184.1 LBD Chain of Rocks Canal (Bottom End)

The peaceful respite of paddling with no tow traffic is over as you leave Mosenthein/Gabaret and swing downstream towards the Merchants Railroad Bridge. Tow traffic will now rejoin you on the big river at the bottom (southern) entrance to the Chain of Rocks Canal. In general it is best to maintain a line of travel following the flow along the Missouri shore. Most big tows will be staying on the Illinois shore LBD for entry or exit from the Canal. However, it is time to put away your cell phone, and remove your ear plugs, and place all of your attention on the channel below and movement of tows and work boats.

Safe Paddling through the St. Louis Harbor

As you prepare to paddle through the 20-mile long St. Louis Harbor you should be aware of a few critical elements: 1) Check the wind forecast. If the wind is going to be gusting anywhere out of the south above 15 mph stay on shore until it subsides. The harbor becomes a wind tunnel in a south wind, and the bridges increase the effect. Large crashing waves and accentuated turbulence as result. 2) There are very few opportunities for landing once you leave the waterfront in front of the Arch. After you get started down the harbor there is no turning back, so make sure you have what you need and all business is taken care of so you can paddle with a clear and focused mind. 3) Avoid extreme turbulence around docking piers and Bridge pylons. 4) Best line of travel is Right Bank Descending to Arch. Go middle channel below Arch. Return to Right Bank Descending once past industry several miles above JB Bridge. 5) Chevrons have been placed RBD between Merchants Bridge and Stiles Bridge (RBD183-182). Added turbulence, especially around SLG 15-25. Paddle around chevrons (preferably on the inside RBD if there is no traffic) not through them. 6) Giant flotillas of fleeted barges are found anchored primarily on the Illinois side of the channel throughout the middle of harbor (below Arch). Dangerous position in front of any anchored vessels. Stay well away from fleeted barges, in particular don’t approach from top end. 7) Secure your decks, and make sure you have extra paddles, bailers and sponges, plenty of drinking water, lifejackets for each person on board and your vessel is not overloaded. You might be inspected along the way by the Harbor Patrol or Search & Rescue. 8) if you are on a large raft, or are paddling with a large group of paddlers, you might want to call ahead and alert the US Coast Guard. They will notify all commercial vessels on the water of your presence, which will add to the safety and success of your expedition.

Safe Paddling through the St. Louis Harbor involves the same elements for safe paddling anywhere, as detailed in the Rivergator Introduction: you need to have the right experience (big river skills), the right equipment (including a sea-worthy vessel) and the right preparations (did you check the wind forecast for the day?). For a complete breakdown and listing of the necessary skills and preparations you should have made, go to https://www.rivergator.org/paddlers-guide/safety/.

Port of St. Louis

St. Louis is the hub of America’s Midwest, Grain Basket to the world. The river provides the transportation via tows and grain barges, each of which can ferry the equivalent of 12 train cars or 55 semis packed full of corn, soybeans, milo or wheat. Not surprisingly, at least half of the docks along the river are grain elevators or grain related. Cargill AgHorizons, Peavey/ConAgra, Consolidated Grain Monsanto, Kinder Morgan, Archer Daniel Midland (ADM), and others crowd the waterfront, elbowing for river position with petroleum and chemical services, cement, dry goods/wharfing, scrap steel and power generation. River traffic reflects global markets. St. Louis auto shredding is especially busy when the demand for scrap steel increases in China. The granaries run double time when droughts hit India and Africa. Meanwhile America’s appetite for cheap fuel needs water and transportation; river has plenty of both. Coal comes in by train from Wyoming and Montana, and burned into electricity at one of the areas power plants, or loaded onto barges and shipped elsewhere for the same.

The Insider’s Tour of St. Louis: on the River

“Though it is St. Louis's greatest natural resource, and the original reason for the city's existence, the Mississippi River largely remains a hidden world - out of sight and, more often than not, inaccessible to the public.” (Built St. Louis)

That is, inaccessible to the public - except us paddlers! Canoeists, kayakers and paddleboarders: you are now perched on the edge of one of the most fascinating “insider views” of the guts of modern America available anywhere (except for maybe a thousand miles downstream when you reach the port of New Orleans). I should note that peddlers, that is bicycle peddlers, enjoy some of the same view you do. As you come into St. Louis you will be accompanied by a parade of bicyclers, walkers, hikers, fishermen, and homeless people, on top of the muddy right bank descending, the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. This is an amazing paved bike path that mostly runs atop the levees that keep the Mississippi River out of the industrial lowland of north St. Louis. It runs past transfer points, junk yards, ruins, and numerous active industries.

As you paddle below Mosenthein Island and past the lower end of the Chain of Rocks Canal, you are leaving Mike Clark’s “Big Muddy Wild and Scenic River.” But don’t be sad. The Mississippi rewards its paddlers at every turn with new scenery. As you paddle out of the wilderness you are simultaneously entering the best possible view of St. Louis, here presented through its geography, culture and economy -- as viewed from the river. The river is of course the reason for St. Louis, a fact that today’s inhabitants seem to have forgotten. This is not surprising since they almost never experience the river save for a few glimpses speeding across one of the bridges, or in the few stories on the evening news, which are either flood stories, drought stories, or drownings. But you are about to be delighted with a ride better than anything Disney World could dream of. In this one short section of river you will experience the newest bridge on the river followed by the oldest (the Stan Musial followed by the Ead’s Bridge), a thriving hobo’s camp, sea-wall graffiti, giant stormwater pipes, industrial dumps, conveyor belts, gargantuan shovels and cranes, interesting brickwork and metal trusses, and glimpses into some fishermen’s favorite riverside holes. Over the wave of neighborhoods the urban fabric is punctuated with tall church steeples, water towers, downtown buildings, stadiums, warehouses and blocky brick factories and of course the arch. St. Louis wears the Great Arch like a wedding band on the hand of steelworker or shoe maker, the tattered city scenery punctuated with this lonely silvery smooth elaboration and wonder of architecture.

The mighty river still fascinates. Even after a century of engineering, it remains an untamed force. Flabbergasting volumes of barge traffic ply the river, carrying bulk cargos in both directions. Strange worlds of industry reveal themselves when one looks close. Because of the seasonal fluctuations in river depth, any built structure at the riverfront must be able to float, or withstand being inundated. It also must be anchored firmly, able to rise and fall with the water, and still be safely accessible at all water levels. It also has to be tough enough to not be destroyed if it gets hit by a runaway barge, or breaks away itself and hits a bridge pier, a boat, or the shore. On top of the physical difficulties, the financial incentives for building on the river don't seem that great. The Mississippi is not some sylvan backwater, nor does it flow through spectacular canyons or rock formations. It is a heavily industrialized working river, jam packed with huge barge tows and lined with processing plants and transfer points. The river today is a superhighway of industry. Where it hasn't been built up, its banks are by and large left to nature. Much of the ground is floodplain, and simply isn't suitable for construction. Thus, there are forests and wetlands directly across the river from downtown St. Louis. (Built St. Louis).

Get your first views of the Arch from the Hwy 66 Bridge. I like watching the play of light and changing angles of the Arch as you approach downtown St. Lou. At the bottom of Mosenthein Island you are looking from behind the Arch, at an oblique angle, as someone would standing north of the old capitol building. In winter mornings it appears silhouetted, but in summer evenings it shines silvery against the haze. As you paddle down past the Chain of Rocks the angle steepens and as the ends of the Arch tighten together, and then become one, and then open up again in the opposite angle as you now float under all of the various bridges and then under the Eads bridge. Here the perfect symmetry is achieved. The very best view is from the water, and the further eastward towards the Illinois side of the river you go, the better it gets, partly due to the fact that you see more reflection, with the rest of St. Louis rising behind.

As you paddle past the Budweiser Brewery, or make landing on Arsenal Island, the sides tighten together and then become one. You get your last view if you look upstream as you paddle past the Bellerive bluffs near the River des Pere, and then you are once again looking from behind the Arch, this time back towards the bulging bend of the river you just paddled through upstream.