audrey, Nel, John...just missing Nicole!), docked at the Cypress Grove Marina, in Venice. 2000+ miles from their start at the headwaters. There were rumors of putting some outriggers on those wooden bodies and heading to Cozumel. I didn't actually witness what happened to the boats... - ipgray
Venice, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Mile 11, just across from the town of Venice. Last camp, going out in a blaze of glory. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
And the river spills it’s waters out to the Gulf, in natural crevasses, where it breaks through its own banks and the water flows down to the salt water, because the river channel is higher than sea level, spreading sediment into new areas and rebuilding marshes. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
The levees are no longer maintained past around Bohemia on the east bank, and the ecosystems have come back with a vengeance—vegetation no longer dominates by black willows, but by many different trees and plants. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Palmetto baby! - ipgray
Phoenix, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Camping in the sand and black willow woods between the levees and the water. This ecosystem is a function of the infrastructural constraints on the Mississippi, You don't see the bugs. We saw some of them. More of them saw us. Still carrying their little visits with me 6 days later. The song of the river is buzzzzzzzzzzzz. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
The petro-sublime, flaring the way for us. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Not much life visible in the river channel as we paddle, but step into the batture zone between the banks and the levees and the crippled bayous and marshes have all sorts of eyes looking back. - ipgray
Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Reminders of sleeping giants; about mile 45. Is this log jam from an alluvial storm event upriver, or a surge event from down river? We’re entering the liminal zone, where things go either way.. - ipgray
New Aurora, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
The daily morning map session, pointing out refineries, levee locks and old forts that we’ll be paddling past. - ipgray
Meraux, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Lessons in feeling small and out of place: Tanker and cargo traffic is what the lower Mississippi is built for; not for paddle-powered vessels. Being on the river here becomes an exercise in psychogeography and defamiliarization — essential strategies for understanding the Anthropocene. - ipgray
Arabi, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
A tight and tangled history: the Domino Sugar factory, built in 1909, that still processes and refines cane from former neighboring plantation lands. It is the largest sugar refinery in the Western Hemisphere. Chances are, in the US, you’ve tasted it’s wares. And so have your parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents... - ipgray
New Orleans, Louisiana, USAover 5 years ago
Last launch of the river semester, just above mile 92 in the Industrial Canal, one of only 3-4 places in NOLA where there is direct access to the river.
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You've reached the end!
You've reached the end!