More miles than you can do in a month
Depending on how far upriver you want to go. Send me a message and I can give you mucho info.
Email
Just did thanks.
That should work. You might go over
the route on Google Earth and get an idea of camping conditions. Also, even though you may get by without any resupply, take note of where you go through or very near significant towns, in case you turn out to need something.
I assume you will have intermittent cell coverage along the way, at least when you pass close to towns.
Have a plan to keep racoons out of your food supply.
try your 310 mile
trip with the loon and see how it goes—some of the trips people are suggesting here, like the Intra Coastal waterway and the Maine Island Trail involve relatively long open water crossings, which may prove difficult in the Loon–However for flat water river trips, the loon would work–there is a lady who just completed a 2000 some mile trip down the Missouri-Mississippi with a kayak similar to the Loon–her blog is lovethebigmuddy.com (I think)–that might be more what you are looking for. Good luck and have fun
Janet Sullens Moreland was the lady
3800 miles, first woman, first American ultimate source to sea Missouri/Mississippi. I got to paddle with her for a few miles.
it would be fine
– Last Updated: Feb-26-14 7:40 AM EST –
I have paddled part of the ICW in an open canoe. you won't get caught in the open, but there will be a few stretches where you will get tired of the chop from pleasure boat wakes and there may be one or two places where you have to cross a channel used by large ships inside a harbor.
EDIT - I noticed someone else's warning about open areas on the ICW. Between VA and the FL keys there are no open ocean sections. There are some bays/harbors like Charleston where you can either hug the shore or make a quick crossing at the mouth that would have some pucker factor if the surf was up and some ships were in transit near by.
intercoastal
People are mislead about the intercoastal…they think its the “Coast”…ie along the ocean breakers…NOT!!
Look at a map, An innerconnected waterway just inland a mile ot 2 portecting you from the ocean.
I had a friend do the whole IC in an open canoe so you would be find in a Loon.
it isn’t completely contiguous
Above VA and in extreme southern FL there are a couple of breaks in it. Here in NC, there are a couple of places where it is behind barrier islands and there are small openings between islands (passes) and rivers like the Neuse and Cape Fear are miles wide at their mouths and you would have to go several miles upstream before they got under a mile. That isn’t the open ocean, but it isn’t fully protected either. But the loon would be more than adequate.
First of all…
best time to do the Yellowstone if you’re worried about rapids is late summer, when it gets a lot lower. It’s a high volume, fast river that can be scary even in the smoother sections when it’s high.
Best section for scenery is the Paradise Valley stretch, so it’s nice to put in there. There’s an access called Carbella just below Yankee Jim Canyon. It’s about 45 miles to the other end of Paradise Valley, with a few tricky Class II rapids, but they are easy to walk the craft down in lower water levels, or take sneak routes. At the lower end of the valley you reach Livingston, an easy place to resupply. The river comes out into a wide valley there, but there are a couple of places a few miles below where it narrows into a semi-canyon for a bit, and the Absarokas are always off to your right. 45 miles or so to Big Timber, the next resupply place. By that time the river has become a little slower, but still has the occasional rapid. Yuo’ve floated 90 miles or so, and it’s easy to do 20 miles per day on this section if you don’t dawdle, but the trout fishing is famous.
It’s 160 miles from Big Timber to the confluence with the Bighorn River, mostly moving water but the river slows and warms. Then another 300 miles to the Montana border and the Missouri River. Just depends upon how far you want to travel per day. Main hazards on the lower 300 miles are diversion dams every so often. Some have by-pass channels but they aren’t marked. Others may have short but rather difficult portages. There are many public access points in the river above Billings, fewer but still adequate ones below.