Intro: Caruthersville to Memphis:
Intro: Caruthersville to Memphis:
Welcome to the 2013 update to the Rivergator: Paddlers Guide to the Lower Mississippi River!
This section covers the 113 miles of the big river from the paddler-friendly town of Caruthersville, Missouri to the thriving metropolis of Memphis Tennessee, the largest city south of St. Louis. Along the way you’ll paddle over mud that’s over 6,000 feet deep and an entire loess bluff caving into the river. You’ll see towboats and fishermen and a few crusty river towns like Osceola and Randolph. You’ll camp on beaches the size and feel of Caribbean beaches, and paddle through narrow chutes with lush overhanging willows and cottonwoods. You’ll be hemmed in by revetment and dikes in one place, and then released into long sections of the main channel with no levee -- where the floodplain forest/wetlands are still connected directly to the river, creating an incredibly vibrant ecosystem of bayous, sluices, chutes, pools, and back channels overflowing with wildlife. In some places you might think you’re in the Amazon jungle for all the mud and trees, in other places you might be overwhelmed by the large agricultural landscapes, or by a couple of sprawling steel plants. In one special location you’ll think you’ve discovered a land of the lost where the Mississippi River meets Utah (at the base of the startling candy-colored ridges and buttes of the 2nd Chickasaw Bluff).
Geography:
The river here rolls out of the Missouri Bootheel and into the wild floodplain below between Tennessee and Arkansas, it’s so wild that no levees are needed for 60 miles along the left bank side of the river from Moss Island to Memphis! This section is full of tributary rivers with deep woody bottoms, strange colorful mud slides, and dozens of islands and back channels to explore, many protected within wildlife refuges and state parks. There is some heavy industry along the way, a couple of noisy steel plants and a giant power plant (below Osceola), and some busy grain docks and two harbors -- none of which you’ll want to camp near. Nevertheless your hard paddling will be rewarded again and again with fabulous views of the Chickasaw Bluffs along the Western edge of the state of Tennessee and adjacent bottomland hardwood forests, including the colossal cliff-bluffs at Fort Pillow (1st Chickasaw Bluff), the astounding colorful chalky glacier of mud above Richardson’s Landing (2nd Chickasaw Bluff), Meeman-Shelby State Forest (3rd Chickasaw Bluff) and finally the sweeping view of the Memphis skyline, including the Memphis Bridge and the Pyramid, and downtown Memphis (which straddles the 4th Chickasaw Bluff). The vista from the river is unparalleled! Points of interest include Obion RIver, Moss Island Wildlife Management Area, Nucor Yamamato Steel, Island 30/Osceola Back Channel, Hatchie River Bottoms, Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, Hickman Bar, Loosahatchie and Wolf Rivers, the elegant “M” Bridge and finally the eye-popping view of skyscrapers over the Beale Street Harbor and Landing. The vista from the river is unparalleled! You’ve never seen downtown Memphis if you haven’t viewed it from the river!
Memphis Big City Considerations:
A little teaser... Some hundred miles downstream... your imagination will be arrested by a unique vision... a distinct mirror-faced Pyramid rising out of the trees above the face of the river... Are you delusional after paddling all day with no food or water? Is this an Egyptian hallucination? A mirage flashback from Langston Hughes’ “I have known rivers, ancient dusky rivers?” No, this is Memphis’ famous landmark, the shiny steel and glass Pyramid. As you approach closer the complicated monotone geometry of downtown Memphis thickens the horizon behind... This vision alone will reward you for any trails you have undertaken in paddling the Mississippi River this far!
Memphis is the largest population on the last 1,200 miles of the Mississippi River. Long distance paddlers, if you’ve already canoed or kayaked through metropolitan St. Louis you know what to expect. For those who haven’t paddled through a big city, get ready for some challenges. Along the fast waters of the Memphis riverfront you’ll encounter the Memphis Queen Paddle Boat, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency Rangers, Coast Guard vessels and work boats, local tows, resupply tows, crew boats, Army Corps vessels, and of course recreational boaters and the omnipresent big tows going long distance. You have four bridges to navigate under, the iconic “M” Bridge first and not far downstream the lower three bridges all huddled together below the South Bluff made famous in the Chuck Berry song “Long Distance Information.” Anytime there is a bridge to maneuver under, tow pilots get edgy and things can go bad quick. Real quick. Strap all gear down and keep your life jacket on. Monitor VHF Channel 13 if you have a marine radio. Remember, the safest place around a towboat is behind a towboat!
Memphis Landing & Shuttling considerations:
You are still many days away from the big city, maybe even a week depending on your ambitions, weather and the river levels. But I am sharing this information now so you can begin to make plans with whoever is picking you up in the big city. If you are meeting someone Mud Island Upper Landing LBD 738.5 is probably the easiest location, but not the most romantic. It’s stinky, and you will miss the thrill of going under the bridge and into the spectacular Beale Street Harbor entrance downtown. For landings in the Mud Island Harbor LBD 736: continue three miles further under the M Bridge to the Memphis Yacht Club Marina, which is about a half mile up the Memphis, or the Coast Guard Boat Ramp which is about a mile up the Harbor. An advance warning: the mouth of the harbor opens up river left just beyond the first Bridge, the elegant M Bridge. When you can look down Beale Street turn left and paddle hard! Don’t go past the Harbor. There is no public landing for Memphis further downstream.