Continental Divide

[Cargile]

Hope my question fits here. Does any one know the furthest west you can navigate a trawler from the Mississippi towards the continental divide? I am assuming it is somewhere up the Missouri. Maybe not.

 

[kthoennes]

I can answer that one because we live right here. Up the Mississippi, then the Missouri at St. Louis, and then you can go as far up as Sioux City, Iowa (well, a few miles beyond but not much more). And the current rips really badly around Sioux City. Above Sioux City the river gets shallow and thready and marshy with lots of sandbars and deltas. They do a canoe and kayak run some years between Sioux City and Yankton, but the days of the riverboat steamers are long gone between Sioux City and Yankton. We have a 19' Bayliner runabout and I've wanted to try the Yankton to Sioux City run, but most advice I've ever gotten is don't risk your boat.

And then around Yankton the river opens up again, beautiful boating and beautiful areas, but then you hit the first of a series of dams in Yankton. Our marina is just above the first dam, Gavins Point, Lewis and Clark. The river is huge above that all the way to Montana, but you'd have to hop multiple dams, and there are no locks. Our five year plan is to have the boat shipped to Duluth and we sail out into world from the Great Lakes. We could ship it to Sioux City instead, or Omaha, but if we have to ship the boat anyway, might as well do Lake Superior.

So in short, for a boat of any size, as a practical matter, Sioux City, Iowa.

 

[Northern Spy]

William Least Heat Moon wrote a book about taking a C-Dory across the Continental US. River horse.

 

[KnotYet]

William Least Heat Moon wrote a book about taking a C-Dory across the Continental US. River horse.

Well worth the read.

 

[Cold Duck]

I can answer that one because we live right here. Up the Mississippi, then the Missouri at St. Louis, and then you can go as far up as Sioux City, Iowa (well, a few miles beyond but not much more). And the current rips really badly around Sioux City. Above Sioux City the river gets shallow and thready and marshy with lots of sandbars and deltas. They do a canoe and kayak run some years between Sioux City and Yankton, but the days of the riverboat steamers are long gone between Sioux City and Yankton. We have a 19' Bayliner runabout and I've wanted to try the Yankton to Sioux City run, but most advice I've ever gotten is don't risk your boat.

And then around Yankton the river opens up again, beautiful boating and beautiful areas, but then you hit the first of a series of dams in Yankton. Our marina is just above the first dam, Gavins Point, Lewis and Clark. The river is huge above that all the way to Montana, but you'd have to hop multiple dams, and there are no locks. Our five year plan is to have the boat shipped to Duluth and we sail out into world from the Great Lakes. We could ship it to Sioux City instead, or Omaha, but if we have to ship the boat anyway, might as well do Lake Superior.

So in short, for a boat of any size, as a practical matter, Sioux City, Iowa.

Great info. We fly in and stop at Yankton on our way to Oshkosh big plane flyin each year in July. We see that big river there and wonder about boating on it. Now we know.

 

[Cargile]

William Least Heat Moon wrote a book about taking a C-Dory across the Continental US. River horse.

Sounds like a good read. Looked on Amazon Kindle. $14.99. WTF! Have not used my kindle in several years. bezos has gotten greedy here.

 

[Cargile]

I can answer that one because we live right here..............................So in short, for a boat of any size, as a practical matter, Sioux City, Iowa.

Thank you for the reply. My question was prompted by a current hair brained scheme. I see a lot of unique boats for sale in the PNW. I am in Florida. It is not feasible, for me, to bring one around through the Panama canal. Hence the hair brained scheme - instead of paying for trucking cross country to Florida, truck it over the continental divide to the furthest west navigable water. Sioux City is 1500 miles from Seattle. That is about 1/2 way by road to St. Augustine. I will probably pass on that idea. Thanks again.

 

[Northern Spy]

Depending on the boat, theoretically one could go up the Columbia and Snake Rivers to Lewiston ID.

I read River Horse (and Blue Highways) so many years ago, I forgot the route. Both great books if you have bit of a romantic streak. Think Charles Kuralt type travelogues.

 

[Blissboat]

Sounds like a good read. Looked on Amazon Kindle. $14.99. WTF! Have not used my kindle in several years. bezos has gotten greedy here.

Well, he's taken up yachting, so naturally we all have to pay more in order to sustain his new pastime. It's like when your dentist gets a new boat.

 

[kthoennes]

Depending on the boat, theoretically one could go up the Columbia and Snake Rivers to Lewiston ID. ...

Yeah, I assume the OP was talking about a continuous run for a trawler-sized boat, no pull-outs or "portages." We researched this whole thing very carefully when we were crafting our escape plan. I even thought about hiring a big crane to lift our boat up and over the dam -- silly idea I know, but cheaper and faster than dismantling, trucking, and reassembly. But then we can't get to Sioux City without hitting a sand bar. And then even if we could, if you look at a map, the Missouri meanders so badly on the way to St. Louis that you'd do hundreds of miles in the "wrong" direction, worse than tacking a sailboat. Zoom in, can't look at a national map, the Missouri wanders all over the place like overcooked spaghetti. So if we have to ship it anyway, we could do either the St. Croix or Mississippi around Minneapolis, or Lake Superior out of Duluth. We picked Duluth. Or Superior, WI. We used to be aspiring Loopers, but there's so much to see and do between here and say Annapolis, we'll never get to the Gulf. Heck, I'm not sure we'll ever get south of New Jersey.

 

[Southern Boater]

Thank you for the reply. My question was prompted by a current hair brained scheme. I see a lot of unique boats for sale in the PNW. I am in Florida. It is not feasible, for me, to bring one around through the Panama canal. Hence the hair brained scheme - instead of paying for trucking cross country to Florida, truck it over the continental divide to the furthest west navigable water. Sioux City is 1500 miles from Seattle. That is about 1/2 way by road to St. Augustine. I will probably pass on that idea. Thanks again.

You need to factor in issues regarding height restrictions enroute, ability to crane off and launch at Sioux City, can the truck get a back load returning to PNW?
It could work, would certainly rate as a mini-adventure, rather than a full-on adventure going through the Canal

 

[Comodave]

Yeah, I assume the OP was talking about a continuous run for a trawler-sized boat, no pull-outs or "portages." We researched this whole thing very carefully when we were crafting our escape plan. I even thought about hiring a big crane to lift our boat up and over the dam -- silly idea I know, but cheaper and faster than dismantling, trucking, and reassembly. But then we can't get to Sioux City without hitting a sand bar. And then even if we could, if you look at a map, the Missouri meanders so badly on the way to St. Louis that you'd do hundreds of miles in the "wrong" direction, worse than tacking a sailboat. Zoom in, can't look at a national map, the Missouri wanders all over the place like overcooked spaghetti. So if we have to ship it anyway, we could do either the St. Croix or Mississippi around Minneapolis, or Lake Superior out of Duluth. We picked Duluth. Or Superior, WI. We used to be aspiring Loopers, but there's so much to see and do between here and say Annapolis, we'll never get to the Gulf. Heck, I'm not sure we'll ever get south of New Jersey.

How tall do you think your boat would be on a trailer if you took down everything that is easy to take down, or would you have to remove, if possible, the flybridge?

 

[kthoennes]

Well, we had the boat shipped from Albany (Coeymans on the Hudson) to Yankton and everything had to come off to get it under 14. It's a very tall boat. The aft deck roof, the helm pod, the flybridge cowling, the aft deck roof struts. It was a bear to ship. We got a great boat for an incredible price, otherwise it would have made no sense. We got as lucky as we possibly could on both ends with dismantling, trucking and reassembly, but I'm still dreading doing it again. I have thought about whether there's an overheight path between here and Duluth, but maybe we'll just have to buy a different (bigger) boat on Superior instead.

 

[Comodave]

You were lucky with the first move. I had a friend that had the bridge taken off for a move and it took him years to fix the leaks and electrical problems.

 

[psneeld]

Plenty of flybridges get removed and pros put them back together just fine

Do anything poorly and it's a disaster.

 

[george-1]

The closest navigable river to the Continental Divide would be the Arkansas, to Tulsa, OK. Depending on your starting point and final destination, it would probably be easier to truck to Texas and use the intercoastal to get to the Mississippi.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

You will need a C-Dory or similar. Even still, Least Moon took out at Coal Harbor, MT and trailered over the divide. We put in just above Coal Harbor at the ferry landing and motored (drifted) downstream. The Missouri River down to the Fort Peck reservoir was muddy and shallow in many places. (Famous Mark Twain decription of the Missouri: "Too thick to drink and too thin to plow.") That makes the sand bars really hard to spot. Most of the place names along the way are named after steam boats that ran agound when the mighty Mo was free flowing. One area is famous because Chief Joseph lead his people across in attempting to escape the U.S. Calvery. Slow and shallow enough for the children to wade across. Best to stay well downstream in a trawler.

 

[WayneDana2]

I looked into getting my 37' trawler from Oregon to anywhere to loop from. Turns out that the cheapest was to Minneapolis as there is a good boat trucking company there as well as travel lifts and boat yards to do reassembly. (I needed to cut off my flybridge with a sawzall to make bridge clearance and just could NOT pull that particular trigger).
They offered significant discounts if you were open on times so they could pair you as a return trip. This was 2021 and they were quoting ~$10k + travel lifts on both ends.