Mile 133.7 - RBD Top End of Establishment Island

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

133.7 RBD Top End of Establishment Island

After 50 miles of paddling below the Great Arch you can finally stretch out a little and enjoy the spiritual quietude emanating from the natural landscape of the Middle Mississippi, here stretching out below you in undulating alternating waves of Limestone Bluffs and American Bottom floodplain. Leaving the noisy and unsightly Brickeys behind the forested bluffs ripple downwards from scraggly cedar & oak heights above forming myriads of steep ridges and secret hollows. A few meandering streams like the Saline carve out fertile alluvial flats between the bluffs. Further down at Trail of Tears State Park tall horizontal patterned cliffs crowd the river’s edge rising dramatically upwards as if yearning towards beauty and perfection. But here the cliffs gleam through thick forests like grinning whales opening their giant mouths and showing baleen.

Establishment Island creates enticing opportunities for exploration of the Mississippi Hills landscape from your canoe. In low and medium water levels go around the island bottom end and cut up Establishment Creek as far as you can go, and explore the secret side creeks spilling in waterfalls over the limestone bluffs. In medium-high water (20-30SLG) you can slide behind Establishment Chute. When the river is bankfull and higher you can jump through low spots in the woods at the top of the island between 133.7 and 133.1 and follow narrow old river channels through the forests and then at the edges of the fields, to eventually drop into Establishment Creek, which you can then paddle all the way through to the bottom of the island and rejoin the big river. Total journey would be about four miles.

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