Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

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Discovery
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:43 pm
Location: South West Michigan

Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

#1 Post by Discovery » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:54 am

The Wife and I took a trip to South Dakota to do some cruising on the Missouri. The tour included Chamberlain, Gettysburg and Yankton. My impression of the trip overall was that the Missouri river has a lot to offer the transient boater. I liked the Chamberlain area the most overall because you could usually find someplace to get out of the wind which can get blowing at times and really kick up some chop. Chamberlain also has a nice resort (Cedar Shores) with a nice outside bar on the river and the resort also has a wide concrete and free launch that is protected from the river proper.

Gettysburg was a bit of a bust because of the three days there (plan was for a longer stay) we were only able to get on the water once. We found the other days just too windy to enjoy the water. We would go down to the area launches to see the green faces of the hardy souls who would venture out. I wish the wind would have worked in our favor because there did seem to be some interesting cruising to be had. I will point out that this is a remote area with few amenities or things to do when you can’t get on the water. One bright spot is Bob’s steakhouse where you get a huge steak and a great view of the river from the dining room for a fair price.

We found Yankton to be a nice town with, in my opinion, one of the best state parks I have seen. Lewis and Clark state park has roughly three miles of river front. It is very well maintained with sandy beaches you can pull your boat up on and relax. Here again though, the wind can be a factor and will kick up a good chop. For the time we were there we spent most of it on the Nebraska side of the river because the wind was coming out of the southeast. The run back across the river to the park made for one of the rougher rides of the whole trip. It was just a rough slog.

Now back to the river for a moment. I have to point out that as wide as it is there are areas that get real shallow because of silting. For example we wanted to run 30 or so miles downriver of Chamberlain and see if we could find a place that Lewis and Clark mention as the ‘red cliffs’. We had already ran into some shallows roughly 15 miles south where the White river meets the Missouri but we hadn’t tried to just motor though it and continue on. When we tried, this shallow area seemed to go on for miles and the depth sounder was constantly alerting me that I was finding my preset depth. My Garmin Lakevu maps showed where the main channel was supposed to be but because this silting is ever changing, we were just feeling our way through and it got tedious. We found our time better spent in deep water floating and swimming.

In closing the weather was hot and dry with little rain. Just the way I like my boating.
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Silt in the river where the White meets the Missouri
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Down river of Chamberlain
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Pedestrian bridge in Yankton. Links South Dakota and Nebraska.
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Bridge linking Chamberlain and Oacoma SD
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Chamberlain area
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Yankton area
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Yankton area
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Yankton area
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Obligatory dog pic

Bamaman
Posts: 3679
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 1:44 pm
Location: NW Alabama--Tennessee River

Re: Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

#2 Post by Bamaman » Sun Sep 27, 2015 11:35 am

We live on the Tennessee River, and it's considered the best long distance inland cruising in the U.S. with 650 miles of navigable water.
My wife and I intend to tow our tritoon to Chattanooga and run through the "Grand Canyon" of Tennessee--through the length of Guntersville and Wheeler Lakes home. That's about 200 miles. With a couple of fine hotels and a state park at Guntersville, it'd be a great 2 day trip. The mountain scenery along the way is especially beautiful.

The Great Loop association has a big meeting at our local state park every year before they head south down the Tenn./Tombigbee Canal going south for the Winter. They are making a 5000 loop down to the Gulf, across to Florida, thru the canals to Stuart, FL, up the inland waterway to New York City, up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes to Chicago and down the Mississippi River--one big circle. They're a little more serious cruisers than we are. But the record time of the Great Loop was in a tritoon with a 250 hp outboard by a gentleman that seldom slept.
'12 Bennington 24' SSLX Yamaha 150

RcgTexas
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:37 am
Location: Texas

Re: Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

#3 Post by RcgTexas » Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:37 am

Nice pics! That is a strange looking bow you have on that pontoon boat! :paranoid :biggrin2
1995 beachcomber conversion to tritoon with Honda 135 ,

Link to rebuild [url=http://www.pontoonforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19016][Knot Normal][/url]

God Bless America

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PlaynDoc
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Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:32 am
Location: Milner, Georgia

Re: Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

#4 Post by PlaynDoc » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:25 pm

RcgTexas wrote:Nice pics! That is a strange looking bow you have on that pontoon boat! :paranoid :biggrin2
yep... interesting setup
2011 SunChaser DS22
Mercury 115 EFI
13.75 x 15p

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Discovery
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:43 pm
Location: South West Michigan

Re: Quick recap of trip on the Missouri

#5 Post by Discovery » Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:12 am

One of a kind for sure. Little short on deck space though.

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