Preparing for my Mississippi Trip 

1. Kayak

    I started reworking my home built Kayak last year.  I had previously created an 18' kayak from plans by Kudzu Craft.  The kayak was laced together at the joints as well as a polyethylene fabric.

The kayak was a little heavier than I wanted and it felt unsteady at the frames.  So I removed the fabric, shortened the frame to 16', and I glued all the joints to make the frame solid. I then purchased kevlar fabric.  The fabric wrapped well (my workmanship left something to be desired, but it seemed to work).  Then I used epoxy to harden the fabric.  The end result was a 35 lb solid kayak!

With the kayak ready to go, I began to train (to be covered later). Unfortunately, (or fortunately actually) While coming in to shore during one of my paddles the kayak discovered an underwater jagged rock.  The resulting 11" gash revealed a glaring weakness.  

The repair is not going to be difficult, but the loss of confidence is large.  So at the urging of My friend David and my wife Denean, I found a sea kayak for the trip.  So plan B is in play. 

So the plan for the Mississippi River is to use my Perception Carolina 14 for the first 60 miles from Lake Itasca down to Bemidji Lake. Then I'll change to my P&H Quest for the remainder of the river.

2. Equipment

The plan is to camp along the river.  The gear list is as follows;

1. Tent

2. Ground pad (inflatable)

3. Sleeping bag

4. Tarp

5. Jetboil

6. Fuel canister

7. headlamp

8. Toilet paper

9. Spade

10. Water bottles (10L and single liter)

11. Spoon

12. Rain coat

13. Rain poncho

14. Maps

15. Knife

16. Marine radio

4. MAPS

I  Went to the MN DNR page and downloaded their maps covering from Lake Itasca to Hastings MN.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watertrails/interactive_map/index.html 

Then I found a link to a map that had a lot of information on it. I need to find out who did that because they deserve a lot of credit.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1csf5TE5yxfm_3YxysCrbXCpOPx2_FVmS&femb=1&ll=44.75209389518633%2C-92.7065729161968&z=11

I plan on researching additional campgrounds and their proximity to grocery stores. 

From what I've read,  the available navigation charts are cumbersome and don't help much, so I will just go with what I have for the rest of the trip.