8 river miles from RM 161.0 to RM 169
By Steve Nagle

We rendezvoused at Castlewood State Park and bussed over approx. @0930 hours to the canoe launch site at Route 66 State Park. I road with trip organizer Ron Coleman, who had a thermos of coffee in his flashy Jeep Commander. A knowledgeable young park ranger named Michelle Neubauer presented a talk on the history of the Park and the scourge caused by dioxin pollution at Times Beach and subsequent clean-up. We got to the 1980’s then it was time to get out on the river to stay on schedule.

We were accompanied by Jim Karpowicz and John Baker professional film makers who were hired to produce a documentary and associated interviews about the Meramec River filmed around the various “Summit” events depicting river culture, natural resources and people connected to the Meramec River Basin.

On Day 5, for the record, our volunteer explorers included Barb Ostman, Gene Nickason, Amy Butz, Brittany Barton, Jody Miles, Bill Miles, Joe Schulte, Brian Wilcox, Eric Otto, John Robinson, Rhonda Coleman, Dave Wilson and myself. Ron Coleman and Jerry Castillion handled logistics.

Joe Vujnich, city planner, and Kathy Arnett, parks director of the City of Wildwood (and Linda) organized a large tent and long table set-up for lunch at our mid day take out point at Glencoe where the Al Foster trail skirts the Meramec River. We were hungry and the generous reception by the city of Wildwood including brownies for desert was deeply appreciated by all of us.

The River – yes the river. It was all quiet except for conversations among paddlers. This stretch from Route 66 State Park down to Castlewood State Park is mostly very clean as far as trash and debris is concerned. We pulled our canoes onto a gravel bar for a swim and a search for aquatic specimens. Not certain where this was located, but cool waters came from a natural outflow into the Meramec. Bill Miles turned over a rock in the stream and picked up a fairly young red-eared slider and proceeded to discuss the ecology of turtles. I dove under the water and opened my eyes to check on visibility at this portion of the river except for the gravel bottomed shallows, the water is rather turbid. Down river another mile or so we pulled over for a presentation on Naiades (fresh water mussels) by one of the leading experts in the State of Missouri Brian Wilcox. On this river trip Brian canoed with us the whole way. If you have not met Brian and heard his brilliant testimonials on the ecology and sex life of fresh water mussels then you are missing one of the most interesting and hidden stories of river ecology.

Freelance writer and former director of Missouri Tourism, John Robinson and former Post Dispatch writer Barbara Ostmann did all six days on the Meramec adding up to about 40 miles and took notes during much of the expedition. We will be watching for their articles in Missouri Life and travel magazines. Trip leaders Bill and Jody Miles provided superb commentary on river ecology and invasive species throughout all six days.

I never cease to be grateful for the sight of a Great Blue Heron stalking the shallows or sailing across the river in those Audubon like moments, but as Dave mentioned in his Blog the sighting of the mature bald eagle roosting in the silver maple along the shoreline just before we reached our destination was also a memorable penultimate moment. Then the eagle flew downriver when we set our sights in the same direction.

While we were exploring our local masterpiece the Meramec and monitoring its condition on that same August 2nd Rover engineers were growing increasingly concerned about the temperature of vital electronics on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity due to a series of dust storms on Mars which have lasted over a month. Ah the spirit of exploration runs like a deep and mighty river. Traveling at a rate of about about 3 or 4 knots in our canoes it is a strange contrast to the unmanned explorer New Horizons which is continuing its speedy journey from Jupiter’s orbit at 5.2 astronomical units toward Saturn’s orbit at 9.5 AU’s roughly about a million miles per day which is about a third of an AU.

We are looking for any and all contributions to producing the film about the Meramec River Basin - a River in Renaissance. The film will be available to generations to come and will tell valuable amazing stories about the longest undimmed river in American History. Almost 40 years ago after we first set foot on the moon, the complete lunar photographic record from the Apollo project will finally be accessible to both researchers and the general public on the internet. And back here on earth, on Saturday August 25 and Sunday August 26 the 40th annual Operation Clean Stream for the Meramec with Courtouis & Huzzah River Sections will be held. Please sign up to volunteer for this historic event and clean-up. For info: call 636-451-6090.