Mile 200.0 - Miles 200-195: LBD Alton/Wood River Industrial Reach

200 - 195 LBD Alton/Wood River Industrial Reach

This five mile stretch of river is an ungrateful way to say goodbye to the Upper Mississippi. But it’s an accurate precursor of what’s to come downstream in and around the St. Louis Harbor, and then recapitulated big time another thousand miles downstream in the Greater Port of New Orleans which starts below Baton Rouge and runs over 200 miles to Venice.

Paddlers stay alert: your best line of travel through this busy stretch is to stay near Maple Island right bank descending. Stay in close enough to avoid the big tows and heavy industry LBD along the Illinois shore but stay out far enough to get some flow, and to avoid the fleeting of barges against Maple Island. The action includes Illinois Power Plant, Koch Nitrogen, the Amoco Refinery, Marathon Refinery, Valero Refinery and Conoco Phillips Refinery. 15 petroleum pipelines dive under the river here to feed this frenzy of refineries. The Amoco installation was once the largest refinery in the world.

If the water is medium high (above 7 Mel Price Gage) your best route would be to dive behind Maple Island wherever you can find an opening and follow its muddy back channels through this section. Not only would you avoid all river traffic, but you would also enjoy the last experience of an Upper Mississippi slough and all of its wildlife. Once below Maple Island the Big Muddy Missouri slams in from the West, and the Upper Mississippi becomes the Middle Miss.

Big Muddy Mike: “Along the main channel side of Maple Island, you are forced to paddle opposite the first heavy industrial reach of the Middle Mississippi. The Conoco Phillips refinery sits midway down the reach from the dam to the Confluence, and there are often fleeted barges and tow boats parked along the island as they wait their turn to lock through on their way upstream. The navigation channel runs along the river left descending and is typically pretty busy, but the flow is fairly consistent all the way across to the island. Just one mile down this reach, Wood River empties in from the Illinois side, river left descending. It was on this small tributary that Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery built their first winter camp in 1803, of their three year expedition, Camp DuBois. A replica of this camp was built in 2001 and is located in a barrow pond just over the levee. Yearly rendezvous events are held there.”

“The Middle Mississippi River is narrow in width in its modern form compared to the pools above the lock and dam. The wing dikes assist in creating a challenging dance between paddler and commercial navigation. But here, in its first free flowing form, this challenge only lasts for six miles, to the Great Confluence, and the opening to the Chain of Rocks Canal, where a sign greets all boaters, “All Boats Must Go Here”, pointing down the canal. Of course, paddlers rarely follow that command, and rightly so. The reach from the Confluence to the Arch includes the only 11 non-commercially navigable waters of the entire River between Minneapolis / St. Paul and the Gulf. Two pristine islands punctuate this reach, Duck Island and Mosenthien Island. And its very reason for being non-commercially navigable sits just a bit more than midway down, the Chain of Rocks low water dam. This is the Big Muddy Wild and Scenic reach in the heart of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

“At Mile198, the last of the braided pieces of Maple Island give way to a wide open expanse in which the Great Confluence exists at Mile196. On the Missouri side, the Ted Jones State Park exists with its signature promontory point at the Confluence. This is a great place to stop and enjoy the views of the muddy waters of the Missouri River, fast flowing into its handshake with the tannin rich Mississippi River waters. A line of differentiation, marked by the distinctly colored waters is noticeable and remains so downstream for another six miles to the Chain of Rocks.” (Big Muddy Mike)

Also, after passing the confluence (adjacent to Maple Island) 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).