Mile 194.2 - LBD Chain of Rocks Canal (Entrance)

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 2 min read

194.2 LBD Chain of Rocks Canal (Entrance)

After passing the confluence and opposite Maple Island on the left bank descending you might notice a giant US Army Corps sign with an huge red arrow pointing left sign with the stern warning:

CANAL:

ALL BOATS

ENTER HERE

You have reached the legendary fork in the roads of the Mississippi River Trail. All paddlers must make a choice: to take the Canal or the Chain of Rocks. Please know that any paddler can take the free-flowing waters of the Chain at any water level and make the short portage if necessary (if the river is below 16SLG). But keep reading, you won’t have to portage if certain conditions are met. If you are an expert paddler who can handle Class III waves and some hydraulics including boils, eddies and whirlpools, and it’s at least medium water (above 16SLG), the choice is easy: take the Chain! As stated above, if you are moderate paddler, you can still take the free-flowing Chain route, and portage. You will have plenty time to make a calculated approach to the take-out point and portage over. If its med-high water or higher (above 20 on the St Louis Gage SLG), the choice is easy: take the Chain! Unless you just want to torture yourself with a nine-mile slog sharing a boring rip-rap canal with diesel belching tows and ornery pilots and facetious crewmen, it would be senseless not to go with the free-flowing waters and enjoy the only tow-boat free stretch of river on the entire length of the Mississippi. Anyone can safely paddle the Chain in higher water levels. However if it’s below these levels, the choices get more complicated. Keep reading below why, and how to make the best choice (and when to call in the experts for assistance or guidance).

When I first came down the river in the fall of 1982 my raft-mate and I were misled by the the bad advice of well-intentioned people that we would die if we ignored the entrance to the Canal and went over the chain. The river that fall was high and we could have slipped over the chain easily and without any danger. In fact, as high as it was (around 35 SLG) we wouldn’t have even noticed the Chain as we passed over it. But we followed the bad advice given us upstream and entered the canal. Our raft was very slow to move. The long sweep oars proved ineffectual in the canal. We ended up dragging it manually by ropes down the boring mind numbing nine-mile length of the canal. It required 2 days of hard labor. 2 days of cordelling a raft slipping and tripping over the rip-rap of the hellish Canal made us made as hornets. When we finally got to the lock it was dark so we tied up to the rip rap lining the steep walls and fell into an uneasy slumber. Sometime during the night a tow flushed out the edges of the canal as it powered out of the lock chamber making the water level drop several feet. One edge of our raft was caught on the rip-rap and as the water dropped the whole raft tilted at an angle and we both slid into the cold water along with all of our loose gear on the raft, much of which we lost into the oily backwater. The memory still disgusts me. This was the first and last time I will ever go down this canal, or any canal if I can help it. When it comes to deciding between the Chain Canal or the Chain of Rocks make your own choice of course. But personally I would much rather make one short portage than paddle nine miles of flat water with a required lock passage.

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