Barrel Raft Boys

source for barrel rafting – rafts, adventures, lifestyle

Monthly Archives: July 2014

The Barrel Raft Boys dedicate this post to how we live, eat and survive. This unique lifestyle proves to be challenging and fun. Stripping down to the core essentials, we’ve had to balance Needs/Wants with Weight ratio. Our floating home is estimated to hold 500 pounds of supplies. About 450 of that is dog food […]

A Day In The Life

This entry was posted in Boredom Food Mississippi Journey Survival Temperature Water Weather and tagged day in the life food navigation survival on July 29, 2014

Dubuque Iowa is fun place that we are glad we didn’t miss. We listened to music at Rock the Dock, biked up Mount Carmel for some overlook scenic views and walked through the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. After spending a couple hours fishing in the marina, Rob ended up with only one silver fish…he fried […]

Wind, Water and Wriver snakes!

This entry was posted in Illinois Iowa Mississippi Journey Water Weather and tagged birds sail wind on July 28, 2014

Steady as she goes, a strong Mississippi current pulled us through the southerly winds today averaging 4 miles per hour. Again we relied on our outboard to kick “homemade windsail” through another lake with a stiff breeze. All in all, its another brick in the wall. The 16 barrel makeshift raft has traveled 240 miles from […]

Day 10 – Where Raft Meets River

This entry was posted in Illinois Iowa Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged Illinois Iowa marina support Wisconsin on July 25, 2014

Started today at the crack of dawn. We were floating before the sun came up, so we were able to see this beautiful sight from the water! What we forgot to mention yesterday is that we clocked a record..43 MILES in one day. Needless to say, we felt pretty dang good about that and decided […]

Day Something or Other

This entry was posted in Iowa Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged church garden Guttenburg sand dunes on July 24, 2014

Early this morning our raft floated across the Minnesota – Iowa border officially making us feel like we’ve made progress. This Iowa bald eagle was scouting out his breakfast while welcoming us to his state. That ones for you, Leon! Hope you’re feeling better! The boys made a gas, beverage and night crawler stop in a quaint town […]

Iowa has a river? Day 9

This entry was posted in Iowa Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged bald eagle Iowa Lansing on July 23, 2014

Last night we decided to call it an early night and camp just a few miles north of LaCrosse. Even though it put us behind our milage quota for the day, it was nice to pull off and enjoy a great sunset We were tucked away on a small sand island right across the town […]

Day 8 – Crossing through La Crosse

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged chop La Crosse southern wind on July 21, 2014

Rob couldn’t understand why he wasn’t hungry this morning, until he pulled a wing and tail from his mouth. After hatching late last night, mayflies have plagued our vessel!These insects, Mayflies or shadflies, have a very short adult lifespan living from a only few hours to a day. Some consider this good luck, others use them for bait, BarrelRaftBoys use […]

Who Needs Breakfast When You Have Mayflies?

This entry was posted in Food Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged marina may flies Winona on July 20, 2014

As our first weekend on the river, we decided to stop in Winona, MN after shacking up for the night just above Lock #5A. After swiftly cruising through this Lock at 9:45, we docked up in the Winona Marina to have some quality time off the raft. Taking a minute to drop a line in […]

Day 6 – Winona, MN

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged docked fishing marina Winona on July 20, 2014

Our log says day five but I lost count about 4 days ago..this journey feels like an eternity. We’re lost on a desolate river in the middle of no-mans land with not a single bit of life besides the packs of wolves that guard the coastline, making it impossible to reach dry land. Our rations […]

DaY FiVE ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE!!

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged barges locks on July 19, 2014

Made it across Lake Pepin! It was a long day using our motor..gotta give respect to our 9.9 Evenrude for pushing our tank all day! We spotted a sandy island at the end of Pepin, both decided to pull over and call it a day and sit back and look at we just accomplished. Happy […]

Day 4 – Lake Pepin

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin on July 18, 2014

Beautiful sunset put us to be last night in a small cove on the Minnesota side. After taking off around 7:00 this morning, we began the largest lake in our path, Lake Pepin. Again, the barrel raft boys were blessed with great weather and a calm lake. We crossed this lake after Old Frontenac to […]

Mid-Day 4

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged fishing Lake Pepin on July 17, 2014

Spent the night in Prescott, WI public boat dock where the freight trains run every 45 minutes…not a very peaceful sleeping spot. We awoke to a calm, beautiful and still-aired morning to find the Mississippi-St. Croix rivers confluence within a couple of yards to where we camped. What a noticeable difference between these waterways! The Mississippi […]

Day 3 – Sand Dune and Lock

This entry was posted in Minnesota Mississippi Journey Wisconsin and tagged locks Red Wing sand dunes Skully on July 17, 2014