It's official: I'm now registered for the Osage Spring 12 race up in Missouri this Saturday. It's a 12-mile race down the Osage River near the town of Osage City. From what I've been able to find out so far it sounds like the area didn't experience significant flooding during last week's storms. My guess is that the most likely flooding effect on the race will be no current in the bottom miles: the finish line isn't far from the Osage's confluence with the Missouri River, and if the Missouri is high it could be backed up the Osage pretty far.
But such concerns seemed a long way off as Joe and I paddled a loop in the harbor this morning. With the Mississippi River at 34.1 feet on the Memphis gauge, the harbor was broad and well up into the green trees, and the harbor denizens were taking it in stride. We saw the turtles and the blue heron we're used to seeing, and just beneath the surface lurked many dozens of gar. The gar is an ancient species--I believe they were around when the dinosaurs were--and it looks different from any other fish I've seen. Gar are skinny and needle-nosed, and when they see a paddler like me coming they contort into a U-shape and quickly disappear into deeper water, leaving a small disturbance on the surface. Up at the north end of the harbor there were many gar hanging out among the submerged trees, and a couple of times we were able to get close enough to one to get a good look at him before he fled. I saw a couple of huge ones--one about half the length of our 20-plus-foot boats.
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