Mile 576.0 - Miles 576-572: Caulk Neck Cut-Off

576-572 Caulk Neck Cut-Off

During the Great Flood of 2011 the entire Mississippi River violently whisked around Caulk Neck Cut-Off and was concentrated into a mess of swiftly sliding boils and extreme river eruptions past Catfish Point and into Cypress Bend. Writer Hodding Carter and I ran the river from Memphis to Vicksburg as it was cresting in mid May with photographer Christopher LaMarca for Outside Magazine. At Caulk Neck Cut-Off we encountered the fastest moving water of the whole expedition. We didn't have GPS but I had glanced at my watch as we floated past the mouth of the Arkansas at mile 580. It was 2:05pm. 40 minutes later we found ourselves rounding Cypress Bend near mile 570. We had run ten miles in forty minutes! The speed made me dizzy and ill at ease. Everything was moving too fast, too uncontrollably. Never had I ever moved so fast on any river, not to mention the biggest river in North America flooding everything in its valley from levee over to levee. Imagine the alarm you would feel driving down a highway you know intimately at four times normal speed, say at 240 miles an hour! 40 minutes later found us adjacent Mounds Crevasse near mile 560. The river seemed to relax a little bit after Choctaw, slowing down to 10 mph (which is still 2-3 times normal water speed in this area!).

Exclusive Catfish Point Hunting Club resort with mansion sized camps and private airstrip are found along the outside of this bend. The most expedient route around Caulk Neck Cut-Off is floating left bank along the scattering of hunting camp mansions and follow the strong flow of water into Cypress Bend. You will float past the intriguing mouth of Lake Whittington, then a private boat launch, then a private airstrip, and several miles of mansions. If you haven't smelled it or seen it from afar the startling silhouette of the Potlatch Company's pulp mill complex is visible standing over the woods far downstream (RBD 571). You won't want to camp anywhere in this vicinity, especially when the wind is blowing in your direction, for the offensive aroma of rotten eggs (dioxins) common to pulp mills, as well as disconcerting thumping and shredding sounds. When the wind is blowing right I swear I can detect this rotten egg aroma in Clarksdale, 45 miles northeast! This is an unfortunate location because the nearby Catfish Point Bar, found inside Cypress Bend, is one of the larger islands on the Lower Mississippi. The good news is that there is even better camping another ten miles downstream on publicly-owned Choctaw Island.