First a disclaimer: I am a floater, not a paddler (unless dragged into a 30 mile upriver paddle by Big Muddy Mike...no floating allowed there!) But I do spend a lot of time on the river and have floated and boated many miles.

Great job getting the word out Bryan. Knowledge is power!

I have done "sweep boat" on several races, following the slowest paddler. I have noticed that, without exception, the last paddlers in any race will ALWAYS be the ones that think "cutting off the bends" will save them time. Of course this is really an issue when the river is above the wing dikes, when you can actually paddle on the inside of a bend all the way around, but the same goes for lower water.

When you take the inside of a bend, even if the dikes are out, you will encounter confused water, swirling, slower patches and even eddies that move upstream. Watch the bubbles in the water. They tell a story.

Now I always try to describe to people why they are hurting themselves by taking the "shortest distance between two points" and invariably, they will shake their heads like I'm crazy and try to cut off the next bend.

At last year's Race to the Dome I followed just such a character all the way to the end. He was WAY behind everyone else, god bless him!

And it occurred to me that there must be a visual way to quickly show this phenomena to racers so they get it right away. I asked Robb Jacobson, a hydrogeomorphologist that is the Chief of River Studies at USGS (and probably the smartest person I know) if he had a map that could show velocity on the river in terms of color coding.

He sent me two maps. Both are at relatively low water, so the picture would be different if the river level was above the wing dikes. But it is very informative on how the velocity on the river can be drastically different at places very close by. It also shows how sometimes there can be fast water right off the tip of a wing d**e, but that may be followed by a patch of much slower water that extends further into the river.

The link to the attached map is at the bottom of this post. This a two-pager. The first is a simple color coded map by velocity. The second is color coded by depth, and shows different current flows using arrows of varying lengths. Keep in mind: these are METERS per second. It really gets instructive when you zoom in on these things.

The first map is the bend at Cooper's Landing, Rivermile 170. The second is a longer reach, extending down to Wilton, MO, about 161.

Now, there are a lot of factors that determine YOUR speed, including your boat's drag, wind, etc. Trying to micromanage where you are in the river can be frustrating and counterproductive. But when you encounter slower patches, think about where you are on the river, what river structures are around you and where the channel is headed next.

The best advice I've heard is to stay toward the outside of the middle third of the river. And remember that right next to shore can be unexpected submerged dikes as well as a patch of slower water.

See you on the river!
Steve Schnarr
Missouri River Relief