River Log section: Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
273 - 270 RBD St. Maurice Island 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
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
275 - 270 LBD Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge 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
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
276 - 275 LBD Collapsing Muddy Banks 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
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
275.5 RBD Before Boies Point “Hidey Hole” There is a narrow “hidey hole” is found deep within a slot in the riverbank above Boies Point at approximately 275.5 RBD. If a south wind is threatening your progress, and a line of severe thunderstorms approaching, you could take temporary
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
276.6 RBD Protected Dune A graceful curved sandy dune is found RBD several miles below the cement silo with great protection from southerly weather, and a lovely copse of American sycamores and elms all around. Dry sand found here in low to medium waters, and open forest with sandy
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
277.2 RBD Morganza Crevasse The Mississippi River broke the levee here in the flood of 1890, making a mess out everything downstream and to the west, including the enormous Atchafalaya basin to the west.
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
278.8 RBD Cement Silo The tall cement silo at RBD 278.8 is a river monument of uncertain origin, with a sizeable dune found in a rip-rap alcove below. During high water the eddy currents here, and along this whole portion of Morgan’s Bend can be treacherous, especially
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
279.6 - 279 RBD Morganza Spillway Entrance There is nothing to see from the river, but paddlers can imagine 600,000 cfs flowing through the wooded banks around this bend in catastrophic flood waters. The US Army Corps of Engineers added this overflow valve in the 1950s to divert
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
278.5 - 277.8 LBD Iowa Point Bottom End of Morgan’s Bar This is the only place along Morgan’s Bend that you’d want to stop and make a camp. It’s removed from the busy hunter’s lodges further up the bend, and it would be
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
281 - 278 Morgans Bend (Iowa Point) 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
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
281.5 - 280.5 RBD New Tex Landing Short skinny bar that is often muddy. Dry up to 25NG. Your best bet would be to continue to another more sandy location, but if it’s getting dark or weather coming in and you need to land in a hurry,
Vicksburg to Baton Rouge
283.3 LBD Sebastopol Paddlers will want to avoid camping anywhere near this noisy hunting camp (noisy, as in lots of gunfire).