Mile 416.5 - LBD “Big Momma” Dike

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

416.5 LBD “Big Momma” Dike

As you get propelled westward past Karnac, Island No. 110, Canon Point, Togo Landing, and on around Big Black Island canoeists and kayakers will paddle past a series of three dikes known appropriately as the Togo Island Dikes. The topmost of these (LBD near mile 416.5) is known by locals as “Big Momma” and has a notorious reputation as a dangerous dike that will flip a canoe or rip out your outboard motor (in medium water). Crazy big piles of driftwood wash up here into the eddies, and then get hung up on the banks and the dikes as the river drops. Of course, like all things concerning the Mississippi, it all depends on river level. Big Momma exposes her rocky fangs only at low and medium waters. At low water her main hazard is a strong eddy below the outer tip of the dike, which cuts through the water like Grendel’s tooth. At medium water she is especially fearsome as the currents getting squished past Canon Point get thrown into her waiting teeth and her insatiable appetite shows it greatest ferociousness with convulsions of water and barely hidden rocky fangs. At high water Big Mama’s teeth disappear in the flood but makes herself known with periodic explosions of water in the form of boils and turbulence. You can find good all weather camping around Big Momma left bank descending.

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