“They had been seven weeks of intimacy, arguments, sunburn, song, oatmeal and introspection,” Burkart reports in brief narrative e-mailed to the Pitch. “Time on the raft was metered by the sun, the rain, the rhythm of barges, the mosquito hour, the space between towns, the cans of spinach in our store, the speed of our legs at the paddle wheel, and the people we met along the way. Then yesterday [Saturday] as we were reading in the afternoon sun, men with weapons reduced our lives to two options: take what you can carry and get dropped off at a remote hunting camp, or take what you can carry and get dropped off outside a jail in a town 20 miles away.”

After their departure from Kansas City the crew had more than a dozen run-ins with law enforcement, but each time, they’d been given the go-ahead to continue toward New Orleans. Then, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, they were informed by the Coast Guard that they could go no further.

“Boarding Officer Levi Denham of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) found the raft in violation of regulations regarding registration, not equipment nor operation. This was not grounds to terminate a voyage,” the rafters argued in a press release. “He then deferred by telephone to Rear Admiral Joel R. Whitehead, who, as congressionally appointed Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, had the authority to terminate the voyage outside the conventional scope of boating regulations.”

According to the rafters, the boat was discharged from the river because of a “lack of steering and propulsion” and “reports by tug-boat captains that they viewed the raft as having trouble navigating.”

“We felt stripped, my two companions and I, as our persons, purses and canned foods were packed into a strange boat with the five officials dispatched to terminate our voyage," Burkart writes.

They haven’t given up on reaching the ocean just yet, though. They’re currently holed up in Mississippi, seeking shelter and legal advice so they can get back on the river. – Carolyn Szczepanski