Mile 57.0 - Interstate 57 Bridge
7.5 Interstate 57 Bridge
Vertical Clearance: 107.3 feet minus Cairo Gage. As with all bridges, avoid getting too close to pylons supporting the bridge structure. Water pushes strongly against pylons on top end, and turbulent waters swirl below.
5 - 1.8 LBD Angelo Towhead
Angelo Towhead is the last island on the Middle Miss, and makes for excellent picnicking or camping, and at certain water levels its back channel is a whitewater roller coaster. Angelo is a god all-season, all level camp island, but sometimes it’s difficult to access the top end because of a wrap-around rock dike. Cairo, Illinois, is not far over the Angelo Chute, in fact the edge of town is just about a mile away. But you could be in Outer Mongolia so remote and wild this island feels! Typical to muddy river towheads and islands, best camping is usually found top end and around the outside belly, low and medium water, and top end only in high water. The dikes have been notched, and there is a private sandbar below the 2nd dike at low and medium water levels that would make for an idyllic last camp on the Middle Miss, away from the tows and other traffic.
5 - 1.8 LBD Angelo Chute
WARNNG: 3-foot drop over rock dike at 24CGG. Very fast and very turbulent opening LBD along mainland bank. As you leave the main channel you will be confronted with a wall of rock the size of the Great Wall of China (t seems like) that completely occludes Anglo Chute, except for a narrow notch found tight against the Illinois shore, LBD at mile 5.3. This route is open at 20CGG through dangerous clefts in rock wall. Best done 28CGG or higher. In medium water the currents can be ferocious diving through this notch and into the narrow channel below, with high muddy banks to your left. Enjoy the ride and look for good landings bank right to stop and stretch your legs or set up camp. A smaller tertiary channel is found in between Anglo proper and a sliver of island above as the water concentrates into the Chute behind. A middle down the Chute you will encounter a second dike, side to side, but also notched. Look for the tongue of water going through the notch (found towards the right back descending, against Angelo Towhead).
1.3 Cairo Highway Bridge
Last bridge on the Middle Mississippi River! Looking under this bridge you can see the confluence and the end of the Ohio River beyond. The excitement is building: the last mile of the Middle Mississippi River, and the thrill of the biggest river confluence in North America. Enjoy the feeling as you float under the bridge and paddle towards the river’s meeting point, Fort Defiance. Vertical Clearance: 114.2 feet minus Cairo Gage. The Cairo Bridge is anchored in the sand that was carried down by the melting ice cap. No rock here on downstream, unless you call the Loess formation “rock.”
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo, Illinois, is the logical place for paddlers to start or complete their journeys on the big river, but it’s not a particularly beautiful of friendly place to stop, and camping is not easy. Poor Cairo once bustled with the vibrant life of a thriving river town and a very productive economy. You can see it in the amazing architecture of the downtown buildings. The US Custom House for example. But history was not graceful to the metropolis, and much of it is now abandoned, and has the feel of a ghost town. Fortunately you can resupply groceries at the Wonder Market, and find mouth watering BBQ at Shemwell’s Bar-B-Que (both located along Washington Avenue, Hwy 51). The Cairo Public Library is one of the architectural gems of the town, and is located at 1609 Washington Avenue, (618) 734-1840).
Cairo Landings
Your choices for landing The Fort Defiance boat ramp up the Ohio several hundred yards is usable in high water, but at low or medium water it clogs up with mud. Or you could continue up the Ohio and paddle upstream another mile or so to the downtown Cairo ramp, located behind its seawall. But you would have to negotiate fleeted barges, towboats coming and going, barge maneuvering, and worker tows plowing in and out leaving crashing wakes.
Cairo Camping
If you need to overnight in Cairo, your choices are limited. You can camp in the grassy fields at Fort Defiance, but it is a depressing place, and not very friendly nor safe feeling. You could also find refuge in a small protected shelf of sand hidden below the West side of the Cairo Bridge. If you are planning on stopping in Cairo for any length of time, this camp is a doable option for a safe place to camp, stash your gear, and walk across the bridge into town. The only downside is that it’s a long walk, and a narrow bridge with no walkway. But ultimately your best bet would be to plan things so you don’t have to camp here. Plan your last camp at Angelo Towhead above town, or the giant sandbars at Bird’s Point opposite Cairo going downstream (or Island No 1, or Wolf Island further downstream).
0.8 LBD Fort Defiance
The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers confluence around Fort Defiance. It is the southernmost piece of the State of Illinois, and simultaneously the northernmost mile of the Lower Mississippi River. This strategic location has been a military stronghold since the Mississippian era, and figured importantly in the Civil War. At 279 feet above sea level, for downstream paddlers “it’s all downhill from here!”
Say “goodbye” to the Middle Mississippi River with a wave of your paddle. Say “hullo” to the Lower Mississippi River, and enjoy paddling into the biggest confluence comprised of the two biggest rivers in North America! You can pull up to the exact place where the two big rivers meet at Fort Defiance, which is the best place to enjoy the meeting of waters, and take some photos. Climb the tower above you for views upstream the Ohio into the heart of the Cairo industrial reach and harbor (but be sure to tie your vessel securely to shore first, and be wary of the crashing waves that come in from passing tows). The Fort Defiance/Cairo boat ramp is several hundred feet up the Ohio River, but is often socked in by mud. Best access to confluence off the muddy rip-rap at or near the point.
Maybe you’ve followed the muddy water flowing out of the Big Muddy Missouri above St. Louis 195 miles upstream. And maybe you noticed the normally clearer Upper Mississippi turned muddy by the Missouri. The same thing happens here. Reaching Fort Defiance, the land portion of the confluence of the these two great rivers, is like making landing at the Ed Jones Confluence Park several hundred miles upstream at the mouth of the Missouri. The muddy Middle Mississippi turns the (normally) clearer and greenish Ohio River into another muddy river. The mud always wins! Why is this? I don’t know. Another curiosity: The mile marker at the confluence point says 0.8. Shouldn’t it read zero? Well, even though you are at the confluence, mile “0” is actually somewhere out in the middle of the water flowing through this confluence, 8/10ths of mile downstream of the land confluence!
Continuing Downstream from Cairo
When you push off to continue downstream look carefully first for approaching tows and service boats from all three directions. Be especially vigilant of big tows turning themselves around as they come down the Ohio, or coming down the Middle Miss, to make the turn up the other river. Tow pilots get very edgy in these situations, and they should be, powering millions of pounds of goods around a busy confluence and two bridges to negotiate.
Now you can enjoy the incomparable feeling of bliss floating into the meeting of big rivers, here at the confluence of two of the biggest and longest rivers in North America, the Middle Mississippi and the Ohio River. There is an elegance in the experience, which can only be fully enjoyed at river speed. Us paddlers think this is best done in a canoe or kayak, but some people swim into this confluence and swear that swimming is the only way to fully feel the waters. Viewed from the air, Mississippi seems uncertain about the meeting, but the Ohio flows in from the east purposefully with little change of trajectory. The Mississippi curves inwards and outwards around and above Cairo, and then makes one last curve around Angelo Towhead, and then finally surrenders to the implacable Ohio, but does not give up any of its grace or color. Indeed, downstream paddlers will soon see that the Ohio takes on the color and the curving nature of the Middle Miss.
Keep reading below for Rivergator continuation on the Lower Mississippi River.