transport

I hope you don't mind - I thought I'd post your message about modes of transport on the blog because it occurred to me that these practical decisions may well turn out to be important when we come to talk/write about the project later. They will have implications for the kinds of things we discover and what we do with them.

one thing to start thinking about is HOW we want to travel down the river. possibilities include

kayak
canoe
motorboat
houseboat

bicycle (there are bike trails along pretty much the whole river)

car

I do not own any boats, have some experience kayaking and canoeing, but not a lot. canoes are bigger than kayaks, so better if we are carrying all our stuff, but kayaks are more maneuverable. perhaps a 2-person kayak would have some decent storage space? something to look into.

if we have a series of intern/assistants, they could drive (I own a car) and meet us each day with tents, computers, etc. I could probably line up an intern or two for some chunk of the trip, which might be a good idea. they could function as research assistants, tech heads to update blogs as we go, etc.

we could start with self-powered and switch to a motorboat once the river gets bigger. although I have even less experience with a motorboat than with self-powered boats. (one can kayak for free in the hudson starting may 16, which I am planning to do to get some more experience...)

I have no idea what boats cost, especially now. there was an NYT article about people abandoning boats like crazy in these times, so we might be able to find a great deal on a boat and then sell or donate it at the end of the trip. also, snowbirds sometimes want people to bring their boats south for them in the winter, which might be something we could work out. trouble is, I don't like the SOUND of a
motor, of course. I have an idea that one of the things I'll want to do is record the sound of the river: industry and nature both, but a constant drone of OUR motor would make that pretty dull...

it'd be good to get an idea of your gut feelings about all this, since that's part of what I'm figuring the end of June trip is all about: scoping out the best approach to transportation...

just to mull over for now...

highway 61 is of course a reasonable thing to do in a car, as well, but this is the easy way out... hard to slow down enough to do it right????