Mile 446.5 - Paw Paw Chute
LBD 446.5 Paw Paw Chute
Paw Paw Chute provides a spectacular tour of the primeval Delta bottomlands found just over the big trees lining the main channel of the river. It could also provide an alternate route for downstream paddlers headed to Vicksburg. Recommended water level for this: 20VG or higher. But be forewarned: regardless of water level you might be doing some bushwhacking along the way! Also, be ready for portages, falling spiders, flying spiders, giant golden orb spiders, snakes in the trees, snakes on piles of driftwood, swimming snakes, getting lost, getting found, getting stuck in the mud, reaching dead ends, and other fun and exciting challenges along the way. A GPS might be helpful, but a knife and good sense and dead reckoning will be your best allies. If you are the kind that gets easily lost or confused in the deep woods, don’t enter. See below for a detailed description from big river expert and biologist extraordinnaire Paul Hartfield, in what he calls his “Heart of Darkness” Tour:
The “Heart of Darkness” Tour:
First, a note on flows: When the Mississippi River is rising, currents may be strong running up Paw Paw and through the Old Yazoo to the “New” Yazoo. This current will
reverse when the Mississippi is falling and the Yazoo is high. Be sure to note the direction of flow, since flow will be your primary guide through the old channels and backswamps.
Only a few hundred yards across at top bank, it’s hard to envision Paw Paw Chute as the once big & wide old channel of the Mississippi River. And it’s also hard to recognize that Paw Paw Chute is the gateway to miles and miles of back channel and back swamp adventure! After leaving the main channel the first two miles of the chute is a narrow entrenched channel gently curving to the northeast. It is easily accessed at river stages above ten feet on the Vicksburg Gauge. Below 10VG some dragging will be required to get around old logs embedded in the channel bottom. At about the two-mile point, the channel widens and deepens. To the north is a narrow channel between the willows (less than thirty feet wide) This is the old river bend channel (look close!). At the lower stages this is impassable without portaging through thick mud (three feet or more deep!) for up to a half-mile. The large channel to the East is actually an old mouth of the Yazoo River which, as we will see, leads to a series of backswamps and old river channels, and eventually to the Yazoo and its modern course to Vicksburg and back to the Mississippi.
Around Paw Paw to Forest Home Chute
Above the Old Mouth of the Yazoo Paw Paw is usually canoeable or kayakable at river stages at 10VG and above (but best explored at 20VG or higher). Near or below this stage, the lower half mile is about 50 feet wide, widening out to about 200 ft, bordered by a high bottomland forested natural levee to the East, and a wide desiccated swamp to the west. At moderate stages, it is an easy low current paddle “upstream”. About one and a half miles above the old Yazoo, you’ll come to a private roadbed across the channel that is exposed and will require a few yard portage at river stages below 20 VG. Above that and you can easily paddle across. The road forms a dam, making the channel above wide open and navigable for some distance at all river stages. About one and a half miles above the road there is a Y in the channel. Paw Paw Chute is the left (southwest) branch, and continues another one to two miles, depending on stage, while the channel to your right is Forest Home Chute, another old river channel. Forest Home continues another four to five miles (depending on stage), with two more road portages at low river.
Wild sights you will enjoy exploring Paw Paw: large willows in the low areas, and mature bottomland hardwoods on higher elevations; this is a birdwatcher’s paradise. A pair of eagles have nested in Forest Home for the past decade; their nest is not visible from the water, but you might see them flying over. The extreme upstream portion of Forest Home narrows considerably, with a leafy canopy overhead. Beaver, mink, muskrat, and otter are common aquatic mammals, and deer are abundant! Bear have also been sighted. This is a wild area with the tropical feel of an Amazon tributary! Also watch for alligators. The past several State Record alligators (>500 lbs) were taken near here, along with a 13 ft, >700 pounder now on display at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. But don’t worry too much…leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone.
They didn’t get this big by being aggressive or making themselves apparent! There are numerous back swamps and several small lakes accessible at higher river stages, and both Forest Home and Paw Paw connect to the river at their upper ends during the highest flood stages (not generally recommended). Camping note: This is all private land, without sandbars…plan on a full day exploration, so you’ll have enough time to return to the river to camp.
Paw Paw to Vicksburg via the Yazoo
OK, back to the Old Yazoo, which provides another route to Vicksburg (~13 miles) when passable. From its confluence with Paw Paw, the Old Yazoo runs due west ½ mile to a wall of trees, where it makes a 90 degree sharp bend to the North. This area is locally known as the Graveyard. When the Mississippi River rises and the Yazoo is low, the Mississippi flows into Paw Paw and through the Old Yazoo, piling river flotsam and jetsam into the Graveyard. Due to the isolation of the river to cities and towns of the Mississippi alluvial plain by levees, this consists primarily of logs (whole trees, actually) along with red and green channel markers. This and two other channel constrictions further along are (well, should be) easily passed at river stages >20 ft VG. From the Graveyard, as stated above, the channel turns abruptly to the North running straight for about 1.5 miles. At this point, it divides into 3 channels; the middle channel will take you straight into a large oxbow, while the other two get there eventually, but you’ll have to deal with trees, strainers, diminishing currents, and other backswamp obstacles. The oxbow seems to end in a wall of willows and a large log jam after about 1.5 miles of lentic paddling, but don’t be dismayed! If you look through the trees, you can see a body of water: the present day Yazoo River, with the Vicksburg Riverfront about 8 miles downstream. I have always managed to find a way through here (knock on wood), but there will be many twists and turns to reach the Yazoo…don’t worry about getting lost here…you’ll only be about 100 yards from the river, and you can see it.
Sights: See Paw Paw and Forest Home above. Also, acres of backswamps to explore if you have the time, and Lake Centennial (channel during the Civil War…small opening along the right bank as you approach the bluffs). Added bonus: an intimidating view of Gibraltar of the Mississippi River, as Grant and his army saw it from the river!
Steele Bayou Control Structure
Side trip: Once you hit the “new” Yazoo, a 1.5 mile paddle upstream will bring you to the mouth of Steele Bayou. Just upstream is the Steele Bayou backwater drainage structure. When water is being released through this structure, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of gar (spotted, long-nose, alligator) school in the currents…quite a sight to see!
What are Paw Paws?
Asimina Triloba (paw paw) is the largest edible fruit Native to the United States. It is frequently found growing along rivers and streams in 26 Eastern states (from North
Florida to Ontario Canada, from the Atlantic to Nebraska). Look for the fruit late in the summer. The trees grow in the mature woods of the bottomland hardwood forests, rarely gaining more than thirty feet in height. If you think they’re ready, shake the tree. The ripe fruit will be soft, but not mushy. Eat this heavenly fruit soon, but don’t eat the sickness inducing seeds and flesh. Paw paws taste something like a mango, or a mango meets an apricot, or a mango/peach/banana, or -- well who knows… everyone says something different. They taste like a paw paw! The paw paw will not keep for more than a day or two. And yes, they do grow on Paw Paw Island! In fact they grow in favorable locations anywhere along the Lower Miss. Once you know what to look for, and once you’ve tasted their succulent orange meat you be hunting for them every time you make landing. Lastly, they are nutritious. Following the lead of their native guides, the Lewis & Clark Expedition survived four days on nothing more than paw paws and a biscuit a day.
Note: Paw Paw information gleaned from 2013 Paw Paw Expedition with Andy Moore. Andrew Moore has been working on the pawpaw book for the past year-and-a-half, but has been a fervent pawpaw enthusiast for the past three. Learn more about Andy and the forthcoming book on Paw Paws at his blogsite: www.thepawpawbook.wordpress.com
Canoes, Kayaks and Stand-Up-Paddleboards can stay main channel for the fastest water through the last two big bends of the river coming into Vicksburg, or if the river is flowing above 25VG paddle behind Sparta. Adventuresome paddlers can explore Paw Paw Chute and the old channels of the Yazoo, and if the water is high enough cut through the last of the Lower Delta Wilderness for a back door entry via the Yazoo River into Vicksburg (recommended above 25VG).
Main Channel
Paddle out of Milliken Bend mid channel and cross over LBD to the left bank descending side into Marshall Cut-Off through to Brown's Point. If there is no tow traffic go mid channel around Brown's Point and cross over RBD right bank along Delta Point, cross again to left bank LBD for final approach to the mouth of the Yazoo River and Vicksburg.
Sparta Island Back Channel RBD 449-445
If the water is above 25 Vicksburg Gauge you can stay right bank and cut behind Sparta Island to re-enter the river three miles downstream near Brown’s Point.
Paw Paw Chute
For the adventurous only! Paw Paw Chute opens around 10VG but best explored when the river is 20VG or higher. Enter opening LBD 446.5 and follow gentle bend five miles upstream as far as you feel like going. Starts out northeasterly, becoming northerly, then northwesterly, finally westerly.
Forest Home Chute
Forest Home Chute is another old river channel. Forest Home continues another four to five miles (depending on stage), with two more road portages at low river.
The “Heart of Darkness” Tour
From its confluence with Paw Paw, the Old Yazoo runs due west ½ mile to a wall of trees, where it makes a 90 degree sharp bend to the North. This area is locally known as the Graveyard. When the Mississippi River rises and the Yazoo is low, the Mississippi flows into Paw Paw and through the Old Yazoo, piling river flotsam and jetsam into the Graveyard. Due to the isolation of the river to cities and towns of the Mississippi alluvial plain by levees, this consists primarily of logs (whole trees, actually) along with red and green channel markers. This and two other channel constrictions further along are (well, should be) easily passed at river stages >20 ft VG. From the Graveyard, as stated above, the channel turns abruptly to the North running straight for about 1.5 mi. At this point, it divides into 3 channels; the middle channel will take you straight into a large oxbow, while the other two get there eventually, but you’ll have to deal with trees, strainers, diminishing currents, and other backswamp obstacles. The oxbow seems to end in a wall of willows and a large log jam after about 1.5 miles of lentic paddling, but don’t be dismayed! If you look through the trees, you can see a body of water: the present day Yazoo River, with the Vicksburg Riverfront about 8 miles downstream.
Usptream the Yazoo to Steele Bayou
1.5 mi paddle upstream will bring you to the mouth of Steele Bayou. Just upstream is the Steele Bayou backwater drainage structure. When water is being released through this structure, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of gar (spotted, long-nose, alligator) school in the currents…quite a sight to see!
Downstream the Yazoo to Vicksburg
After leaving the Old Yazoo follow the New Yazoo a little over eight miles downstream to the Gibraltar of the South, Vicksburg.
LBD 437.7 Mouth of the Yazoo River
Red channel marker LBD 437.3 It's best to cut the corner tight when entering the Yazoo. Watch for Towboats. Paddle approximately one and a half miles up the Yazoo to reach the public boat launch at the foot of Clay Street.
Warning: Turn left for Vicksburg!
There is no public access on the main channel of the river below here. You must enter the Yazoo to reach downtown. Paddler’s intending to meet their shuttles or resupply in Vicksburg will need to turn left!
Vicksburg Boat Ramp
The Vicksburg Boat Ramp is located behind the sea wall across from Catfish Row Art Park. Shuttle drivers can come down Clay Street and enter at the break in the sea wall with all the beautiful murals.