Mile 732.0 - Hole in the Wall #2

LBD 732 Hole in the Wall #2

As you’re paddling downstream look for a gaping opening in the rip-rap LBD which you can paddle through if you so desire. As you approach you will notice that the natural bankside of trees and mud retreats ever further behind an unnatural wall of rip-rap. (At low water the effect is most strongly felt). The river here is trying to eat the left bank, and our engineers are doing their best to keep it from doing so. During the Great Flood of 2011 the main channel tried to carve a new channel through the center of President's Island. If it had been successful it could have destroyed McKellar Lake and the Memphis Industrial Harbor. As of the summer of 2013 a fleet of Army Corps mega-cranes have been busily trying to recreate the lost bank with Limestone rip rap. As result a King-Kong sized blue hole backwater has been created behind a Great Wall of China sized bank of rip rap. You can paddle into this unique feature as you descend the Mississippi along the left bank. They left a giant notch partway down. When you see the opening in the rip-rap dive in. Great place to get out of the wind, or make a quick exit from an approaching squall line or field of choppy towboat waves. Not a true blue hole, the water is nevertheless clearer than the main channel which sometimes provides glimpses of fish, turtles and other creatures not normally seen elsewhere on the river.