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Two mile long island and about half miles wide, seal shaped from the air, like so many Mississippi River islands, St. Maurice is the best camping between the Tunica Hills and St. Francisville. Most sand is found spilling onto and over both sides of the top end, one large plateau
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Paddlers have a unique opportunity to walk up to one of the largest and oldest trees in the south, the co-champion bald cypress of North America. If the river is high you can paddle all the way, but it will have to be bank full 30BG or higher. If it
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As you come around Morgan’s Bend you will discern a golden yellow color that at first could be mistaken for a rough sandbar. It’s not sand. It’s a collapsing steep muddy bank that is composed of creamy yellow mud, and is a sign of the river eating
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This isolated bend swirling 180 degrees around Iowa Point used to be a good place for paddlers to stop along its perimeter for highwater camping, but in recent years has degenerated into a series of busy hunting camps that you’ll want to avoid. In low or medium water watch
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Three mile long Tunica Bar Towhead is the best camping in the vicinity of the Tunica Hills. If you want to enjoy the full experience of the dance of light along the convoluted shapes and fantastic colors of the Tunica Hills, camp here and watch the all day show that
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Hog Point Towhead, a bony ridge rising high above the main channel making a natural levee and ideal placement for voyageur tents and hammocks. Behind the tall sandy edge a promenade like a Greek entrance hall leads downwards at a slight angle into a chapel of willows, where the spirit
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the Shreve’s Island, the main channel is constricted, often crowded with towboats, and doesn’t seem to flow any faster. If you do take the main channel, watch carefully for tows unexpectedly appearing out of the Lock Channel. Downstream pilots get very cranky,
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The Back Channel of Shreve’s Bar is always flowing strong, and is the route of preference for paddlers, even at low water. And as much for aesthetics as for practicality. Aesthetically it is always more pleasing to paddle the back channel -- where the natural banks, big trees and
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The river circumscribes Angola State Penitentiary in an almost perfect semi-circle, with a radius of four miles, the center being the headquarters of the prison complex. Using simple geometry, C=2piR this would give a circumference of approximately 25 miles, divided by 2 for a half circle = 12.5 miles,
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Once safely below the Auxiliary Intake channel of the Old River Control Structure, you can find a very tall bluff of sand, the tallest in the area, which makes the best highwater camping available all the way up to flood stage (and beyond). At low water, this giant sand dune
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There are three sand dune alcoves along this stretch of river left bank around Palmetto, which would offer good protection in easterly or southeasterly winds or weather, but are frequented by 4-wheelers, and might be private (the last one especially, since it has a permanent primitive camp set up on
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Short willow island with a single ridge along its length that starts out high at the top end and gradually descends to the bottom end. Good protected camping in dense willows in high water, sandbars extend around its edges in medium water and become miles long in low water. An