Mile 661.6 - Helena Bridge (Hernando DeSoto Bridge -- US Hwy 49)

661.6 Helena Bridge (Hernando DeSoto Bridge -- US Hwy 49)

Paddlers: aim for whichever bridge opening is not occupied by towboat traffic and stay away from the pylons. The parent's mantra Look both ways before crossing applies here! Downstream Tows might be descending from behind Buck Island still hidden from your view. Monitor channel 13 on your VHF Marine radio. If in doubt announce yourself and ask any pilot in the area for recommendations. In general the left-most opening LBD is the least-used, hence safest opening, but it's a long paddle from the Harbor opening. The fastest water flows through the right-hand opening RBD. This is also the most traffic-prone opening due to the many industrial docking facilities, fleeting, towboat and support boat activity found along the Arkansas shore RBD.

Floating underneath a bridge is one of the most sensational of Mississippi River experiences. For the paddler on the wide open Mississippi River it's difficult to get a sense of motion, speed, and the river current. Sometimes it feels like you are sitting in a lake not a river, even though you are indeed floating within the throes of the biggest and most powerful river in North America! That is until you pass underneath a bridge. As you scoot downstream the water piles up high against the bridge pylons and then swirls around the backside with violent convulsions and contortions of water, and you will enjoy the distinct sensation of river motion as the bridge abutments mysteriously slide by and the geometric trusswork and solid concrete road bed swing overhead with surprising speed, the higher the water the faster the speed. At high water this experience can be slightly disconcerting so fast the bridge slides by with sickening sucking sounds and explosions of agitated water. If you entertained any previous doubt about the power of the big river it will now be forever dashed away!

[Insert: Helena Bridge Highwater Video]

Note: the bridge pylon is a very dangerous place for any paddler, regardless of river level. Keep at least twenty-boat lengths away from it (~100 yards), and never try to enter the eddying waters below. Passing towboats will make any already agitated places like the waters surrounding a bridge pylon to react even more violently. Do not underestimate the power of water against piers or pylons! My first journey down the Mississippi River ended in disaster at the foot of some huge concrete pylons similar to those found below the Helena Bridge. After a 5 month journey from Minnesota's North Woods in 1982/83 my best friend and I wrecked our 12 x 24 foot raft on a pylon supporting a TVA Powerline crossing below Memphis. The snarling water wrapped our invincible raft around the base of the tower and snapped it like a potato chip. It was February and we weren't in wetsuits. I shouldn't even be alive now to tell this story.

This is the only bridge in between Memphis and Greenville, over 200 miles of river. And such is the nature of the Lower Mississippi, and what makes this water trail such an attractive adventure for wilderness paddlers. The wildness of the Lower Mississippi River is reflected by the fact that there are so few crossings.