Post #1: Planning in November 2013 for a Memorial Day 2014 launch

The Pacific Northwest rain has me short on energy for completing the south section of the deck. My lower right leg is painful.  Those are excuses for staying inside and starting the serious work of planning my 2014 spring trip. I explained to my wife, Ellen, that I wanted to drive to San Diego, buy a surf board, and work my way up the coast to San Clemente learning how to surf. That is option B.  Option A is a solo kayak trip from Three Forks, Montana to Fork Peck Dam starting on May 25, 2014.  Ellen, my wife, would join me at Fort Peck after she releases her students for the summer on June 18th.  It would take her two days to reach Fort Peck. She would join me for the 224 or so miles on the river to Williston, North Dakota.  That section would take us between seven and 10 days.

At this time I am going with option A unless something out of my control happens to me, the Missouri River, or to Ellen or the pups.
I am using the book The Complete Kayaker as my main source of information.  It is a very well written book for anyone wanting to float the Missouri River.  The past two days I have been studying the author's campsites and by using his GPS coordinates and Google Earth I have been able to locate his campsites. I have printed the campsites from the Google Earth images and will place the images in a binder for use on the river.  He did it in two weeks and I will plan for 18 days to reach Fort Peck Marina where I will wait for Ellen's arrival.
The wind is a huge concern of mine.  Especially on Fort Peck Lake.
The east deck's last row of decking was installed this week. 

You can skip the posts that are about the preparation and go directly to the start of the journey by clicking on this link:
http://jarvinenj.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-journey-begins-day-1.html


Missouri River, kayak, Three Forks, Montana, solo kayak, BLM, western Montana, Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery, Canyon Ferry Lake, Canyon Ferry Dam, Hauser Lake, Hauser Dam, Holter Dam, Holter Lake, Kim's Marina,  Townsend, Montana