River Log section: St. Louis to Caruthersville
St. Louis to Caruthersville
882.3 Welcome to Tennessee After meandering in and out of Tennessee (at Donaldson Point) the river leaves Kentucky for good and enters Tennessee on the downstream side of Bessie’s Bend at mile 882.3 RBD. The river here rolls along the state of Tennessee out the bottom of
St. Louis to Caruthersville
883 - 879 RBD Island No 11 Island No 11 stretches four miles downstream at the bottom end of Bessie’s Bend, and offer good but unprotected low or medium water camping. Don’t camp here in a rising river or in the chance of high winds or storms. When
St. Louis to Caruthersville
885 - 883.8 RBD New Madrid Industrial Reach Leaving the Wild Miles at New Madrid, paddlers will encounter a few grain elevators and a lumber dock downstream of the town behind the New Madrid Bar. But the real heavy duty industry comes five miles downstream right bank descending at
St. Louis to Caruthersville
888.5 - 886.3 RBD New Madrid Bar WARNING: tall back channel dike creates serious waterfall between 20 and 30CG. Proceed carefully down back channel and scout before running. The New Madrid Bar extends over two miles along the outside of the main channel in Kentucky Bend. Stay main
St. Louis to Caruthersville
889 RBD New Madrid Boat Ramp New Madrid Boat Ramp is the best boat ramp in the region, boasting a double wide concrete ramp with concrete steps built in on one side to facilitate climbing up and down in muddy conditions. This would be the best place in New Madrid
St. Louis to Caruthersville
889.5 RBD St. John’s Bayou St. John’s Bayou enters the big river right bank descending just past the bottom of Morrison Towhead. Curious canoeists & kayakers could make a quick exit here and take a half-mile paddle up to the base of the levee where the St
St. Louis to Caruthersville
890 - 883 LBD Kentucky Point Bar Beautiful creamy yellow beaches surround Kentucky Point Bar at low water and medium water, but the choices become limited to high dunes closer to the bank in high water. Kentucky Point Bar wraps around the entire top of the Kentucky Bend, seven miles
St. Louis to Caruthersville
890.5 RBD Sleeping Giant Eddy Sean Rowe and I got pulled into this eddy in Dec 1983 and could not get out. We were approaching New Madrid around noon on that cold day, after several days of rain, and looking forward to a dry day in town, partly to
St. Louis to Caruthersville
890.5 - 889.5 RBD Morrison Towhead Morrison Towhead consists of a short bulbous island less than a mile long that sits along the right bank descending and is subject to intense turbulence when the river is high. This is seen in the piles of driftwood smashing the top
St. Louis to Caruthersville
896.5 - 894.5 RBD Hotchkiss Bend Dikes and Bar Four beautiful skinny sandbar islands form along the Hotchkiss Dikes with extensive beaches along their full lengths in low and medium water levels. The islands and their surrounding beaches gradually diminishes with rising water rise until nothing remains at
St. Louis to Caruthersville
899.1 LBD Slough Neck Landing Boat Ramp The boat ramp at Slough Neck Landing is a rough gravel affair falling over the rip rap riverbank. Easiest to use in high water, this ramp bottoms out in mud in low water. There is no apparent upkeep here. But even though
St. Louis to Caruthersville
902.5 - 897 RBD Winchester Chute Winchester Chute, an old channel of the river, winds a serpentine course around the very end of Donaldson Point, which you can see quite clearly on Google earth. Winchester Chute could be accessed during flood stage when the water is flowing into the