Big Muddy Clean Sweep Log Book Vol. 2 - Jefferson City Mooring

diligently recorded by Jodi Pfefferkorn

The second batch entries in the Log, recording our adventures moored in Jefferson City. The barge team continues getting the barges ready for living and working while more crew gathers to get ready for the Jefferson City Clean-up and Race to the Dome on Saturday & Sunday. The Clean Sweep and the barge have finally met up!

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 

photo from the bridge by Bernie Arnold

Early morning wake up for everyone except for Jeff. He was out like a light until 0900 when Habibi finally woke him.
Steve ate breakfast with his computer in front of him. Things are just that busy. We certainly wouldn’t be here without the tireless efforts of Steve, Mel & Jeff.

While I took a can of WD-40 & a bag of rags into the engine room to try to cut down some of the diesel soot, the guys set about moving our small work flat to the back of the house barge. Then they loaded up the propane tanks & headed into Jeff City to fill them.

Habibi stayed behind to get started on the “Great Sand Removal of 2011” After I emerged from the engine room looking like a chimney sweep, I joined Habibi. We monkeyed around with a water pump for a while before finally settling on a system which resembled shelving coal into a furnace. We worked ourselves silly then took a watermelon break.

Jeff, Anthony & Racin’ got back from their propane run (which was a fiasco in & of itself) at 1600. By this time Habibi & I were very exhausted, dehydrated & sun-stupid from shoveling sand all day. But we all rallied to unload the propane tanks, scarfed down some sub sandwiches which Lee Diekroeger brought for us, then packed into the “Jimmy” to head back to Columbia to load the box truck for Saturday’s cleanup (Anthony stayed behind to take care of things on the barge).

We dropped Racin’ off at his van because he’s off the barge for a few days to take care of some things. Then we were mad schlepping fools.

Back on board the barge by 2045. Anthony grilled brats and rocked a mad kitchen overhaul & reorganization. We came back and helped Jeff with the schedule of events for the next 30 days. Better get some rest now, because there doesn’t seem to be and sleep in the schedule…

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011 

photo by Bernie Arnold

Took DNR employees out for a morning on the river. They were mostly clerical workers & this was a chance for them to get out of the office and get on the river that flows beneath their building.
We took all three plate boats. Steve, Anthony and Habibi all drove boats. I was Habibi’s first mate. The whole outing was organized by Joe Engeln. We drove the boats about 5 miles upstream & tied them together then Joe stood on the bow of his boat and educated his fellow DNR workers about the Missouri River. They seemed to really enjoy it.

Steve & Jeff took management level employees out in the afternoon. This was more of a floating meeting for them, covering topics they might have discussed around a conference table but this time in boats.

Josh Pennington stopped by after lunch. He, Anthony & I motored upriver past Claysville Island to take a tour of the sand dredge moored up there. The dredge wasn’t in operation, so we explored Claysville island where we found a cool zippo lighter and a maglight. Both of them worked! We also accidentally discovered a great trash site for Saturday’s clean-up.

Friday, September 30, 2011 
Today was the big “Jeff City Cleanup Prep Day” Jeff got the morning kicked off right with scrambled eggs, bacon & fried potatoes for breakfast. That was the kind of energy we needed to put up the Flying Nun kitchen tent for the crew camp. How many river rats does it take to figure out an angle? I think it’s safe to say none of us retained anything we learned in high school geometry but we got ‘er up and she’s flying proudly. The Flying Nun is made from a semi-trailer tarp stretched over a frame made from scrap metal tubing (a Racin’ Dave design from 2004).

The Flying Nun - photo by Brian Waldrop

Habibi had the great idea to tie a banner with the MRR logo to it. Now people don’t have to ask “Who are you guys?” Instead, they ask “What does Missouri River Relief do?”

Upstream scout - photo by Bernie Arnold

A quick lunch of sandwiches at the boat ramp, then the scout began. Racin’, John Brady and Gale peeled off to set up the propane system for the fridge. Mel, Anthony & Craig scouted downstream & Habibi, Bernie & I went up. An abandoned homeless camp, a few log jams filled with bottles and the occasional tire were what we found. Plenty to keep a bunch of volunteers busy Saturday morning.

By the time we got back, our crew was starting to arrive. Soda Popp fried catfish – the best darn fried fish any of us have had – and so began the evening. A Lengthy pow-wow around the fire for the clean-up and Race to the Dome. Then it was foshee flying time. It turned into an early evening because of the early wake up call for the clean-up.

Before the meeting - photo by Bernie Arnold

Saturday, October 1, 2011 – 

Today was the Jeff City Clean-up. We sent out over 140 volunteers and had about 30 crew members on hand.

Veteran river cleaners - photo by Steve Schnarr

We rocked and got a good system for loading trash onto the barge.

Hauling one big honking tire onto the work flat - photo by Melanie Cheney

Back to the river - photo by Brian Waldrop

After the clean-up we were standing on the ramp drinking beers when a kayaker coming off the river asked us if we knew Steve. It turns out he was an Australian who had kayaked from Montana. He stayed for dinner but headed out after that. We asked him to stay the night but he needed to put on a few more miles for the day – he had to catch a flight home in St. Louis in just a few days.

New crew members that we had today were Jason (who operated a boat for MDC- Chillicothe shop), Kris and their awesome little boys, Isaac, Ethan & Avery. Jason works for MDC & was one of their boat drivers. He decided to bring his family along & they had a blast. We hope they come back for more!

Sunday - October 2, 2011 
Today was Race to the Dome. Mel trailered one plate boat to the Providence Access and Steve & Joe Englen were the sweep boat for the 26 mile race. Bernie trailered another plate boat to Hartsburg and Habibi & Jeanne were the sweep boat for the 15-mile race. John Brady & I waited for the fog to burn off. Then we took the 150 upriver and met the racers as they were coming down.

Hartsburg start to Race to the Dome - photo by Bernie Arnold

Racin’ & Gale & Anthony stayed on the barge and busted ass with cleaning and organizing. When we returned from safety boating we were blown away by the difference. Then everyone rallied to break down camp and schlep stuff to the barge. Tim Nigh moved in to be our cook and he set to work getting the galley in order.

Fixing the rigging -photo by Steve Schnarr

Habibi arrived in Hermann to pick up Capt. Mike Hanlin. Captain Mike has been the pilot for Living Lands & Waters since they got their first barge (and their tow boat was a Vietnam era push boat with a John Deere tractor cab stuck up on stilts for a wheelhouse. He happily offered to push us downstream for the Big Muddy Clean Sweep. Once a week he would come and move us on downstream to our next location then head home to East Moline, IL.

As soon as he stepped aboard he put us to work moving rigging around so we could move the towboat. It didn’t last long because as soon as Capt. Mike fired up the engines, we discovered that something was jamming up the starboard engine. Capt. Mike mumbled some curse at the Missouri River.

After a bit of standing around, poking around, and a dip in the water by Racin’, we deduced that we needed different tools, but it was too late to go the JCRT yard, so we chowed down on ham and bacon soup that Tim whipped up. It was good eatin’!

After dinner, Habibi, Jeff, Tim and I went to Lee’s to take showers. Did ya’ hear that?...Showers!!! Quote of the day! Jeannie Kuntz referred to the Capital dome as “the ‘space nipple’ where aliens come down and…”

Monday, October 3, 2011 
Racin’ made an early morning run to the Jeff City River Terminal to get a pipe wrench & some extension pipes. He used the wrench to try to loosen the shaft of the starboard engine. Whatever was jammed between the prop & hull was jammed pretty good.

At different points in the morning, Habibi, Tim & I found ourselves standing on the pipe wrench extensions. The wrench itself was attached to the shaft of a 600 HP diesel engine. Racin’ was manually revving the engine. This caused whoever was standing on the pipe wrench to bounce up & down while holding onto anything in the engine room to keep from getting bucked off. But hey…it worked! The log popped out & the shaft spun freely.

As the culprit drifted downriver, we all flipped it the bird and bid it fare-fxxxxxg well.

Once the log was free we were able to pull up to the boat ramp and take on water. The Jeff City Fire Dept. brought a truck and crew down and filled our tanks for us! We were under way by 1215 & heading in the right direction (downstream) for the first time this trip.

We pull away from the ramp and head downstream - photo by Joe Wilson

Steve & Habibi trailered a plate boat and peeled away to pick up the trash from the Mokane Clean-up on Saturday. Going downstream is much quicker than going up, and we were able to average 9-10 mph. This meant that any time a plate boat departed or returned the barge had to slow down. Capt. Mike was happy to comply.

Did I mention how cool Captain Mike is? A world class gentleman for sure. He’s a patient rigging instructor & a fun guy to joke around with on the radio.

We were lucky to have the most experienced river cleanup towboat pilot ever - Mike Hanlin

We arrived in Hermann at 1700. Steve & Jeff met us in a plate boat with a reporter and camerawoman from the Washington newspaper. We finished tying off by 1800 & Capt. Mike immediately left. He was itching to start his 4 & a half hour ride home to Illinois.

We pull into a perfect little spot at the Hermann ramp - photo by Steve Schnarr

Tim grilled up some rockin brats he’d bought at a shop in Hermann. Perfect!

 Quick Links

• Jefferson City Cleanup Page 
• Jeff City photos
• Other Jeff City Blog Entries
• Race to the Dome homepage
• Big Muddy Clean Sweep homepage

Sunrise over Hermann - photo by Bernie Arnold

Race to Dome Quick Links

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

Here's a few great links from the Race to the Dome:

Race to the Dome Results

Race to the Dome website

Race to the Dome Facebook

Columbia Tribune Article (and slideshow)

Great Blog from Racer Jessica Machetta

Missouri River Relief race page

Race photos

Race blogs

Fast, Fun & Floody

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Dave "the River Slave" Marner, Diana Dexter and Caanan Cowles

Sometimes you finish an event, look around at all the smiling people and realize: this is the first year of big deal.

That’s how it felt for me at the end of the Race to the Dome. People were glowing, and you could see that this thing could be big.

66 boats went in the water. Amazing for the first year! But ever since the MR340 took off, it’s seemed like the growth of paddling recreation on the Missouri River has not hit its limit.

A great diverse crowd showed up at Hartsburg Landing. Some fancy boats were already in the water when I showed up: some folks training for the 340 had put in upstream earlier and showed up for the race by water. Other trainees were planning on heading down to Hermann after the race finish.

There were aluminum canoes borrowed from Jeff City Parks – some folks didn’t have their own boat and had never been on the river. In my opinion, a race like this is a perfect time for people to get their “riverlegs”. You’ve got safety boats in the water in case something goes wrong. You’ve got other paddlers to help you find the safe, fast water. You’ve got lunch waiting for you at the end.

Because of the high water, racers were separated into heats so there was plenty of room in the eddy at the bottom of the ramp. All race heats were launched without issue (except the sucking mud on the ramp left by the recent flooding). It just made things really complicated for timekeeping!

Several spectacles were on hand as well. Big Muddy Adventures showed up with John Ruskey’s handmade Junebug canoe, taking out a group of folks for a gentle paddle downstream for a donation to River Relief. At the Noren ramp, the MR340 Dragon Boat, carrying 20 paddlers (!) jammed up the ramp for a while taking off. What a sight!


Only a couple of boats spilled. One guy self-rescued right in the middle of the river. Another bunch swamped and lost their paddles. Luckily, we had an extra kayak paddle in our safety boat and they could get on their way.

One of our safety boats was able to take a couple of our most dedicated sponsors, Pat Jones and Jamie Coe, out on the river. What a great time to get out there and see all these folks out enjoying the river.

Jeff City’s own Matt Green and Kevin Schwarz of the “Aquaholics” took men’s tandem kayak and were the overall winners (1 hour 10 minutes!!!!). Our neighbor, Jodi Pffeferkorn and her partner Charlie Lockwood (“Pfefferwood”) were the first back to the ramp, winning the mixed tandem class. They’ve been training for the 340 as of late and are looking good! See them at the 340, too. Past 340 winner Bryan Hopkins (“Lucky 13”) took the men’s solo kayak race by a landslide (mudslide?). Carp Target Grannies from Columbia floated in from upstream and ended up ruling women’s tandem. I’ll post other winners as I get them.

Plus, we had several River Reliefers in the race. Janet Moreland (the first person to sign up for the race – “Easy Rider”) took silver in solo female kayak, followed by Allison Kellenberger (“Mother of Pearl”) in her first race. Melanie Cheney and Liz Doubet took second in their class (“Muddy Bottom Gumbo Gals”). David Lackey ("Water Lily") took third place in men's solo kayak! We were all so proud!

Complete results are posted on the Race to the Dome website.

After we finished up cleaning up after the race, several of us loaded up Big Muddy Mike’s canoe and headed upstream to our high sandbank camp. Music, campfire, veggie packs, lots of swimming, sunset boat ride. That’s the way to celebrate independence!

A really cool guy thought up a really cool race...

Race to the Dome
Hartsburg to Jeff City, MO
July 3, 2010

Text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Caanan Cowles & Diana Dexter

This was the inaugural year for a really good idea. A 16-mile paddle race ending across the river from the state capital: Jefferson City on Independence Day weekend. Pulling off even such a simple idea is not quite as easy as you’d think. But when you start with a great idea hatched by a tenacious, well-connected dude with gobs of skills – it looks easy!

For me it all started with a phone call. Patrick Lynn from Jefferson City had hoped to paddle in our Flying Carp race, which ended up (perhaps unwisely!) getting cancelled due to high water and drift in the river. But after the cancellation, he rang us up and said he wanted to organize a race for charity from Hartsburg to Jeff City. And he wanted us to be the charity!

We had recently done a clean-up at Noren Access in Jefferson City, and were starting to develop a great set of friends there. One great couple is Andy and Leisha Neidert – who started bringing their boat to clean-ups in the area and diving in. A real couple of river rats, they live on the bluff upstream of Jeff City, overlooking the river. Patrick is friends with Andy too, so Andy agreed to help and it was on.

As the day approached, our friends at MRCN had to cancel their race due to major flooding in Glasgow, and the river looked like it was going to be high all summer. But then it stopped raining. The week before the race, it was becoming clear that we might be able to pull this off. The projection of 2 feet below flood stage held.

Patrick worked this race with dogged dedication. Hopefully next year this thing will grow enough to pay the dude – but he insisted on taking this on as a volunteer this year. He coordinated everything himself, from food for racers to corporate sponsorship; from organizing race classes to staggering heats; from race publicity to making sure there were water bottles. When something didn’t pan out, he didn’t blink – on to plan b.

He started advertising the race months before – the first news story was back in April. He did Twitter, he did Facebook. He got cool stickers made. If we offered half-baked ideas from our experience, he’d run with it and make it happen.

For us at Missouri River Relief, nothing could have been easier than working with Patrick Lynn on this race.

Where Patrick really shined was the day of the race. He worked his butt off all day long, conducting the race start, answering never-ending questions and solving problems on the fly. Watching his persistence as he recalculated times (an admitted history major) it was clear he was finally going to sleep great that night.

Beyond his unbelievable generosity to our organization and cause, his most admirable quality was among the chaos of hundreds of people dragging boats through the Hartsburg lot or waiting for their lunch at Noren, Patrick would answer your questions with a smile and real appreciation.

Oh, and he’s great with a soundbite: “I grew up near the river and didn’t really start getting out and enjoying it until a few years ago,” he said. “It’s a great resource here in Jefferson City and needs to be utilized more.” Bingo…

Patrick, you’re a truly kind soul, and we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us and for our mission of connecting people to this amazing river by getting out on her.

But he’s definitely not the only one to thank for making this race happen. The list is actually pretty long:

Sponsors –
The Old Brickhouse Deli – donated and served lunches to the racers.
Central Bank
Centurylink
Husch Blackwell Sanders
Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau

Partners -
Alpine Shop – donated lip balm for racers
Big Muddy Adventures – donated proceeds from a ride in the 22-foot wooden Junebug canoe
Dexter crew – showed up, helped patrol the race and took gobs of great photos.
Jefferson City Parks and Recs – donated canoe and paddle rental.
Joe Wilson – the host with the most
Lafarge-Neidert – graphic design
Lynn Family - registration
Mid-Missouri Amateur Radio Club – Set up stations along the route (some in boats, some biked out the Katy Trail, some on decks of friends over looking the river) and kept all stations in communication.
Missouri American Water – donated gift bags
Neidert family – safety boat – and everything that needed doing
Schnucks – donated gift bags & drinks
St. James Winery – prize wine!
And without a doubt the Missouri River Relief crew solid as a rock!