Paddlers on canoes, kayaks or stand up paddleboards can follow the Yazoo River out of the Mississippi Delta to where it ends at the Loess Bluffs of Vicksburg. Known as the “River of Death” the Yazoo River was once populated by Quapaws, Choctaws, and others, and still is a vital route for commerce and transportation. Today the Yazoo inhabits the Civil War channel of the Mississippi through downtown Vicksburg, and yields the best possible view of the battlefields. The Yazoo drains the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi Hill Country. More blues musicians were born and raised along its banks (and tributaries) than probably any other river in the world!

This 5.1 mile paddle is a very easy day trip for the beginner paddler. It can range from 2 to 4 hours, depending on how much exploring and floating you want to do. The Yazoo River banks are wooded along the route, and the main channel is free of debris and very easy to navigate. Paddlers are likely to encounter wildlife such as beaver, gar, asian carp (jumping fish), turtles and sometimes gators. This area is a paradise for birders and is always flush with waders like herons, egrets, pelicans and many others. During the spring migration the songbirds fill the woods with their beautiful songs. Late in the evening the whitetail deer come out on the top bank looking for food and bear are occasionally spotted. Gar are constantly swimming up to the surface as opportunistic feeders. When you sneak up on them they take-off like a rocket! There is one nice sandbar halfway along the route (near the mouth of the Centennial Lake Chute mile 2.8). This sandbar disappears when the river rises above 20NG. Otherwise there are no other sandbars or attractive places for paddlers to stop until you reach the Vicksburg waterfront.

Custom Google Map

For best understanding and appreciation of King’s Ferry Landing to Vicksburg, use Custom Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/kl2mb for this route.

River Levels:

Water levels on this section of the Yazoo are dependent on the Mississippi (only 7 miles downstream) so it’s best to use the Mississippi River Gage at Vicksburg to determine conditions on the Yazoo. Sometimes the Yazoo has strong flow, but sometimes it is still as a lake, and sometimes it is flowing backwards! (in a strong Mississippi rise).

Go to USGS Gage:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?07289000

Or use the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc/?n=lmrfc-mississippiandohioriverforecast

Low Water is 0-20 on the Vicksburg Gage (NG). Sandbars and mudbars will all be exposed, but no access to any backwater places (like Centennial Lake). The Yazoo will probably have some flow. Medium water is 20-30NG. Only some sand and mud exposed. The Yazoo might be flowing, but it might not be flowing. (Depends on the amount of precipitation upstream and whether the Mississippi is rising or falling). During High water 30-43NG the Yazoo will probably be flatwater. At +30NG, there are almost no places to stop except for the put-ins and take-outs (without paddling through the trees and looking for dry ground). At flood stage (43NG or above) all of the forests will be flooded and the Yazoo will be a stillwater paddle.

Don’t Forget to Pack:

Life jacket, extra paddle, water bottle, snacks, bug spray, sun screen, wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses,1st Aid kit, emergency gear, cell phone (in zip lock bag), rubber barn boots, sponges and bailers, extra rope, extra food and water, fire starter, camera and rain gear. Dress for the weather and pack everything into drybags, plastic tubs or garbage sacks.

Hunting Season

During whitetail deer hunting season (Oct-Jan), there are deer camps on the right bank. Do not venture into the woods during these times. For best protection wear orange cap or vest over your life jacket.

King's Ferry Landing

32.400482, 90.923549

(Latitude: 32°24'2.06N, Longitude: 90°55'25.13W)

The boat ramp/Ferry Landing is in good condition (small rock & dirt) for boat launch, but paddlers will have to time their entry in timing with the King’s Ferry which operates every day from 6am-6pm. Parking okay during these operating hours but don’t leave vehicle overnight.

Directions from Vicksburg: The King's Ferry Landing is located off of Old Highway 61 (Business 61) to Haining Road to Long Lake Road and finally to King’s Point Ferry Road. There is a large metal sign on Haining Road that states “King’s Ferry Landing.” King’s Point Ferry Road has 4 miles of good gravel road (cars without 4-wheel drive will have no problem).

Mile 1.2 Upper Vicksburg Harbor

Watch for industrial and commercial traffic coming in and out of this harbor which includes oil and chemical refineries and Anderson Tully lumber operations. Ergon Refinery dock at mouth of harbor.

Mile 2.8 Centennial Lake Entrance

32.373972, 90.89059

Approx. 2.8 miles downstream from the King’s Ferry Landing, you’ll see the entrance to Centennial Lake on your right. When less than 20NG, the Yazoo River typically has a nice white sandbar here that is exposed; good for camping or a nice break point for a snack and/or relax. If the river is higher than 13NG, it is possible to go into beautiful Centennial Lake through the chute that connects to the Yazoo River. The chute winds 0.8 miles in a narrow channel (30 feet wide low water / 100 feet wide high water) surrounded the trees. It is quiet, full of wildlife and the occasional alligator can be seen here.

Centennial Lake

Centennial Lake is 1.5 miles long and 0.4 miles wide and known for great fishing and calm waters. An occasional Jet Ski or ski boat will come to the lake to play. The state boundary of Louisiana and Mississippi runs right down the middle of the lake. During periods of high water you can cut east through the trees over to DeSoto Lake.

DeSoto Lake Cutoff

32.350174, 90.887597

Secret Cutoff through DeSoto Lake from Centennial Lake to reach downtown. Only possible when the Mississippi River is higher than 33 on the Vicksburg Gage. Approximate route shown on custom google map http://goo.gl/maps/kl2mb. Follow your own intuition and the current state of vegetation and piles of driftwood for actual route.

Vicksburg National Military Park

Fort Hill and the Vicksburg National Military Park are directly downstream and in full view from the Centennial Lake chute confluence. You are 1.2 miles to the Fort Hill cannons as the crow flies, and so you are paddling exactly where Union gunboats would have been nervously steaming through this area in 1863. Paddlers can’t help but imagine the anxiety the ship’s crew felt as cannon balls rained down upon them from the high strategic Vicksburg bluff in the Civil War. Note: The 1861 ironclad U.S.S. Cairo gunboat was found 2 miles above the King’s Ferry Landing during low water, and was moved to the Military Park where an exhibit has been built about it. There are still some 29 sunken boats from the Civil War known to be in the Yazoo River.

Mile 3.7 Fort Hill Bend

The Yazoo River takes a 90 degree right turn at the base of Fort Hill as it slams into the Loess bluffs of Vicksburg. Left bank opening is the entrance to the Vicksburg Harbor which is full of industries, tows and barges. You should keep a careful eye out for towboats, workboats and crewboats from here to the takeout.

Mile 4.5 Downtown Vicksburg

The city of Vicksburg rises out of the trees bank left in the last 400 yards of the route. The Old (Train) Depot Museum is first to make appearance, and is one of the few buildings here that is not protected by the flood walls. High up the bluff, you’ll see the 1859 Old Courthouse Museum with its clock tower visible like a lighthouse.

Mile 5.1 The Vicksburg City Front Boat Ramp

32.350836, 90.885032

(Latitude: 32°21'2.97N, Longitude: 90°53'6.15W)

Left bank descending. Concrete boat ramp and in good condition. Often used by fishing boats and workboats. But plenty of space for paddlers who can take out anywhere along the cobblestones or the mud below. There is plenty of parking on the concrete slabs and the Vicksburg Police Department patrols through here regularly. There are steel chain links embedded in the parking area concrete slabs, which allow big boats to anchor via steel cables. These also allow canoeists and kayakers to lock up boats in the parking lot without fear of theft -- if you wanted to leave it alone while you retrieve your vehicle or go sightseeing past the flood walls. The flood walls on the side that face the city have beautiful murals painted on it.

After a long hot day of paddling, go across the street from the boat ramp to the Catfish Row Water Park and rinse off in the water fountains. …A refreshing ending to a great day!

Centennial Lake Roundtrip

This is a 5 to 7 mile paddle, easy for beginners and takes 2-4 hours to complete. One of the best features about this paddle trail is the Put-In and Take-Out is the same location, where you parked at the Vicksburg City Front Boat Ramp! This route is only possible if the river is above 33 feet on the Vicksburg Gage. After leaving the boat ramp, paddle directly across the Yazoo and downstream approx. 500 feet. There will be a small opening on the right in the woods. 32.350174, 90.887597. On Google Earth (Image date: 10-28-2012), the shortcut (dirt path) is easy to see in this low water picture. This shortcut will take you to DeSoto Lake. In less than 5 minutes, you can leave the city and be surrounded by nature. Paddle to the far Southwest corner of DeSoto Lake and you’ll find the shortcut to Centennial Lake. Paddle 1 mile to the Northeast corner of Centennial lake and you’ll come to the chute that connects the lake to the Yazoo River. 0.8 mile long chute winds down a narrow channel (30 feet wide low water / 100 feet wide high water) through the trees. It is quiet, full of wildlife and the occasional alligator can be seen here. When you get to the Yazoo take a right and return downstream 2.2 miles back to where you started at the Vicksburg City Front Boat Ramp.

Rivergator Appendix III

Habitat Restoration on the Lower Miss

Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee partners have identified more than 200 projects to restore aquatic habitat and provide greater public access to the river. Water flows have been restored to nearly 40 miles of side channel habitat. More projects are planned based on how they improve habitat quality and whether they are cost-effective. The LMRCC, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other partners are monitoring habitat changes at restoration sites.

Pallid Sturgeon: Studies in the last decade have confirmed that the Pallid Sturgeon, an endangered species, occurs throughout the Lower Mississippi River. Restoration of side channels, among other actions, is improving habitat for young sturgeon to survive. Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

are continuing to study sturgeon populations to learn more about the habitats they need and how they may benefit from restoration projects.

Fat Pocketbook Mussel: This species, also endangered, was first reported from Mississippi River channel habitats in 2003. Recent studies indicate that the mussels are associated with secondary channels where water flows are maintained by dike notches.

Interior Least Tern: The bulk of the world’s population of endangered Interior Least Terns occurs along the Lower Mississippi River. The Fish and Wildlife Service states construction of notches in Lower Mississippi River navigation dikes enhances Least Tern breeding habitats by limiting the ability of terrestrial predators to reach nesting colonies.

Rivergator Appendix IV

Monmouth steamboat disaster

BY DANIEL BETHENCOURT|

Nov. 17, 2014

BR researcher explores Monmouth steamboat disaster

The facts behind the disaster that struck on the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge in 1837, when hundreds of Native Americans lost their lives in a horrific steamboat crash, have long been shrouded in the mists of time.

Among details that are known: The Monmouth steamboat was heading up the Mississippi River just north of Baton Rouge on a pitch-dark night in October when it crashed into another boat coming the opposite direction where the river splits at Profit Island. The Monmouth was overloaded with hundreds of Native Americans being forcibly removed to Western prairies, and more than 300 of them drowned when they were hurled into the cold, dark waters as the boat broke apart.

Yvonne Lewis Day, who is vice president and program coordinator of the Baton Rouge Genealogical and Historical Society, told members of that group on Saturday she’s pieced together various accounts of the suspicious crash and concluded that several factors came into play in the disaster.

As it turns out, she said, not only were the weather conditions terrible and the boat overloaded — the Monmouth’s crew may have been intoxicated from tapping into whiskey barrels sitting at the back of the boat.

If true, the steamboat’s reckless operation led to hundreds of deaths of Native Americans who had already been forced to migrate across the continent as part of the Trail of Tears.

The collision ripped the steamboat in two, and by the time it completely sank, at least 300 of the roughly 700 on board were dead — almost all of them Native Americans, Day said. Most of their bodies had washed ashore hundreds of yards away near Port Allen, only to be buried in mass graves that remain unmarked.

Day presented her conclusions at the group’s meeting in the Bluebonnet branch of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library. Throughout her talk, Day made clear that the notion of Native Americans simply being ordered to wander in isolation across several states is misguided — they were led by force, in what she called a “very well-organized military operation.”

But the vessel’s disastrous sinking on the Mississippi is a mysterious chapter in that operation.

“The Monmouth was not just a vessel with 700 Indians on it,” Day said. “It was part of a much larger situation that had national implications. It was not just a little vessel out there.”

While the accounts of what actually happened on Oct. 31, 1837, vary dramatically, what is clear is that the Monmouth left a port near New Orleans bound for Arkansas, where the boat’s captain intended to deposit the hundreds of Native Americans who would then be forced to make their way west to Oklahoma.

But the journey proved complicated, since it took place in stormy weather and near-total darkness. The night was so pitch-black in part because Baton Rouge did not even have streetlights when the Monmouth passed by the city. The only light that passengers might have seen would have come from a candle still lighted in a window, Day said.

In those conditions, the Monmouth reached an especially dangerous part of the river — the stretch with present-day Profit Island north of Baton Rouge that briefly splits the river in two.

For reasons that aren’t clear, the Monmouth started to veer left around the island, even though the boat should have stayed right, as is customary for travelers on a roadway. Suddenly it found itself in the path of another oncoming steamboat, the Warren, which was towing another boat called the Trenton.

With only a moment’s notice, the two vessels smashed into each other. The survivors, for the most part, happened to be clinging to the front portion of the boat, which remained afloat. The rest of the boat sank, and the people on board were doomed by the cold and powerful current.

No law enforcement group ever gave an official account.

But Day found that the crew may well have been drunk when the accident took place. They had spent the day they shipped out drinking heavily from whiskey barrels at the back of the boat that were on board to be sold in Oklahoma. That’s according to the accounts of Native Americans who survived the wreck and later demanded reparations from the government.

“That opens up the possibility that the boat was on such an erratic course not only because of the wind and the water, but the mismanagement of the crew,” Day said.

The accident was not in itself surprising given the early stages of the steamboat industry. The boats were totally unregulated as well as dangerous. There weren’t even laws requiring steamboats to have lights when they were traveling.

The accident lives on in oral histories of the Creek tribe, but as far as Day could tell, there have been no efforts to memorialize or even note the location of where exactly the bodies would have been buried. She said that could be a possibility for future research.

“History is never as simple as we think it is,” Day said. “I was concerned about setting history straight.”

Rivergator Appendix V

Layne’s Log

Facebook Journal kept by expedition member Layne Logue

Dec 6-16, 2014

Day 1 = 11 miles. Total paddled = 11 miles Remaining = 199 miles Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 6 10 people and two canoes left the Vicksburg Riverfront boat ramp around 2pm. The rain held off and the wind was at our back. We made campsite at mile marker 428 on the right bank descending tucked into a cove that is protecting us from the north wind. Adam Elliott was grand chef tonight and it was whitetail deer chili with cornbread pancakes. And banana nut bread for dessert. Good way to start...

Day 2 = 20 miles. Total paddled = 32 miles Remaining = 179 miles Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (207 miles) Dec 7 Last night at our campsite (mi marker 426 almost across from LeTourneau boat ramp)... I used my Sierra Madre Research Hammock tent (nube, pares and winter barrier). This was my first time sleeping in a hammock. And it was really good! The day started out very cloudy and a little wind... But the temp was not too cold. After breakfast (bacon, eggs, cantaloupe), we shipped off and landed a mile downstream at the Palmyra chute (north entrance and a big sandbar). Walked around for 30 min then left. The sun started started poking out at noon... and we all were glad to see the blue skies open up. Had lunch pretty close to the Palmyra chute (south exit). Tom had a small campfire going in no time and although we weren't cold... It was nice to have that for lunch. The Corps of Engineers Quarter House boat and the Mat-Sinking unit were all out in the river working past Togo Island. A crew boat Captain, Paul Koestler pulled up besides us in the middle of the river to see where the heck we were going. We talked a bit and John Ruskey gave him a river map poster that John made. We paddled over to where the Big Black River comes into the Mississippi River and went back onto there a half mile... then headed straight across to Middle Ground Island and made campsite at mile marker 407.5. Nathan and I put our SMR hammock tents right at the 40 ft dropoff to the river. It's very steep sand and has a couple vertical sections. Dinner was Raft stew(?) which consisted of potatoes, cheese and wild hog & deer sausage (from Nathan). Campfire was nice and the stars came out. John got on my acoustic guitar and sang and played the blues. He also used a bud light bottleneck for a slide that we made earlier. At lunch, we etched the bottle and broke it by the heat of the campfire. That was our project at lunch. Ahhhh river life). The coyotes are howling right now as we go to sleep.

Day 3 = 39 miles.Total paddled to date = 70 miles Remaining = 140 miles of the Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 8 Woke up early to catch the sunrise over the Big Black Bluffs. Our campsite is close to Grand Gulf. Mile marker 408. The morning temp was a little chilly ... Around 40, but quickly climbed when the sun came up. Blue skies and not a single cloud. John said he wanted to make 30 miles... So, we paddled a lot today. Actually got 38 miles today. Barge traffic was pretty busy today. We had VHF radios and it was funny to hear the Tow boat captains warning other traffic of idiot kayakers. (We're actually in canoes.) After 4 hours of paddling, we stopped at Spithead towhead for lunch. This was a big sandbar and Adam, Braxton and Nathan found some freshwater otter tracks. The sun was great, temp 68 and we were sitting by the water listening to the small waves crash. You could fall asleep if you closed your eyes. Buckled down and paddled hard past Waterproof and made the bend that puts Natchez in view. It's 7 miles away but still you can make it out. Landed at a nice sandbar (mile marker 371) as the sun was close to going down. We collected firewood and then got our tents up. Braxton got going the vegetable soup with Alligator and deer sausage. The temp is really dropping and should be a low around 38. Light breeze. Although we're 7 miles from Natchez... The stars fill the sky and the Milky Way is easily visible too. Mike spots two satellites buzzing by. A paddle wheel passenger boat came by and it was lit up with lights. The coyotes howl and we howl right back at them.

Day 4 = 12 miles. Total paddled to date = 82 miles Remaining = 128 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 9 Woke up to a pretty chilly morning at 3am. Note to self: don't drink a lot of ginger tea before bed. This morning I slept late to 7:15am. The fog was rolling around us but finally burned out before we shoved off. We leave mile marker 371 and paddle 7 miles to Natchez. The weather is perfect... Sunny and 60's temp. The American Queen paddle boat is docked at the boat ramp and we park next to her.... We say goodbye to our new friend Tom and friend Mike... And pickup Mike & Paul Orr. John gives us 2 hours to re supply some groceries and take a look around. We stop and see our good friends Gail & Greg (they live at Under the Hill) and they let us plug up our electronics to charge up. Thanks again! I go to The Pig Out Inn to buy some smoked turkey, beef brisket and baked beans for the trip. So good... We load up and paddle 5 miles to the Natchez Islands (mile marker 358). Several people go to the back side of the island and watch a bunch of beavers swimming around and slapping their tail. Ralph got a good video of it. We have a good view of the sunset (and will have a good view of the sunrise in the morning). John plays some guitar music... And then Nathan has a knot tying school lesson for everyone. Repeat after me ... English knot. We can see Natchez from our campsite (again) and the moon is huge and bright orange. It's 9:41pm and I can still hear beaver splashes going on in that back island channel. Must be a ton of beavers there.

Day 5 = 33 miles. Total paddled to date = 115 miles Remaining = 95 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 10. Woke up on Natchez Island (mi marker 358) to a beautiful sunrise at 6am. Mark River Peoples made scrambled eggs and sausage and had green grapes on the side. As we eat around the campfire, River thinks he shouldn't have had his tent so close to the beavers. Because every time he got out of his tent, a big beaver would slap his tail in the water... letting him know this is HIS area. The day was partly sunny with a north wind at our backs. Birds, ducks and pelicans were plentiful. We saw several pelican congregations... Around 200 in a group on the water edge of the sandbar. It's really cool to watch groups of Pelicans fly. It's like a dance in the sky. They fly as a group then turn around, fly for 200 ft and turn around.... repeat. On the top side of a pelican is white... But on the bottom side, it's black. As they keep turning, you see white, black, white...etc. On the water, we hear a towboat say watch out for those canoes, they're going down the middle of the river! We laugh... And Adam calls on his VHF marine radio back to him we're ok. Towboat Capt was surprised OH! You got a radio! We stop on a sandbar for lunch and we find an old campfire (again!). This is the second time on this trip to find fire where we stop. It's really nice to warm up. It's not cold, but our wetsuits make us sweat... Due to constant paddling and especially when the sun is full. So we're chilled because we are a little wet.

We go around Dead Man’s Bend and wonder why it's named like that... we would like to think it’s not because of paddlers & canoe. Eagles sightings are starting to be more regular on the water. Which always is cool. John spots a bald eagle and it flies downstream to Artonish Island and sits high up top a tree. This is our island (mi marker 325) to setup camp. So we land at the north tip of the island. There is no firewood around, so we have to walk 200-300 yds away to bring firewood to the kitchen area. We use a lot of wood to cook our meals and for warmth. Plus, wood for the morning fire. We're pretty tired from the long 33 mile paddle....but we collect enough wood... Then venture off on the island to find a place for our tents and hammocks.

The sunset was amazing and I watched it all. I didn't mind at all setting up my tent in the dark (with headlamp). Brax got the mixed mystery stew going. Dinner was all about us talking about today and what we saw. The campfire is hypnotic and one by one leaves to go to bed.

Day 6 = 27 miles. Total paddled to date = 145 miles Remaining = 70 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 11. Woke up at 5:00am on Artonish Island (mi marker 325). I used my kelty tent for the first time on this trip. The woods on the island were just too thick to put up our hammocks (Nathan too). The north wind was blowing pretty good and a little chilly (? Low 40's) in the morning. John has the campfire going and the coffee ready ... Like always. You can't wake up before John.... he's always there when you wake up. There is a good gravel bar on the island filled with petrified mud, quartz, coal and just cool rocks. The wind dies down and our tents and gear dry out... So we pack up. I jump into Adam Elliot's canoe with Braxton and everyone else in the 30 ft Grasshopper canoe. It's partly cloudy and in the 50's (high of 60 today). We pass by the Old River Control Structures. They can be really dangerous because they draw off 1/3 of the Ms River to give to the Atchafalaya River. Barge traffic has picked up and we laugh when a Captain says there's 2 canoes and I don't see how the big one is floating. The Grasshopper is packed in a big pile in the middle. I'll get a picture of it packed. It does look like it'd sink. Lunch is cheeses, salami, watermelon, ham, bread and any combination you decide. Paddlers, mike and Paul Orr find fresh persimmons that have dropped and brings back a bunch. They are sweet and John makes a sandwich with them. We pass by Angola Prison /Louisiana State Penitentiary (not visible... Just the land and ferry). Another funny towboat experience happens as we get past Shreves Island (famous person that Shreveport is named after). We're cruising the river and a towboat behind us by about 2 miles blows a single horn at us. We look back and keep on paddling. After 15 min, he blows his horn at us again. He is still way back there... Because we're going just a little slower than the towboat. After 15 min, the captain gives us 5 horns... Which is danger. He's like a mile behind us and we move 100 yds away from the red buoy line and John rides the red buoys. We hear the captain say well, the one smart canoe got out of my way... The other one is going to cause me problems. Adam, Brax and myself were the smart canoe and we made sure everyone in the other canoe know it. We paddle another 30 min and make our campsite before he actually passed us. We land on Hog Island (mi marker 298). There are beaver sign everywhere (tracks, cut willows...). Dinner was a great vegetable soup by Adam. We added Doritos in it... Because they were there... And they are awesome. The temp feels great and the clouds roll by and the sky is full of stars. Great day # 6.

Day 7 = 26 miles. Total paddled to date = 171 miles Remaining = 44 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 12 Friday Stayed up late late night on Hog Island (mi marker 298) talking around the campfire. It was tough to wake up at 5:00am... But you never know how beautiful the sunrise will be. Last night low temp 44. High today 67 and partly cloudy. Our routines have become more optimized. Eat breakfast. Break down tent and pack gear. Then pack gear into canoes. On the river at 9:30am. We stop at some irregular soil formations for a break and at lunch. They are a certain bluff and I forgot their name, but they have high vertical white cliffs with reddish iron mixed... All mixed with clay and sand. The river is really wide and long straight sections down here and there are a few places you can 6-8 miles down the river to the next bend. We got to a really wide and long section of the Mississippi River (and we were in the middle of it). So we started yelling and hooting to see how our echo bounced around. It bounced 3 times. We did it almost ten times... Then as I was about to yell again... Someone fired a rifle shot fairly close by. We didn't hear the bullet skip by... But we picked up our paddle and stopped testing out the echo . Hehe... We got a big kick outta that. We land on the front right side of St. Maurice Towhead (mi marker 272) and make camp. Driftwood isn't too far off like the last two islands. We all get that done 20 minutes. As we're getting wood, we find a red kayak up on the island. No doubt someone lost it during a storm... Or who know how it got here. It's red and I think it said Perception and maybe 8 ft. Looks like a whitewater boat. But I didn't pay too much attention cause we're supposed to be getting firewood. I guess Nathan decided it was bath night... So we jumped off in the cold ass river in our shorts and washed hair and body. Yeah, it was pretty darn cold and we did it at the worse time... The sun was almost gone. My feet started hurting slightly... I guess the bodies way of telling you if you don't change something you will die... Kinda like holding your breath. But we fought through the discomfort and we now are clean as a whistle. I would do it again in the winter... It's actually like an instant energy boost and definitely great from a long physical day of paddling. Tomorrow we land at the town, St. Francisville and pickup and little supplies (and some beer! Ralph wants tequila...)

Day 8 = 17 miles. Total paddled to date = 185 miles Remaining = 25 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge (210 miles) Dec 13 Saturday A beautiful sunrise on St. Maurice Island (mi marker 272). Ralph found a 8 ft kayak (perception dancer xs)... John says it's ok to tow it on the trip. So the big canoe gets it. Sunny warm day of 70. Sky rarely has a cloud in it. We stop at lunch close to St Francisville and Paul and Mike's father shows up at the boat ramp and gets Braxton and Adam to go get supplies. We arrive at our campsite, next to Fancy Point Island(mi marker 255 on the Left bank Descending). There are a ton of Pelicans and other birds. All of a sudden a water plane does a fly by in us... We wave. Then he comes back and lands right in front of on shore. Then takes off and leaves. It was really cool. Paul and Michael Orr start making chicken andouille gumbo and rice. It's a family recipe and it is some kind of good! The sunset was amazing and Ralph gets Adam and Braxton to paddle out for a great picture moment. Two pecan pies are cut up into slices and handed out for dessert. The campfire feels good to our sore muscles. This is our last night on the river. I want to keep on going... But we'll have to wait till March 2015 for the mighty Quapaws to have another Rivergator expedition (Atchafalaya River 159 miles). I look forward to that trip.

Day 9 (last day) = 21 miles. Total paddled in nine days = 207 miles. Mississippi River Expedition Vicksburg to Baton Rouge Dec 14 Sunday This is our last day on the river and we’ll make Baton Rouge in the afternoon. Great temp last night to sleep in a tent/hammock (low temp 45). Beautiful sunrise (again) and the +500 pelicans and +500 seagulls all returned to the sandbar 200 yds south of our campsite. They were swirling around sandbar like a bird tornado. The chicken andouille gumbo was so good last night… we had it again for breakfast. We didn’t’ have any more white rice, so we used oatmeal as the rice substitute. Oatmeal & Gumbo… a classic sandbar combo. John and Mark ‘River’ Peoples perform a Quapaw ceremony with burning incense (white sage) and a drum on the river bank by Fancy Point Island (mi marker 255). We thank and bless the river. One group picture by Ralph’s tripod and we’re off. Sunny blue skies, no clouds, light breeze and low 60 temp (high of 71 today). This trip was blessed with great weather for sure. It didn’t rain on us anytime that mattered (only a light shower that I didn’t even hear one late night). We pass by the massive pelican and seagull population on our left as we jump into the main channel. Our first island we get to is Profit Island. There is flow in the back channel, but there is a Corps of Engineer warning on the Navigation Chart that an underwater stone dike has been constructed across the chute. John said there may be 3-4 ft waterfall at the dike. Braxton, myself and Adam are in the smaller canoe (and Paul, Michael, Ralph, Nathan, River, Lil Mike, and John are in the big canoe). Braxton convinces Adam after… constant…. Convincing. Adam gives in and we tell John we’re going to survey the stone dike on Profit chute. The chute is 3 miles long and the other route in the main channel is 5.5 miles long. So, it’ll be a shortcut for us (adam, brax and me). But dang, if there wasn’t even a ripple of water back there…. Of course we tell everyone we went over an 8 ft waterfall. It was HUGE! Towboat drama today titled “The Days of Our River” or “As the River Turns”: The towboat Captain of the “Crimson Duke” pushing a 7 x 6 says several times “ the canoes are in the middle of the river. At least they’re smart enough to wear life preservers. They must be CRAZY YANKEES!”. We normally don’t talk to the towboats unless it’s needed… but, that “crazy yankee” comment warranted a response. Adam replied back on the radio “We ain’t no crazy Yankees…”. Either the Captain didn’t hear it (most likely) or he didn’t care. The hilarious part of this is … this Captain is complaining that we are in the middle of the river and blocking /causing problems…. Yet we PASS the Crimson Duke 3 TIMES along 20 miles. He is so big and the turns are so tight, that he has to stop and let the river turn his towboat in the right direction. Let me repeat that …. We(human powered canoes) pass the Crimson Duke (diesel powered) three times on the Mississippi River in 20 miles. Honestly, the towboats go just a little faster that our canoes most of the time… unless they are really throttling down. The river starts getting busy with towboats as we get close to Baton Rouge. The tall buildings are in our view. We pass by 4 super tankers/cargo ships on our left. There are three northbound towboats all space across the river and all of a sudden a towboat pushing one barge pops up behind the super tanker and coming right at us. He sounds a single horn twice at us and we head out into the middle of the river cutting in-between the 3 towboats. Those super tankers/cargo ships are huge. My first time paddling 30 feet from them. Local paddler, Mike Beck, paddles out and escorts us to the Baton Rouge boat ramp. The sun is going down and it’s another beautiful sunset (even over the harbor businesses). Perfect end to a perfect trip. Thanks to the Quapaw Riverguides: John Ruskey, Adam Elliott, Braxton Barden, Mike and Mark Peoples. Thankful for new friends, old friends and great memories.

Rivergator Appendix VI

Mark River Blog

Journal kept by expedition member Mark River Peoples

Vicksburg to Baton Rouge, Dec 6-16, 2014

Vicksburg to Racetrack Island

The expedition crew assembles at the Port of Vicksburg, packing and greeting old and new friends. I meet Tom, a wildlife enthusiast and writer for an Idaho magazine. I meet Ralph, a videographer from San Diego, trouble shooting a new series of cameras for google and the River View project. I meet Nathan, an avid hunter and editor for a Southern magazine. I start to get excited knowing this would be a great expedition because of the diversity of the group. Deer hunters launch their motorboats and cross the channel of the Yazoo River. Family members and friends start to say goodbyes and safe journeys. The editor of the Port Gibson newspaper snaps pictures, while the expedition crew slide on wetsuits and floatation devices. It's December and the water is very cold.

We enter the water in the early afternoon headed downstream looking for a nice campsite on Racetrack Island. We pick a site on the bottom end of the island , tucked into the backside on a high cut bank created by a eddy during high water. This would give us great protection from the north wind. Sandy bluffs during low water, with thick floral fauna covering the floor of deciduous forest atop the bluff. An industrial deck lies across the channel, but you feel that you are out of town.

Racetrack Island to Middle Ground Island

A busy day on the Mississippi River. Towboats and Army Corps of Engineer work boats are up and down the River working on revetment. Winter is the season to do river maintenance knowing the spring rise is near. We go around Newton Bend where many fleets of Corps boats are docked. Workers from the boats wave with amazement of our loaded voyager canoe and wish us safe travels. One of the boats transporting workers stop in the middle of the channel to find out our purpose and destination. We have a good conversation and gives their captain a poster of the water trail. We get the opportunity to witness revetment being wired and laid along the bend.

We continue on passing Togo Island headed for Middle Ground Island for camp. Grand Gulf nuclear plant is in the distant as we explore island characteristics that look unusual. There were willows trees laying at the base of the island with the landscape pushed into the island as if a bulldozer had worked the land. We figured out that towboats stage empty barges there during high water. The campsite was high on a bluff facing the main channel with plenty of great camping in the tall willows. Plenty of deadfall and firewood, but lots of hornets and ants.

Middle Ground to Fairchild Island

The morning starts with a lone eagle looking over the campsite, saying its goodbyes admiring the canoe. It flies off in the opposite direction. We paddle past the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant, around the Hard Times Bend, to the Hard Scrabble Bend. Lake Bruin lies to the right over the levee. Continuing through Bondurant Chute to Cottage Bend eventually taking lunch at Spithead Towhead. We enjoy a salmon lunch with cormorants and pelicans covering the sky. A lone fisherman reels in a fish from the shore as we head toward our campsite at Fairchild Island.

Fairchild Island to Natchez Island

We start the day eight miles outside of Natchez. A historic river town set on a beautiful bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. From our campsite the night before, you could see the lights of the city flickering in the distant. The steamboat, the Queen of the Mississippi River passed our campsite at dusk. Two fisherman set nets , while we hover around the campfire telling hunting and football stories, as the stew stews on the fire.

We wake to a mystic fog covering the top of the island we appropriately named Skull Island on our previous trip. The weather is beautiful as we paddle into Natchez unlike the winds gusting to thirty five mile an hour we witness last year. Luxury homes sit upon the bluffs to our left. The steamboat American Queen is docked at the landing as well wishers and friends greet us at the boat ramp which heads to the Under the Hill Bar. An infamous establishment, it continues to thrive like the River it sits above-surviving fires, floods, and restructured management. You can feel the history when you walk through the door. They have some interesting spots in the back of the bar where you can contact friends and relatives in a semi-private setting. Some friends own a bed and breakfast adjacent to the bar and they treat me to my favorite meal, pork chops and rice. They explain to me that more people are paddling down the River than ever before, having to turn away many. I attribute it to the on going popularity of the River and the Rivergator project from Quapaw Canoe Company. I say my goodbyes and contact my brother in the back nook inside the bar, as I wait for the resupply crew to return. I eat again as a friend treats the crew to smoke pork sandwiches from a nearby restaurant. One friend brings us cheese,appropriately named, River Rat Cheese.

A large, beautiful, iconic sycamore tree sits on the bluff in front of the bar. Its branches reach outward in every direction with dynamic winter colors and fauna. You can't miss this tree.

Natchez to Palmetto Island

We leave Natchez in the late afternoon headed for a campsite on Natchez Island. I make a bad decision. Arriving at camp, I noticed five beaver scent mounds on the edge of the sandbar. Not truly understanding the purpose of these mounds, I would know by morning. Another bluff island with a deep back channel that's home to a territorial beaver family. I make the mistake of camping close to the scent mounds. I took a walk on the backside of the island, a high bluff with steep drop offs with deadfall throughout. The beaver must have picked up my scent from urinating close to the mounds and followed me along the bluffs smashing its tail over and over for an hour straight. A smaller beaver followed, probably training for adulthood. I never seen a beaver more persistent. That night when leaving my tent to relieve myself the beaver would splash ferociously. That beaver never slept!

Palmetto Island to Hog Island

We start with bacon and fried potatoes. It's a beautiful sunny day and my paddle stroke feels smooth and strong. The warm day is rewarding, while paddling around huge meanders and dodging impatient towboat drivers. We pass the water facility that manages the Atchafalaya Basin. The island is called Palmetto Island by locals. The old establishment on the bend by Clark Creek looks more presentable than last year. The loess bluffs show their sandy bottoms. We serve lunch while everyone explores. Some identify trees and some gather persimmons to supplement our lunch. I see a bee for the first time on this trip as we enter Louisiana. We passed Angola prison ferry and see the mouth of the Buffalo River. We camp at the bottom of Hogg Island. Unique camping on the sandbar or in the willow trees adjacent. We have lentil soup and vegetables with deer sausage. The coyotes yap in the distance as I say goodnight.

Hog Point Towhead to St. Maurice Island

Channel crossing to Ruccourci Runout. The loess bluff Tunica Hills with many rare trifoliate orange trees. The fruit taste like a cross between lemon and lime. Many seeds. Paddle a short ways to have lunch at a lovely sandbar in between loess cliffs. A small beautiful blue hole, the size of a hot tub, is being fed by waterfall of spring water coming out the face of the bluff. Some strange insect had burrows throughout the face of cliffs. We continue on pass Little Island where we camped last year. Eventually setting camp at St. Maurice Island. An eagle flew out of the deciduous forest as we paddled up. Found a somewhat petrified bees nest.

We set out to gather firewood and noticed a small kayak beached on the bluff. We decide to tow it. It would be great for the after school program. The island has a large beach at low water with a thick deciduous forest at the top of the cut bank. In the night I could hear large mammals, probably deer, rustling and foraging through the scrubby forest. We couldn't find any sandy areas in the forest to camp. Lots of waterfowl at the top of the island. The next morning, thousands of centipedes cover the sandbar. Didn't expect that in December.

St. Maurice To Fancy Point

We leave St. Maurice Island headed towards New Roads. As we continue downstream we noticed a old rusty barge landlocked along the right bank. As we approach, we see young men sitting peacefully enjoying the River. We say our hellos as the kids marvel at the canoe. A renegade hunting camp lies upon the left bank, with occupants firing high caliber rifles at something along the River. Being in front of the canoe, I didn't feel safe as our captain guided us directly towards the camp. I defuse my anger and look to the heavens for safety.

We stop at St. Francisville to resupply. The entrails of a deer littered the bottom of the ramp. Wildlife agents check our canoe for illegal activities. This old ferry landing was closed after the building of the New Roads Bridge.

We continue to paddle around Bayou Sarah Bend pass the Big Cajun Two Power Plant. We pick a great campsite at Fancy Point. Thousands of waterfowl and shore birds gather showing acrobatic flying skills. A water plane gives us a fly over and encore. Great winter camping, but could be buggy in the warmer months. I got bitten by mosquitoes in December.

On our way back to Clarksdale by vehicle, we stop by St. Francisville to retrieve the kayak we found. We meet the steamboat, the American Queen, returning from Baton Rouge. We met the mayor and gave him a Rivergator poster.

Fancy Point Towhead to Baton Rouge

We leave Fancy Point headed towards Baton Rouge. I take the time to reflect upon the season. From the successful fight with the Mississippi tax commission, to our connection with kids from the state of Mississippi- Quapaw Canoe Company has had a wonderful year; but I miss fellow Quapaw Chris Wolfie Staudinger. We had mutual respect for one another and shared all the responsibilities and maintenance around the campsite. It gave both of us time to explore our personal passions, which helps my writing. I'm a very visual person, so time to explore is very important to me. Being a team player, I did it with grace. My philosophy of team first can be construed as a weakness to selfish people, but if you ever seen me paddle or play football, you will know I'm far from weak-mentally or physically.

I quit feeling sorry for myself and move on. Complaining is not my personality,so I continue to paddle hard. Nothing will ever come between me , Quapaw, and the Mississippi River- nothing. The smell of Georgia Pacific Paper Mill feels the air as we approach the factory discharge. The water turns black as we paddle into the small bay adjacent to the plant. Decaying fish float in the dark pools. I get emotional not wanting to sacrifice my health, hoping we get away from this place as soon as possible. Apparently, they are allowed to dump this sludge into the River and that breaks my heart.

We take the long way around Profit Island dodging impatient towboats. We come upon Thomas Point to take a break and contact our ground team and shuttle drivers. We will be entering Baton Rouge in the early evening. A family man pulls to shore with his son and daughter. We explain our mission, while his children play along the sandbar. I think how lucky the kids are to have a father that shares his time and passion for the River with his kids. We give him a Rivergator poster and head downstream to Wilkerson Point. A lone fisherman fishes from the point. It used to be called Free Negro Point, but to some locals, you can imagine what it's called. We continue for Mulatto Bend heading towards Scott's Bluff. Historical college Southern University sits upon this bluff. Many NFL players come from this historical black university. We enter the stretch of river called Cancer Alley. Big oil tankers with foreign writing dock along the shore. The city of Baton Rouge is to our left as we come to our landing. I smile celebrating another successful expedition and start to have separation anxiety having to leave my new friends.

(Mark River)

Rivergator Appendix VII

John Ruskey Artistic Journal of Morning Impressions

as recorded around the campfire in the first light of day

Vicksburg to Baton Rouge, Dec 6-16, 2014

Saturday, December 6, Yazoo River

Set out from Vicksburg’s Yazoo Landing in a north wind (paddler's friend) with little to no flow in the Yazoo, a few hunters and fishermen, a few people came to see us off, Layne's mother, Alyson (Adam's wife), Michael's wife, My mother-in-law “Big Emma,” the Hollingsworth's and their grandson Tyler. I breathed my first sigh of relief in weeks as we floated out of the Yazoo Canal and into the calm but powerful waters of the big river. Everything always changes when you enter the big muddy river, no matter the tributary, even the giant Ohio is changed by the experience. Even the Upper Mississippi is changed, the Big Muddy Mo creates the pattern way upstream and here on the Lower Miss the pattern achieves its purest and powerfullest expression, tattered clouds sliding across the big sky where the bluffs end in ragged layers hanging down like someone pulling the ticking out of grandma's quilt, somber colors greys and prussian blues and whites, the tree trunks black and bleak against the sky, downstream the big canoes slice through the cold thick water like a sharp knife through leather, the turbulence adds some resistance, the boils less, the alert paddler uses the whirlpools to his advantage, our minds freed from the entangling snares of the land as we carve the waters past the Walnut Hills Loess Bluff #1, and then on down past Delta Point through Centennial Cutoff (1876), Racetrack, finally making landing like a couple of geese at Reid Bedford Point, flapping our wings into a couple of eddies, and then out, in and out, out and in, none entirely satisfying the needs of the all the geese, we follow the bend all the way to the last point, there is a bit of trepidation about passing this last point (Reid Bedford Point), because the river curves eastward below into a series of hunting camps, with all landings exposed to full assault of the wind, but we carry on in blind faith in the last cold light of the day, the wind seems to be picking up speed, and are thankfully rewarded around the bottom end of Reid Bedford with a calm harbor and several choices for sandy landings. We go for the more portected (but steeper) landing against the north bank, rising 30 or 40 feet up with a flat bottomed forest above, a perfect place on a cold windy night like this, with a long view downstream into Diamond Cut-Off (1933) and into Newtown Bend with a view of Grand Gulf cooling towers and the Big Black Bluff behind.

Sunday, December 7, Reid Bedford Point

Tucked into the protective arm of the earth in a cut-out place along the steep riverbank stacked sand and mud layers tell the history of recent floods, the trees crying starkly in the cold wind, which seeems to have picked up some strength in the dark hours before dawn, but I feel nothing where I sit in front of the fire far below the forest tops, even though I am fully exposed and wide open to the south, the southwest and the southeast, simple shelter created in the landscaping of the river, previous highwaters having sculpted out this little amphitheater and laid the soils for the roots of the tree trunks above and the life they support. Good morning world from Reid Bedford Point with a full on view of LeTourneau downstream and across the river, Hennessey Bayou coming in from the left through the Hennessey Sandbar above the LT boat ramp at an extremely acute angle. First bird: a least tern crying sadly in the wind. Later a heron (or something) croaked weirdly. Now other songbirds in the woods, a few tenacious leaves hanging onto the willows, some oak leaves higher up, a few stragglers in the sycamores, but no beeches (I wonder why they don't like the floodplain?), the trees reaching with outstretched arms as if glorifying the light grey-blue skies and the winter wind howling overhead, every branch raised in praise of this peaceful time of year, the time of long nights and short days, the regeneration of the atmosphere, our oxygen refreshed, the lungs of the earth need these deep breaths to recycle the old and reconnect anew with the primal patterns of the universe.

Monday, December 8, Middle Ground

Calm morning, three big tows pushed upstream hugging the bottom of the island, Grand Gulf billowing huge columns of steam into the heavens, a gentle roaring replacing the roaring sound of the wind through the trees, after blowing steady 10-20 mph for three days gusting to 30 out of the north the wind has puffed itself to sleep, and now the stillness returns to the river and the dark woods, all peaceful and still that is save for the grinding of the turbines and churning of drive shafts, first light filters in grain by grain replacing the dark blues with incandescent pastels, dark reds becoming dark purples on either side of the brightness, the black silhouettes of the trees become glowing silky silhouettes as if the lightness is coming from within (and perhaps it is) the first lightness infuses all with the glowing spirit, as the light gathers strength and softens the dark colors into glowing pastels, effervescent glowing, easter egg effervescence, pastel oranges, reds, blues, purples, greens, every section of the wrap-around forest has its own particular tinge of misty coloring, brightest towards the arrival of the source, darker away not by degree of blackness but by variation in color, yellows around the growing soul-source, reddening through the oranges away, tangerine, then cinnamon, then rusty reds, then plum purples, with splashes of cobalt blueness and pine needle green-ness appearing in washes glowing from surprising quarters, soft watercolor washes of the most dilute tones, the hills surrounding the Big Black breathe with an inherit mistiness that swells in saturation towards daybreak and gathers in sparkling crystalline dewdrops over the edges of the grasses and wets the roofs of our tents, as droplets congeal on the cypress strip voyageur canoe they begin to run down the gunnels towards the river where we have dragged up the sandy bank, and they slide down the rounded hull, and where the proud prow rises over the water’s edge gather in a line of diamonds, quivering slightly in the gentle air, and silently releasing themselves to fall into the wet sand below.

Tuesday, December 9, Skull Island.

Looking down the misty channel towards Natchez, the high wire light flashing hypnotically, waves gently washing onto the shore, a big tow going up, two coming down, the second one an asphalt tow by the sounds of the extra motors on the barges. Running the neon blue bulbs bottom deck as seems to be popular with tow crews these days. Woke up at 3:23 the moon high in the mature willow forest I had laid my head down in, “lay me head, by the waterside, in my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll...” So many songs about sleeping by the river, beds by the river, and willows by the river. The river creates the most peaceful harbor for humans to open their subconscious to the resonate ripplings of dream-time. The willow trunks dark in their middles but silvery on their sides reflecting moonlight in ridged strips running vertically in their weaving pattern, like ripples on the sandbar or waves across the lake in a gentle breeze. Orion paddling his surfboard down into the western horizon, right arm outstretched and driving the paddle blade downwards into the tall cottonwoods lining the river over towards Vidalia. An oil well donkey engine thrashing the silence behind camp up through Fairchild Chute (Skull Island), so here ends this stretch of wild river? Finally finding my groove. A difficult transition this time, it took three days of cold wind, massive logistics, and hard paddling to reach this state of heavenly bliss where dream-time approaches day-time, the indigo-blue dark skies pregnant with the spin of the earth and the streaming sun waves which herald the work world. But now by the light of the driftwood fire and the cold grey-blue glow of my laptop I am finally finding my favorite place here on the edge of the ever-flowing, flowing-river, perched on the line between heaven and earth, this crossroads of time and place so delicate, and yet I keep finding paradise again and again here in this same place, strung like a muddy guitar string 1,000 miles long and reverberating in deep muddy basso-profundo, sometimes in gentle waves, sometimes in crashing waves of chaos, sometimes murmuring so finely and softly that only a canoe drifting down the face of her watery-string in the warm golden buttery light of a cold winter solstice afternoon could you perceive the subtle nuances, this kind of palpitations would be immediately destroyed by the firing of an outboard engine or passage on any motor-powered vessel.

Wednesday, Dec 10, Natchez Islands.

Teardrop moon sliding over the tall willows on breadloaf Island (in the Natchez Islands) across the sky, masses of willow branches and their forks and fractal forks, and more forks upon other forks, all silhouetted in the moon brightened sky, the blob of orange moon rose over Natchez last night as Orion was doing the same over St. Katherine’s Wildlife Refuge, beavers slapping their tails defiantly, we scare them not, they have claimed the bar with a collection of scent mounds on both sides of the island, one within the big harbor the Grashopper is pulled up in, and a city of scent mounds on the backside, never seen so many mounds all laid out together so thickly before, they just keep their distance as the swirl and slap, swirl and slap, swirl and slap, one giant beaver and a younger one following, making dark wake-lines in the glistening dark blue water, Andromeda following the moon towards the western horizon, the winter moon following the path of the summer sun, as she arose over the Natchez Bluff and the Natchez bridge the moon cast a tangerine orange reflection perfectly etched across the blue-black waters, sliced and diced by boil and eddy lines, but otherwise perfect;y long and straight and even, a perfect orange rectangle etched on the face of the big cold river blowing around the Natchez Bluff and on downstream. Great horned owls making woody calls from over the backside of Natchez Island while towboats rumble upstream, three in a row chugging along as I awoke from my lonely peninsula, rolling dunes of sand peppered with spiral willow leaves freshly blown from the trees above and scattered artfully across Breadloaf Bar in various states of the spiral, but also a few half moons and a few S-shapes amongst the spirals, but mostly unanimously spiral, the willow leaf seeks the spiral, of this there is no doubt, ask anyone who has walked through a willow forest on a crisp fall day, or laid their pallet on a bed of willow leaves in the early spring, the first light now puffing its lungs and filling the air space over the Mississippi Loess Bluffs just before 6am shapes emerging from the darkness, long sharp zig-zag lines where the sandbar reaches into the water, a canoe pulled up into one of the narrow harbors, a driftwood log above, a tent placed nearby here, a another tent top end, maybe too close to the water -- I hope they are not getting water in their sleeping bags from the rising river!

Thursday, Dec 11, Palmetto Island.

Chilly wind blowing over the top of the island. The air warmer than anynight so far, but the breeze blowing over the river cuts through many layers of fleece. Woke up with Orion and Canis Major setting over the back channel of Black Hawk Island (Artonish) Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area where the three rivers the Red, and the Ouchita all come together over the banks of the big river, and a portion of the Mississippi diverted nearby to combine with the others and together they equal one third of the daily average flow for the creation of the Atchafalaya River, America’s shortest big river. Mud bank expressions around Bougere Bend reflect the geography in reds and blacks, maybe the Mississippi mud layering intermixed with the mud of the Red, blue layers alternating with orange layers, opposites in the color spectrum creating a vivid display as we paddle hard out of Dead Man’s Bend and around Jackson Point, everyone bone tired from the long hard crawl all day, the river spreading wider and wider, fat and happy, everywhere you see the face of the river she looks excited and expressive of her joy, along the edges by the wall of willows she is boiling and rippling like a child, over the big belly coming out of the bend she sends gentle murmurs downstream as far as the eye can see like a contented parent. I like looking into the sparkling sun reflections and finding all of the fine lines of the boils and eddies dancing across the horizon like a stampeded of whirling dervishes, the greatest migration ever, the endless migration of motions and counter-motions, more constant than the motions of clouds which come and go, and the dust blowing across the earth which rise and subside, only the motions of the river remain the same, the touch stone for everything that makes us alive, the stairway to heaven, the steeple of the creator’s workroom.

Friday, Dec 12, Hog Point Towhead.

Crackling willow pops and sparks firelight dancing yellow orange out of the blackness of the small dry logs we pulled out of the receding end of Hog Point Towhead, a bony ridge rising high above the main channel making a natural levee and ideal placement for a line of voyageur tents and hammocks, Nathan at the very bottom edge, then Layne, River and Lil’ Mike set their tents on the edge of a promenade entrance hall leading to the chapel of the willows, every Mississippi River island hosts such a chapel, where the spirit of god can be felt close at hand in the hushed atmosphere and inspirational light, the Orr brothers furthest up the ridge have erected their tent, and I laid my head in the curling willow leaves in between. Smoke being thrown swirling with a gentle easterly breeze into which the mesmerizing dance of the willow flames spins and sashays, swirls and curls, doubles over and stands upright, as a couple of fishermen turn into the embayment below us and bend over, stoop down, catch their nets, and then stand erect, and in the same fluid motion, pull them upwards and pick the thrashing fish off the line and throw them into a fridgerator cut n half at the bottom of the boat, and low puffy clouds slowly march through the half moon out of the northwest, a splotchy sky, like the foam on the rising river, the reflections of stars peeking out in between the white splotches, everything else silent and awaiting instruction from the concertmaster who is slowly approaching from the east, but is still far over the loess bluff horizon, the Tunica Hills, only a few ushers like the fishermen and myself and that tow pilot grinding up up through Tunica Bend, are awake and following the first steps in the dance of the day, but when the director emerges from over the hills the entire orchestra will awaken and begin to play, and the all of the willow chapels and cottonwood/oak/sycamore/sweetgum cathedrals will resound with the sound of dance and music.

Sat, Dec 13, St. Maurice Island.

Caustic Carbonaceous air blowing up the back channel, maybe directly from Big Cajun II, the three smokestacks visible as we paddled around Morgan’s Bend and swung past Boie’s Point, I woke up gasping for air, for oxygen, the foul air making me hungry for clean air, my lungs bursting like being underwater and not being able to breathe, but also not wanting to breathe too deep, to allow the contamination in too far into my bronchi, breathing shallow limits the stain. St. Maurice Island is as wild as they come, but all around us you can hear the sounds of rumbling engines, accelerating cars, trucks grinding their gears, last night periodic gunfire shocked the air, bursts of repeating rifle or semi automatic pistols, and the pressurized boom of something bigger. At Sebastopol big booms rang out across the river, in the very same place we ran into gunfire last spring. I felt like a bullseye had been painted on my head, which made me paddle harder. Sebastopol is a scary place, a congregation of redneck hunting camps on stilts, home-made affairs, trailers and sheds jacked up in the air 20 feet, and a channel marker located in the middle of it all LBD 283.3. Just five years ago I noted on my maps that Morgans Bend was an isolated bend, good place for paddlers to stop anywhere along its perimeter for highwater camping. But now half a decade later a road has been extended with a power line following and trailer camps built alongside and this wild place has transformed into something you’d expect in the Georgia swamps or the Missouri Bootheel, or the deepest dark woods of the Mississippi Delta. As we floated along in the swift currents pouring out of Morgan’s Bend Adam and Layne and Brax started whooping and hollering and then listening for the echo effect, with great success, their hollers resounded seconds later off the close tree lined bank, and then several seconds later from far wooded shore until a man came down to the shore and fired his gun with a resounding sonic boom that hushed our merriment and reminded us of the tender nature of our precious wilderness. But amidst the train horns, and the flashing lights, the airport lighthouse, the towers, the loud Ranchera music rolling up the back channel last night, the vicious barking of some dogs in the dark woods, the river rolls on un changed and uninhibited, not intimidated by the greedy decadent spoils of mankind which she is now entering and will be subject to in her final 275 miles to the Gulf, her minions the beaver splash their tails and can still be heard chewing their willow sticks purposefully in the darkness, the coyotes painfully crying in the distance, a wild hog squealing every once in a while, maybe these creatures are equally greedy and decadent in their own way, in fact it’s well known that coyotes do not like to share, but they all have their own checks and balances -- something we don’t seem to have, or don’t seem to exercise through our powers of self-reflection and self-control -- and none is destroying the very creation that sustains them. None that is except for one particularly successful and contradictory creature, the one who stands too tall on two legs. (And it is the “he” of his species particularly culpable. The “she” might be complicit, but it is the he who has the led the uncontrolled charge). And yet in the end he too must have his purpose in the grand scheme of things, some hidden meaning and some advancement in the general evolution of the timeline of the universe will surely result from his desecration of planet earth, to think otherwise is unthinkable. Only the tartagrades have survived all of the eras of the earth. But who knows, maybe some wily raccoons or the fisher king wanbli bald eagle will find some crack through the changing times for survival.

Sunday, Dec 14, Fancy Point.

Beaver splashing in the back channel as a tow boat churns up the main channel and the Big Dog follows Orion paddling downstream river god over the bottom end of Fancy Point Towhead, catching waves as he goes, but riding them elegantly, the paddle becomes the balance pole connected to the velocity vectors of the water, the wind, the waves, gravity, centrifugal force spinning outwards, Orion grabs the center and uses all to his advantage, the resulting vector powers him smoothly over the willow wave of F.P. TH and downstream while the sun carries the planets and asteroids in a trajectory around the Milky Way (in the direction of Vega) the Milky Way pulling at a perpendicular towards the heart of Sagitarius, the resulting spin propelling our passage along with the millions of other stars and spinning objects spiraling around its center... Buckets of falling stars zipping down from the general area of Orion, some bluish, some reddish, some yellowish, the brighter ones make smoke trails, the few that burn near the water are reflected so it looks like two falling stars one burning into the river, one burning out of the river, if one ever fell into the Mississippi it would appear that two had met! Thousands of waterfowl on the sandbar when we made landing, all white-winged birds, gulls, sheerwaters and pelicans, all congregated on the edge of the water towards the mouth of Thompson Creek, this must be the ideal place. The tow passes into the darkness of the willow-covered island towards Hermitage and silence returns slightly, but as the tow engine recedes so the whining of Georgia Pacific increases, towboat waves now splashing against the shore in the shallow back channel, we hit it right, if it was four or five feet lower this would not be passable. If you watch a towboat rolling upstream in the darkness an unusual sensation overcomes your senses, you get this unbalanced feeling that the tow is running faster and faster across the horizon. I’ve had this happen many times, and every time I feel a little seasick. The river, especially in winter, likes to play tricks with your mind. The warm air on a cold river will make alarming waves appear in the distance, they look like ocean swells on the horizon, if they were as big as they appear the canoe would be flipped over. And yet when we get there, they are gone. Something about the layers of air sliding over each other in great differential of temperature do weird things to your vision. Sometimes we get the lens effect, where objects appear much closer than they are, which is equally frightening. When I walked back through the woods, and in and out of two dry sloughs, one with filled with willows the other with swamp privet, three deer ran across my path, and then one other. I was awoken at the end of striking dream at 1:04am in which a horse was about to eat my mouth, a motorboat playing its lights up and down the banks of Fancy Point, very carefully looking into every inlet, and behind every clump of mud, and up and over the riverbank and into the trees... poachers no doubt. Even in the stillness of the dark night man’s madness never ceases to amaze me. The seventh day, and the river happily buoying us along in our passage, our ambitions, our thoughts, our dreams, forever inspirational and running deeper and deeper into my soul. Fog rolling in from over the Port Hickey Tunica Hills, the less-than-half moon high overhead with Jupiter in its pouch, Layne’s light on, he awoke and rolled out of his hammock and padding down the riverbank to join me at the fire, Orion’s belt now gone, his legs and arms flailing, only Betelgeuse still visible above the misty horizon, the paddler gone as if consumed in a crashing wave that flipped his boat and tossed him into the cold river, 5:55am and the first wisps of the light of the approaching day now making a presence only slightly brighter than the yellow-red glow of greater Red Stick, Baton Rouge. For a while, in the early morning hours, the wind calmed and the aromas of the pulp mill drifted our way, not a full onslaught, but enough to make me sick to my stomach, now the north wind has returned a a slight burnt coal smell is pouring down the pack channel over the waters, its source being the Big Cajun II. This is the big change at Baton Rouge. Previously upstream you can plan your camp according to wind speed and any power plants, paper mills, or other neighboring offenders of air quality. But below Baton Rouge no matter where you camp you are gong to be subjected to the nasty discharge of a dozen different types of industries, some which make coke smoke pale in foulness.

Monday, Dec 15, Glass Beach, Baton Rouge

Big wheels banging over the I-10 bridge above Glass Beach, the endless rush of traffic, the whining and snarling of engines, motorcycles down shifting to scream into the passing lane, truck horns, the heavy beating of rubber and metal, the endless roar from the distance, the river lapping the shore underneath, licking the wounds of the earth, mother earth is crying and the river is coming to her aid, but she too is becoming overwhelmed, another crossroads on the longest waterway in the land, countless crossroads, the paddler is presented with dozens of crossings like these, you can count them in your hands and toes, from the first bridge on the Lower Miss at Caruthersville, MO, down to the last, the greater New Orleans Bridge, and he would always chose to stay to the water, but alas every journey has its start and end, except of course for the journey of life, and so in a state of semi-shock, the paddler pulls to shore and stumbles up the bank, and is greeted by those on land who have no idea the changes made in the heart of one has been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, it is incumbent upon the one with the keys to share the beauty and the peace, and yet when he tries to speak the words do not come or are misunderstood, as he croaks simple sentences filled with feeling, but to the listener devoid of meaning, incapable of expressing the great depths of the muddy soul that dives to the bottom of the river, and the soaring creative heights of the glorious lights and colors and surrounding song-scapes, the Rivergator is one attempt to share the full measure of the breadth and depth of this landscape, or better said, riverscape, for all those who have any interest, I hope in some small way it comes close to touching the dancing waters of America’s big river in such a way that all who have eyes and all who have ears and see what us paddlers have seen and feel the bittersweet tinges of a powerful wilderness within the heart of our nation struggling for attention and our protection.

(John Ruskey)

Rivergator Appendix VIII:

Additional Stories from Natchez Area

by Adam Elliott

The Sandbar Fight or The Wells-Maddox Duel

On the September 19th 1827, just 10 years after Mississippi was granted statehood, one of America’s mythic frontier figures was shaped. Jim Bowie, and his legendary blade, were engaged in a melee just a few miles north of Natchez Mississippi in an area now known as Giles Island.

The event itself was centered around 2 individuals from the Alexandria LA area, Samuel L. Wells and Dr. Thomas H. Maddox. Wells and Maddox, both prominent members of the Alexandria community, had a prior beef concerning honor disparaging comments made by Maddox towards Wells’ daughter. As matters of honor went in that day, differences could only be settled in the gentlemanly sport of dueling.

As dueling had been outlawed in both Louisiana and Mississippi, the party agreed to meet on the first sandbar north of Natchez to settle their dispute, the thinking being that the sandbar was neither Mississippi nor Louisiana. Preparations were made, seconds were called and witnesses gathered. The respective parties left Alexandria to meet up in Natchez.

The Wells party consisted of his second, Jim Bowie, Major George McWhorter, General Samuel Cuny and several others. Maddox was seconded by Judge R.A. Crane, with Major Norris Wright, Carey and Alfred Blanchard as witnesses. Behind the scenes there were simmering tensions between General Cuny and Judge Crane as well as between Major Norris Wright and Jim Bowie for some past transgression left unsettled.

When the duel began Wells and Maddox squared off, fired shots ate each other, both missing. A custom of the day required, a second pair of pistols were produced and fired. Again, Wells and Maddox missing. At this point in the duel, it was common to call the matter settled, have a drink and get on with things. As Wells and Maddox made of to the tree line to have a drink, Bowie walked forward to greet them.

About this time General Cuny decided that he and Judge Crane should attempt to resolve past differences with a pistol. Crane, being a bit quicker than Cuny, fired his pistol, missing Cuny and striking Bowie in the thigh, knocking him to the ground. Crane fired from a second pistol as Cuny fired at Crane. Cranes’ shot stuck Cuny, leaving him dying in the sand, Cunys’ shot causing minor injuries to Crane.

It was at this point that Bowie picked himself up, charged Judge Crane, only to be smashed in the head by Crane with a pistol. It was at this point that Major Wright entered the fray, shooting Bowie in the arm and then attempting to stab Bowie in the chest with his sword cane. Wright’s sword stroke failed to pierce Bowie, becoming lodged in his sternum. Bowie then grabbed Wright, shoving his knife into Wright’s belly, dispatching the Major. Bowie was then rushed by the Blanchard brothers, both firing pistols, one shot striking Bowie in the arm. Mr. Bowie then cleaved a sizable hunk out of Alfred Blanchard’s forearm. As the Blanchard brothers turned to run, one of Mr. Bowies party fired and hit Carey Blanchard. At this point the melee concluded.

Major Norris Wright and General Samuel Cuny lay dead. Alfred and Carey Blanchard, Col. Crain and Jim Bowie all suffering wounds, with Bowies being the most grievous. Jim Bowie survived 2 gunshots, 1 stab wound and a pistol blow to the face. Crain helped carry Bowie away, with Bowie recorded as having thanked him, saying, Col. Crain, I do not think, under the circumstances, you ought to have shot me.

Newspapers picked up the story locally and then spread to gain national interest. Jim Bowie went on to defend himself with his knife several more times, only heightening his and his knifes reputation for being deadly, before dying at the Battle of the Alamo in 9 years later.

The Devil’s Punchbowl

“Far in the past, a great cup-shaped hole, about five hundred feet wide, had formed in the soft earth of the river bluffs. Slowly it seemed to widen, as gullies formed along its sides and rows of trees hurtled into its depths. Thickly grown, it provided a dim, almost impenetrable place of concealment. Natives thought a heavy meteor might once have plummeted here, sinking into the earth. Steamboat men claimed that their compasses behaved crazily when they passed.” Harnett T. Kane “Natchez On The Mississippi”

Ask twelve people in Natchez the location of the Punchbowl and you will get twelve very different answers. Much of this is due to the fact that the river north of Natchez was reshaped in the 1930’s, leaving the true location a bit fuzzy. Whatever has been said about the Devil’s Punchbowl, it has been a place of dread and woe throughout the early years of Mississippi’s history.

Prior to 1930, the river north of Natchez was not a relatively straight channel. There existed a 23 mile meander that started about 2 miles north of Under the Hill, arcing west towards Ferriday La, then north and back east towards Anna’s Bottom. Nestled into the bluff at this bend in the river is the Devil’s Punchbowl.

In the last decade of the 1700’s up until the 1830’s the primary mode of commerce was the flatboat. A flatboat was a raft of sorts that had a cabin built upon it for shelter while traveling. Goods would loaded upon it at points up river and floated down the Mississippi to New Orleans. At New Orleans the goods would be sold and the boat broken up and sold for lumber. The boatmen would then make their way back to Natchez to embark on a journey back to Nashville via the Natchez Trace.

It was this pattern that drew the land and river pirates. The Punchbowl was advantageous due to both its proximity to the river and the Trace. By land the Trace is less than 20 miles. One common strategy for the river pirates would be to have a decoy on the riverbank, a very old or young person, call out to flat boaters for help. Making land, the pirates would swarm from the dense thickets, overwhelming the travelers, killing them and stealing their goods.

The most infamous of the pirates was John Murrell. Murrell operated as both a river pirate and a bandit on the Natchez Trace. The Mystic Clan, as Murrell’s gang was known, consisted of somewhere between 3oo and a 1000 persons. It was through this network that Murrell moved the stolen goods. Horse thievery and reselling stolen slaves also constituted for some of the gangs work.

John Murrell and his gang operated up until the 1840’s, when Murrell was apprehended as part of plot to take over New Orleans and install himself as some sort of potentate of Louisiana. For his crimes he was jailed in Nashville TN, where he later died of tuberculosis.

As one canoes down river into Natchez at around MM 368 LBD be sure to keep a watchful eye on the bluffs. Through the trees several deep clefts can be spotted, one of which is the true Devil’s Punchbowl. If your compass goes wild and you spot someone calling innocently from the bank, you will know that you have arrived at the right spot.

Treasure writer Thomas Perry described it as “resembling an extinct volcano. It is only a few acres across, but this natural fortress in the wilderness has been linked to more treasure stories per square foot than just about any other place on the planet. Sir Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte are said to have buried treasure there, along with a host of lesser known French, English and Spanish pirates.” As with all things southern, the story is usually better than the history.

The Southern View Ezine reported that: “Two sets of particularly evil, inhumane pirates plagued the river from Memphis to Natchez in the 1800s, the Harpe Brothers and Samuel Mason Gang, who were so bloodthirsty that they even repulsed other pirates. The Devil’s Punchbowl was a place for the hiding of treasure and the disposal of corpses. Mason’s crew would lure passing boats by posing as farmers with goods. Someone might cry out as if in trouble. Sometimes they would have a girl stand on the bank and call out as if in distress. Victims would be killed unceremoniously, stripped, and their bodies hurled into the Devil’s Punchbowl. The Masonites would throw in two bodies at once, betting which would hit bottom first. A terrifying time for travel and commerce along the Natchez Trace and the Mississippi River.” (Kathy Root Pitts)

The Briars and BriarVue

Situated atop the highest promontory on the Mississippi River south of St Louis, is antebellum home The Briars. The design of this 1818 house is attributed to Levi Weeks of Philadelphia, PA and built for the Perkins Family. The Howell family purchased the house in 1825, but it was not until 1845 that the Briars had its place in history solidified.

In February 1845, Varina Howell was married in a simple ceremony that took place in the parlor in front of the fireplace. Her betrothed was a well established Mississippi man. A graduate of West Point, Mexican War hero, member of the U.S. Senate, War Secretary under Franklin Pierce and also a member of Congress, this man was no other than the soon to be President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis.

Today the home and outbuildings are used for weddings and special events, as well as a Bed and Breakfast. The building situated most closely to the precipice of the bluff is the BriarVue, constructed in the early 1980’s. It serves as a bar and restaurant with a spectacular view of the river and the low lying grounds of Louisiana.

The Mamie S Barret

While not the easiest attraction to view from the river, it is a sight that should be seen. The Barret is a connection to the river’s not so distant past, when paddle wheeled ships where the dominate form of transportation commerce. The trip is best made as part of a land based expedition from Natchez followed with paddling on Old River. A determined paddler could paddle the 10 miles from the Mississippi River, up the Old River Chute and then to the Barret if desired. The now abandoned steamship lies about 20 miles south of Natchez and 10 miles from the river she formerly plied.

The Mamie S Barrett was constructed in 1921 at the Howard Shipyards, Jefferson Indiana, for a cost of $145,000 dollars. Her steel riveted hull was 147 feet long, 30 feet wide, 5 feet deep and built to accommodate a crew of 27 with 11 officers. For 2 years she served as the flag ship and general packet ship for the Barret Barge Line. After 1923 The Barret changed hands quite a few times, swinging from low to high and back to low again.

In 1923 the Mamie S Barret was acquired by the Corp of Engineers for use on the Tennessee River in the area of Florence, AL. During her time with the Corp she moved off the Tennessee River and back on to the Mississippi to work with the Corps Rock Island District. In 1935 she was renamed the USS Penniman and then in 1942 upfitted with a bathtub and an elevator for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Mississippi River Inspection. The Barret had reached her peak.

1947 began the year of The Mamie S Barrets’ decline. She was decommissioned by the Corp and sold to a construction company in St Louis. In 1948 she was purchased by Major Spencer and Mrs. Lela Merrell, and her named changed to the Piasa. The Piasa was moved to the Harbor Point Yacht Club in West Alton IL. Throughout the 1950’s she would make paid excursions on the river. These would be her last trips under her own power.

Throughout the 1960’s the ship underwent many changes. Boilers were removed, a dance floor and restaurant installed and the engines removed. One of the boilers was fashioned into a lighthouse that is still at the Harbor Point Yacht Club to this day. By the early 1980’s she had outlived her usefulness, sold and moved to Eddyville KY on Lake Barkley where she served as a restaurant and tourist attraction until 1987.

The Barret was again purchased and moved down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg to serve as yet another restaurant and tourist attraction. This lasted up until 1991. The Mamie S Barret’s death begins here. Without any real home, she is first shipped down to Vidalia LA, after which in a series of paperwork swaps, she becomes stranded on the banks of Old River in Deer Park LA. She remains here today, her story largely forgotten, slowly rotting away.

Using the address 253 S. Prong Rd Vidalia LA 71373 in any GPS or online map/direction service will take you to the Barret.

Rivergator Appendix IX:

Vicksburg Services and Accommodations

(by Layne Logue)

Vicksburg is the best place for resupply, rest and relaxation, and reconnoiter for long distance paddlers. Do not leave your vessel unattended! Portage or safely stash your vessel and gear and walk up the hill to Washington Street which is full of restaurants, shops, bars, cafes, a drug store and a dollar store. The library is at the South end of downtown, and the Highway 61 Coffeehouse at the other, both are great for orienting yourself and finding local information. There are a couple of options for hotels nearby, but the closest grocery store is the County Market (2101 Clay Street) and 1 mile to the East. You’ll have to hop the bus or find a ride for food supply if you need Wal-Mart or Kroger. These two are miles away in the strip malls along Interstate 20. The Relax Inn (1313 Walnut St.) is within walking distance (3 blocks) of the Vicksburg boat launch with $45/night rate or the Portofino Hotel (1310 Mulberry St.) is one block away ($80/night). Portage your vessel and ask them to let you safely store it. Public Wi-Fi in the 1200-1400 blocks of Washington Street.

Catfish Row Children’s Art & Water Park is located on Levee Street just across the Vicksburg boat ramp. There are drinking water fountains and free electricity (outlets on the light poles). In the summer, cool off and maybe sneak in a bath in the water park fountains Hours: Open daily 9:00 – sunset.

Another possible anding for paddlers needing resupply in Vicksburg in low or medium water levels is the River Front Park left bank descending at 436.5 (directly below the Washington Street Louisiana Circle Overlook). Primitive landings only on shelves of rock, mounds of hardened mud, or if you’re lucky (and perceptive) one of the small beaches that usually form here in between the mud and the rock. Make your landing and pull vessel completely out of the water (or risk capsize - the waves get big here). Your gear should be safe here, no one else uses this location. Scramble your way several hundred yards up the bluffs to the park. Some bushwhacking might be necessary.

River Front Park has a drinking water fountain, bathrooms and free elctricity (outlets within the pavillion. Within walking distance of the park (up the hill and down Washington Street) you will find a Kangaroo Gas Station, Shell Gas Station with a Subway attached, Waffle House and Ameristar Hotel, Days Inn and Suites and other economical hotel choices. If you stay at the Dixiana you might be awakened out of your sleep by some of the all-night activity that seems to take place.

Public Transportation

The City of Vicksburg offers public transportation through the NRoute system. NRoute operates Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sit back, relax enjoy a safe comfortable air-conditioned ride while listening to music by some of Vicksburg's and Mississippi's most famous Delta Blues musicians. You might even learn a little more about Vicksburg along the way! Need schedules or special assistance? Call or go by the NRoute office to obtain route schedules and maps. All buses are handicapped accessible. They are also equipped with bike racks for those commuting from place to place.

For $2, you can go to grocery stores (Kroger, Corner Market, Wal-Mart) hospitals, the Vicksburg National Military Park, and the US Army Corps Map Room. Washington Street (2 blocks from V’burg City Front boat ramp) has NRoute bus stops on it. See below the website info.

We Care Customer Hotline 601-636-1053

Maps and other assistance offered at 2501 Hall's Ferry Road

For fare schedules got to nroute@vicksburg.org

Wi-Fi: Vicksburg provides free wireless internet access along the 1200 through the 1400 block of Washington Street. You can also find Wi-Fi at the Tourist Information Center (on Clay Street, across from the entrance to the Vicksburg National Military Park) and the Vicksburg Convention Center (1600 Mulberry Street).

Vicksburg services, accommodations and restaurants:

Warren County Library

700 Veto St, Vicksburg, MS

(601) 636-6411

www.warren.lib.ms.us/

Attic Gallery/Highway 61 Coffeehouse

1101 Washington Street

(601) 638-9221

www.atticgallery.net

Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site

Located within the MV Mississippi

910 Washington Street

601-638-9900

www.lmrm.org

Old Court House Museum

1008 Cherry Street

601-636-0741

www.oldcourthouse.org

US Army Corps of Engineers

Vicksburg District

4155 Clay St Vicksburg, MS 39183

(601) 631-5000

Rusty's Riverfront Grill

901 Washington St

(601) 638-2030

www.rustyriverfront.com

Relax Inn

1313 Walnut St

601-631-0097

Portofino Hotel

1310 Mulberry St

(601 629-9000

www.portofinohotelvicksburg.com

Cedar Grove Mansion Inn & Restaurant

2200 Oak St

(601) 636-1000

www.cedargroveinn.com

Walnut Hills

1214 Adams St

(601) 638-4910

www.walnuthillsms.com

Vicksburg Information Center

52 Old Hwy 27, light at Clay Street

(across from the main entrance to the Vicksburg National Military Park)

Phone: 800-221-3536 or 601-636-9421

www.visitvicksburg.com

Vicksburg City Hall

1401 Walnut St

Vicksburg, MS 39180

(601) 801-3411

www.Vicksburg.org

Vicksburg National Military Park

3201 Clay Street

601-636-0583

www.nps.gov/vick

Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum (1890)

1107 Washington Street

601-638-6514

601-636-5010

www.biedenharncoca-colamuseum.com

Rivergator Appendix X:

Natchez Services and Accommodations

(by Adam Elliott)

Internet access

Under The Hill Saloon. 25 Sliver St Natchez MS 39120

http://www.underthehillsaloon.com/

Natchez Coffee Company 509 Franklin St Natchez MS 39120

601-304-1415 open 7:00 am until 2:00pm 601-304-1415

Magnolia Grill 49 Silver St Natchez MS 39120

601-446-7670 closed Mondays. Open 11:00 am until 10:00 pm

http://www.magnoliagrill.com/

Fat Mamma’s Tamales

303 S Canal St Natchez MS 39120

601-442-4248 Mon-Thurs 11:00am until 9:00pm Fri-Sat 11:00am until 10:00pm Sun 11:00am until 7:00pm

https://www.fatmamastamales.com/

George Armstrong Public Library

220 S Commerce St Natchez MS 39120

601-445-8862 Closed Sunday Mon-Fri 9:00am until 5:00pm Sat 9:00 until 1:00pm

http://www.armstronglibrary.org/cms/

Bike Rental

Trippe’s Western Auto

180 Sgt Prentiss Dr Natchez MS 39120

601-445-4186 Mon-Sat 8:00am until 6:00pm

http://trippes.com/

Everyday Adventures

Main St Natchez MS 39120

601-392-3079

http://www.everydayadventure.net/home.html

Transportation: cabs, public transport, car rental, bus station

Miss Lou Taxi

504 Hwy 61 N Natchez MS 39120

601-442-7500

Natchez Transit System

127 Wood Ave Natchez MS 39120

601-445-7868

http://www.cityofnatchez.net/departments/transit.php

Enterprise Rent a Car

321 Devereaux Dr Natchez MS 39120

601-442-4200 Mon-Fri 8:00am until 6:00pm Sat 9:00am until 12:00pm Closed Sun

http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/wls.do?gpbr=55D3

Natchez Bus Terminal

127 Wood Ave Natchez MS 39120

601-445-5291 Mon-Fri 7:00am until 5:30pm Sat 8:00am until 5:00pm Closed Sun

Things to see

Natchez Visitor Center

640 S Canal St Natchez MS 39120

601-446-6345 9:00am until 4:00pm Mon-Sat

http://visitnatchez.org/

The Gandy Collection. Over 500 photographs from the 1840’s on of Natchez.

First Presbyterian Church

400 State St Natchez MS 39120

601-445-0700 10:00am until 4:00pm Mon-Sat $5 dollar donation is requested

The Bluff’s Walking Trail and Historic Downtown Markers. Walk the trail from along the base and tops of the bluffs then through downtown. Markers with local and historic info along the way. Maps available at the Visitors Center.

Natchez City Cemetery

2 Cemetery Rd Natchez MS 39120

601-445-5051 Open dawn until dusk

Grand Village Of The Natchez Indians

400 Jeff Davis Blvd Natchez MS 39120

601-446-6502 Mon-Sat 9:00am-5:00pm Sun 1:30-5:00pm

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/mounds/gra.htm

Historic Jefferson Military College

16 Old N St Washington MS 39190

601-442-2901 Grounds open daily Sunup until Sundown Buildings open Mon-Sat 9:00am-5:00pm Sun 1:00pm-5:00pm

http://mdah.state.ms.us/hprop/hjccurrent.html#visit

Camping

The only legal public river side camping available is at

Riverview RV Park and Resort

100 Riverview Pkwy Vidalia LA 71373

1-888-628-2430

http://www.riverviewrvpark.com/

Natchez State Park

230 B Wickliff Rd Natchez MS 39120

601-442-2658

http://mississippistateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/natchez/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=MS&parkId=155845

Supplies

There are 2 grocery stores within walking distance, less than 2 miles, from the Silver St Boat ramp or the Vidalia Riverpark. 2 WalMarts are also located in the area, Vidalia and Natchez. Each less than 4 miles away.

Natchez Market

280 John R Junkin Dr Natchez MS 39120

601-442-9156 6:00am-10:00pm

http://www.themarketsonline.com/our-stores/natchez-market/

Vidalia Market

1703 Carter St Vidalia LA 71373

318-336-1335 6:00am-9:00pm

http://www.themarketsonline.com/our-stores/vidalia-market/

Walmart Vidalia

4283 Carter St Vidalia LA

318-336-8996 6:00am-12:00am

Walmart Natchez

314 Sgt Prentiss Dr Natchez MS 39120

601-442-2895 Open 24hrs a day

Places to eat

This is a very, very long list. Use the http://visitnatchez.org/about/natchez-visitor-center/ for a very complete guide. A few of the places listed are also listed under the Internet section.

There are 4 places in Natchez under the hill, a very short walk from the ramp, to eat.

Magnolia Bar and Grill (details in Internet Section)

The Camp

21 Silver St Natchez MS 39120

https://www.facebook.com/thecamprestaurant?ref=stream

The Magnolia Bluffs Casino

7 Roth Hill Rd Natchez MS 39120

1-888-505-5777

http://magnoliabluffscasino.com/

Isle of Capri Casino

53 Silver St Natchez MS 39120

1-800-722-5825

http://natchez.isleofcapricasinos.com/index.aspx

Accommodations

The choices are pretty vast if you are just looking for a land based place to stay. From inexpensive to quite luxurious, you can find it in Natchez. Use the visit Natchez link for local listings.

http://www.visitnatchez.org/stay/

Rivergator Appendix XI:

Dave & Linnea on the Atchafalaya

Note: Linnea Godderstad and Dave Blomquist paddled the Mississippi in 2013, and chose the Atchafalaya Route to the Gulf of Mexico, hereby described:

Night before the Atchafalaya: Mississippi LDB 304. We camped on Shreve’s Bar, a sandbar island on the left side of the main channel of the Mississippi right across from the confluence with the Old River. Not a great place to be in a surprise thunderstorm, as we learned.

The next morning we pulled up to the Old River lock. The lockmaster was unresponsive to our radio requests. There's a boat ramp to the left of the lock that we got out on to find the lockmaster, who only pulled up on a bicycle when a tow showed up. He let the tow go in front of us then let us through with the next tow. Note to paddlers it can take a long time to get through this lock, even (especially?) if there's not too much traffic.

Night 1: LDB 14 After the town of Simmesport the river runs almost straight S for about 10 miles, then curves R/west suddenly. There are sandbars on both sides of the river around these curves. We camped on the LDB just after the first westward curve on a pretty steep bank. There are cows on the R side. Both sides seemed like farmland, so we're guessing this site is probably on private property. Got this campsite location from Andy Bugh.

Night 2: Atchafalaya campground, RDB 49 The campground and its boat ramp (Perry's Landing) is marked on the LSU Basin map you recommended we get. The campground boat ramp is just a few miles past Krotz Springs on the RDB. The river is running SE as it passes Krotz Springs, then curves sharply R/W, then curves L/SSE again. The campground boat ramp is just at the end of this L curve. The campground manager is Tammy Stoute, and she and owner Bob Perry are very paddler-friendly. Water, outlets available, but stores in Krotz Springs are 2 miles or so away. Odds are someone at the campground would drive you, but I guess that can't be guaranteed. They were incredibly generous to us -- they fed us and gave us an incredible amount of beer and food for free and didn't charge us for camping there.

Side note on resupply: Krotz Springs was the only town we tried to get into on our own from the water and we didn't make it -- it's pretty inaccessible. It's a long walk from the boat ramp below town to any stores, and I'm not even sure that ramp is public. Never tried to go to any other towns, so that's the only one I have knowledge of. Luckily we were good on food, the only thing we needed to resupply was whiskey, which luckily Tammy's son Trent was able to drive us into town to procure.

Night 3: Around LDB 77 This spot is just after the confluence where the old river back channel that goes past Butte La Rose comes back in to the dredged and maintained channel. This was a spot that was mowed and relatively brush free because there was an underwater gas pipeline running under it. This was at least the 2nd mowed pipeline crossing after the old river channel confluence, we skipped at least one pipeline where the bank was too muddy to get out. This spot had enough small tree root networks reaching down the bank to keep feet from sinking in too much. This spot was unpleasant, muddy and buggy. Since this was land above a gas line we assumed it wasn't residential private property.

Night 4: RDB 104 This sandbar is on the big point just after the entrance to Sixmile Lake and just between the part of the main channel labeled Grand Lake and the part labeled Cypress Pass. (Note: part of the main channel after Cypress Pass is also called Sixmile. That's not the one I'm talking about.) This was a great spot. It seems like it's a neighborhood party spot, as evidenced by the grill someone left there and the beer cans. If it is private property, the owner doesn't seem to care too much about people being there, especially because I think it's the sandbar another paddler, Andy Bugh, said locals recommended he stay at because it's a local swimming spot a lot of people go to. It's only about 15 miles from Morgan City, and it's maybe the only sandbar we saw on the entire lower half of the river when we came through.

Backchannels: We were excited to be done so the only backchannels we took were on the very last day. The first backchannel cuts right of the big island on the right side of the main channel just after Cypress Pass and at the beginning of the other Sixmile Lake. The second one was a narrow back channel in the next network of islands between Little Island Pass and Riverside Pass. Both of these were great. Lots of gators, camps, white flowers, orange flowers and those purplish birds that look like herons. As the backchannels come back into the main channel at Three Island Pass, on the right side there are some really cool barge wrecks. They're visible on Google Maps if you want their location.

The end: We took out at the boat ramp in Berwick Bay (RDB). It's after two road bridges and 300 feet feet after the railroad bridge in a small harbor.

Side note about the river: A few people warned us about how bad the eddies are on the Atchafalaya. Everything we saw was tamer than the Mississippi. So I'm not sure what that's about. The current was about the same as the Mississippi for the first half of the river and then began slowing down more and more the closer we got to the Gulf. By the time we were almost to Morgan City (maybe 15 miles away?) the current was near zero.

Rivergator Appendix XII:

Sources

The Rivergator: Literary Analysis

The many available publications regarding the Lower Mississippi eddy into two categories, 1) personal travelogues and 2) scientific/historic/commercial works, neither of which satisfy the navigation & guiding needs of the modern American adventurer. Hence the need for the writing of the Rivergator.

The Naming of the Rivergator

The title Rivergator is derived from the national best-sellerThe Navigator, first published in 1801 by Zadok Cramer, with 12 subsequent printings. The Navigator described the Mississippi Valley for pioneer settlers streaming out of the Eastern United States in the first great wave of continental migrations that eventually led to the settling of the Wild West. Thomas Jefferson and other leaders were fearful that the French or the English would get there first. With the Lewis & Clark explorations and the introduction of the steamboat to the Mississippi River in 1812, Americans followed the big rivers up and down through the heart of the country, and The Navigator was their guide. In this spirit I have adopted the name Rivergator with the hope that Americans will rediscover their “wilderness within,” the paddler’s paradise created by the Lower Mississippi River. And that the Rivergator will be adopted by successive generations of canoeists and kayakers, and re-written as the river changes. Zadok Cramer also invented the numbering system for Lower Mississippi River Islands, a system still in use today.

Guidebooks

Ernest Herndon’s Canoeing Louisiana and Canoeing Mississippi are the best sources for paddlers using tributaries rivers like the Yazoo, Big Black, Red, Ouachita and Atchafalaya Rivers. In fact he raised the bar so high with these guidebooks that no one will probably ever cross it. However the Mississippi is only lightly touched upon. Because of the extreme nature of the big river, its unique challenges and its hazardous obstacles, Ernest purposely focused on all rivers but the Mississippi, and avoided describing the big river in any detailed fashion. Canoeing Louisiana and Canoeing Mississippi provide a simple outline to the Lower Mississippi River, but were not written as comprehensive guidebooks for paddler’s use on the big river.

Besides the Rivergator, there are no internet guides for paddling the Lower Mississippi, but many adventurers have kept personal blogs which are sometimes helpful in gleaning information. Several of these blogs were useful in writing the Rivergator, such as those kept by Linnea Godderstad and Dave Blomquist in 2013, and Lucas and Nathalie (and their intrepid puppy-dog Tischer) from the “Paddle in Hand” Expedition.

Personal Travelogues:

While readable and sometimes blandly helpful for those who might follow their paddle strokes, the explorations of contemporary writers Eddy Harris (1988, Mississippi Solo: A River Quest), Jonathan Raban (1981, Old Glory: An American Voyage), B.C. Hall & C.T. Wood (1993, Big Muddy: Down the Mississippi through America’s Heartland), Edward Wright (1995, The Great River Caper), Ben Lucien Burman (1973, Look Down the Winding River)and Weldon Parker (1985, Magical Mississippi) are maddeningly empty of any useful information about the islands, the harbors, the landings – furthermore, they are completely devoid of instructions regarding reading the river. This is frustrating because taken together these authors amass a great potential for sharing river knowledge and experiences. Even power-boaters Jonathan Raban and Weldon Parker must have paid close attention to navigating the channels and exploring the islands (which offer the best campsites). And yet, instead of making useful observations and reporting on them they seem satisfied on entertaining the reader with yet another series of personal experiences and vignettes from the people and places along the river. Pleasurable –yes, but not in the least helpful the modern paddler on the Lower Mississippi.

The photo books Around the Bend: a Mississippi River Adventure by C.C. Lockwood (1998), and Mississippi River: A Photographic Journey (1987, Jerry Stebbins & Barbara Cameron ) are written in the same travelogue format, fun to read and full of beautiful photography, but missing any useful tips for reading the river or navigation details that are of extreme importance to paddlers.

Mark Twain:

On the other hand, much useful information can still be gleaned from the 1883 publication Life on the Mississippi, and to a lesser extent, 1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain, the great dean of Mississippi literature, raised the bar so high, no other writer since has been able to hurdle it. While the context of Huckleberry Finn is the model for many a young man’s river dreams (including mine! It brought me originally to the Mississippi Valley from the Rocky Mountains via Choate Rosemary Hall High School, Connecticut in 1983), some of which have been published (Down the Mississippi by Clyde Robert Bulla, 1954, is an example) no writer has been able to follow the quality of his lead in the wonderful and unparalleled Life on the Mississippi.

The first twenty chapters of Life on the Mississippi relate the adventures of the young Samuel Clemmons in his education as a cub pilot, in which he describes with brilliant detail the changing nature of the river’s face and the significance all of its various motions, the swirls, the boils, the rippling waves, and so on and forth (with his usual charming mixture of stories and anecdotes, and river scenery). At once Twain’s narration is told through the eyes of a painter, and engineer, and a poet. Life on the Mississippi remains to this day the best single introduction to “reading the river,” and it was published over a century ago! It is a prerequisite for any potential guides with my Quapaw Canoe Company. The only thing better than better than Life on the Mississippi is river experience.

With this thought in mind, the Rivergator will impart over twenty years of “reading the river,” and “reading the islands,” for modern day paddlers, eco-travelers and armchair adventurers.

Scientific/Historic/Graphic Works:

The Rivergator will illustrate the changeable nature of the islands and river bends in maps and text, employing a wide variety of sources. The Pantheon of literature relating to the Lower Mississippi River is of course quite broad and extensive, almost as varied and deep as the river itself. I will leave off for now proving the ways in which The Rivergator fills a literary vacuum, and instead describe a selection of the titles I have read over the years in preparation for The Rivergator, many of which will be referenced, and all will be described in full bibliographic detail below.

Marion Bragg’s 1977 Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi is my traveling bible for mile-by-mile understanding of the river’s unusual and sometimes contradictory nomenclature (one of the few books I carry during my paddling expeditions).

For map-making and graphic understanding of the morphology of the Mississippi River and its changing water/landscapes, the following were extremely helpful: Karl Bodmer’s America (paintings from the 1832-34 Prince Maxmillian expedition), America Mississippi (early 1800s, Charles Alexandre Lesueur), and Roger T. Saucier’s Geomorphology and Quaternary Geologic History of the Lower Mississippi River, 1994).

My maps are based on a combination of five sources: (1) The 1983 – 2015 Expeditions conducted by myself, Sean Rowe, Michael F. Clark, Joe Royer, Adam Elliott, John Gary, Paul and Michael Orr, and others; (2) the 1998 US Army Corps Flood Control & Navigation Maps of the Mississippi River, (3) the US Army Corps Hydrographic Surveys of 1988-1989 and 1991-1992; (4) the 7 ½ minute series and 15 minute series of the United States Geologic Survey for the regions being described and mapped, and lastly (5) satellite images available through Google Earth.

John Barry’s 1997 book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it Changed America, depicts the river using the latest hydrologic & historic findings in its first six chapters, taken together in a chapter titled “The Engineers.” An earlier 1927 Flood narrative also useful and full of eye-opening documentary photographs & documents, is Pete Daniel’s Deep’n As it Come (1977). John McPhee’s essay on drainage in The Control of Nature (1989) is a stirring & eloquent narration of the controversial “Old River Control Structure” which was built in between the Atchaflaya River and the Lower Mississippi in an attempt to save New Orleans from the next 500 year flood. This Land, This Delta: An Environmental History of the Yazoo-Mississippi Floodplain (2005, by Mikko Saikku) has been extremely lucid and matter-of-fact in describing the forests and floodplain of the Mississippi Delta and how nature and the works of mankind have changed them, and continue to alter them.

For river explorations, I read and have referenced The Narratives of DeSoto Vol I & II (1904), La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents (1987), The Voyages of Marquette in the Jesuit Relations (1966: Readex Microprint), and The Travels of William Bartram (1791).

Some beautiful and telling river panoramas are expressed in John James Audubon’s 1834 Dileneation of American Scenery and Character and Agnes Anderson’s 1994 Approaching the Magic Hour (in which one chapter narrates a Mississippi River canoe journey made with her husband painter/potter Walter Anderson in 1924). Two helpful regional autobiographies are Hodding Carter’s Where Main Street Meets the Levee (1952), and Willam Alexander Percy’s Lanterns on the Levee (1950).

Applicable in only the most general sense to an overall contemporary understanding of the Mississippi River Basin is Mississippi Currents (1996, Andrew H. Malcolm & Roger Straus III) and The Mississippi: The Making of a Nation (2002 Stephen E. Ambrose & Douglas G. Brinkley).

Rivergator Appendix XIV:

Paddling through Weather Extremes:

Wind and Severe Thunderstorms

By “Driftwood Johnnie” John Ruskey

Paddlers by nature are accustomed to challenging conditions on an ever-changing medium. So while global warming might ruffle feathers and stir up the dust on land, on the water it looks like it will be more of the same… just more of it. According to a recent all-encompassing scientific study we will be experiencing more violent river level changes, stronger winds, more dangerous severe storms, rising seas, inundated coastlines, warmer winters, hotter summers, more mosquitoes, snakes, alligators, poison ivy and noxious air conditions, and many other hazards.

The recently completed National Climate Assessment (May 6, 2014 by NOAA) has confirmed some of our experiences as paddlers with extreme water and atmospheric conditions, especially on big open waters like Puget Sound, the Inside Passage, San Francisco Bay, Lake Superior, Glacier Bay, Acadia, the Hudson River, the Florida Keys and the Lower Mississippi River.

Wind and severe thunderstorms have been especially troublesome to Lower Mississippi River paddlers. In recent years high winds have led directly to at least one canoe being lost “at sea,” and was one of the determining factors in the death of at least one big river canoeist. Seasoned Memphis kayaker and race director Joe Royer decided to move the The Outdoors Inc. Canoe and Kayak Race from its traditional May date back to Father’s Day Weekend in June because of the highly erratic and oftentimes violent spring weather patterns. As always, its best to be prepared for all eventualities on the big river. Like climbing the big mountain, you are very exposed on the big river (big lakes, open ocean). When you fall, you fall a long, long ways.

The National Climate Assessment is completed every four years by more than 300 U.S. scientists to assess how the climate is changing in the U.S. The report was supervised and approved by a 60-member committee representing a cross section of American society, including representatives of two oil companies.

I picked up the very readable report online and was immediately reminded of the dozens of dramas and comedies we have suffered through in the past decade, and wondered how these mishaps might have been result of some aspect resulting from climate change. As always lot can be learned in the stories of other canoeists and kayakers, in this case from paddlers encountering high winds and severe thunderstorms on the Lower Mississippi:

Losing tents in front line winds:

I’ve been with groups where we had all of our tents blown down and sent tumbling hundreds of yards across the sandbar. Once during a severe thunderstorm near New Madrid, Missouri. This storm was amongst the most powerful I’ve ever experienced. The rain fell sideways for half an hour. We lost twelve tents to the wind. We recovered most of them, but my tent poles are still bent, and the raging campfire was lifted up and deposited on one tent and burned it up. We had to recover in the darkness. Many in the group slept outdoors and got eaten up by mosquitoes. Another time there was no storm in the forecast. We were on Prairie Point Towhead above Helena. A strange squall line appeared from the north. It crossed the river and dismantled our unprotected campsite in the first blow. I remember my initial anger when it blew over an enamel cup of wine I was getting ready to enjoy after the long day of paddling. We chased tents almost a mile before they came to rest against the treeline at the edge of the big sandbar. The wind continued unabated all night long as we huddled near the fire. No one attempted to resurrect their shelters, even though it dipped down into the mid 30s.

Losing a canoe in the wind:

Long distance canoeist Max Karpov was camped near mile 701 in an open spot along a sandbar island that accumulates around the Porter Lake Dikes. He was almost directly opposite the Tunica Riverpark Museum, and the Fitzgerald Casino, but he could have been on a separate continent so far removed are these islands from civilization. Sometime in the middle of the night high winds kicked up out of the North and caught Max unawares. He awoke the next morning to discover his canoe nowhere to be found. He hadn’t thought it necessary to tie up the night previous. Max was another lucky victim of high winds. He was plucked off the sandbar wilderness by a Fish and Game patrolman. And his canoe was rescued by the next long distance paddlers in the vicinity, Lucas and Nathalie (and their intrepid puppy-dog Tischer from the Paddle in Hand Expedition). Lucas and Nathalie found it washed up eleven miles downstream at the top end of Mhoon Bend. I assisted in the canoe rescue. It was obviously dragged some distance by the wind across rock, rip-rap or revetment, and a seat was ripped out. But otherwise it was intact.

Kayaking in the wind:

Another time I was kayaking solo along the edge of a powerful storm when it suddenly jumped over the river and blew me over. I ejected and took refuge amongst some stubby mature willows where 2-3 foot crashing waves lashed the shoreline. Several of the trees blew over in the front line winds, fortunately none on top of me. A small tornado passed nearby with this one. Most recently (April 2014) we were approaching our intended camp behind an island not far above Natchez. A molted blue/black/white layered storm front coalesced over the entire length of the Western horizon and then crossed the river at a strange perpendicular, making small water spouts jump up in its path, sucking river water in small splashes of swirling spray. The kayaker in our group was forced to turn into shore and then eject in the growing trains of crashing waves against the shoreline. I couldn’t turn the 30-foot long voyageur canoe I was piloting until everyone portside held water and everyone starboard paddled double time forward. On the shoreline near us a dozen trees were pushed over like blades of grass before a weed-whacker. Again, the kayaker got lucky and missed being hit by falling trees, or other complications. Forty eight hours passed before that cold front blew itself out and the calm returned. Long distance kayaker Rod Wellington was paddling down the Missouri River late in December of 2012 when a storm front packing blizzard slammed him broadsides in an open riverside camp on a sandy bluff. In Rod’s own words: “I awoke to find my 17’ sea kayak partially covered in a mix of drifted snow and sand on the barren banks of the Missouri River near Jefferson City, Missouri. I spent 40 hours holed-up in a small, two-person tent... braving my way through a vicious winter storm that blasted the area with sideways snow, 50mph winds and temperatures in the single digits. With my video camera inoperable due to the frigid temps, and fingers too numb to hold a pen, I gave up the idea of documenting my besieged state and instead, with the help of earplugs, was able to catch up on some much-needed sleep.”

Losing a life in the wind:

But not everyone is so lucky. High winds and oncoming severe thunderstorms are no laughing matter. Some wind-related accidents have resulted in tragedy. Some have resulted in paddler’s deaths. Fifteen years ago (late 1990s) two long distance canoeists were paddling downstream in the final days of their 3-month Mississippi River top-to-bottom expedition. They were between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the very busy and very industrial Chemical Corridor, also known as the “War Zone” or “Cancer Alley.” No one knows exactly what happened, because they were no survivors. High winds forced them to paddle over the top of a long line of fleeted barges, which are common to the area. Their canoe flipped under the rake end of the topmost barge and the paddlers were never seen again. A sobering story for any paddler to imagine. More recently, in March 2010, two paddlers left downtown Memphis in a canoe, crossed the main channel to the Hopefield Dikes and flipped over near the Arkansas shore. It was a blustery day with wind gusts up to 30 mph out of the south. Hopefield is the series of dikes below Loosahatchie Bar which extends under the M Bridge. The channel narrows in this area between the bridges and become a wind tunnel in strong south wind. As the canoeists crossed the river the wind picked up and the main channel quickly filled with choppy 2-3 foot crashing haystacking waves and possibly higher in turbulent places or after the passing of any upstream tows. The river was typically cold for early spring, probably in the 40s. Neither men were wearing wetsuits, although one had his life jacket on. One man was able to swim to shore, the other never made it.

New millennium paddlers can expect a century full of surprises, along with everyone else on this ever-evolving earth of ours. But if anyone can handle it, we can. Nothing makes us happier than having more water. We’re like the fish. When the river rises it just means we have more places to play in. And it sounds like we’re going to get it, although not always when we want it or expect it. A little preparation and planning go a long ways to safely returning home.

- Driftwood Johnnie (John Ruskey)

Clarksdale, Miss

PS: Warning note: inaccuracies in wind predictions. Assume the worst when listening to the weather report. Add on 5-10mph to any predictions. The wind often seems to be stronger on the river. Also, meteorologists are very slowly catching up to the new weather conditions and patterns being created as result of global warming. The old computer models are sometimes inaccurate. Old weather patterns across the Deep South (and elsewhere) might be going obsolete.

PPS: Paddlers can learn more about safe paddling through extremes of weather at the Rivergator: Paddler’s Guide to the Middle/Lower Mississippi River (St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico). Visit www.rivergator.org. And may the river be with you!

Rivergator Appendix XV:Lake Country of Northern Louisiana

Lake Country of Northern Louisiana

The river too high to paddle? Not interested in a wild muddy river? Don’t feel strong enough to get on the wild and powerful Lower Mississippi River?

Rewarding alternative for paddlers in Northeastern Louisiana can be found at any number of lakes. Some of these lakes are found within the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge. Others are the giant oxbow lakes found alongside the mighty Mississippi such as Lake Bruin, Lake Concordia, Lake St. Joseph and Lake St. John. These lakes are safe for paddlers of any ability, but require the usual precautions.

If you had to choose between the oxbow lakes, Lake Bruin has the most friendly access. Within Tensas NWR Africa Lake is the most beautiful and furthermore is slightly smaller and easier to access. That said, you could paddle around any of these lakes within a half day.

Click here for paddling trails on the Lakes of Northeastern Louisiana:

Lake Bruin Paddling Trail

2-3 miles round trip

Good paddling on beautiful clear water lake. You can canoe or kayak as far as you feel like going, but 2 to 3 miles suggested to get full flavor. Lake Bruin is an oxbow lake of the Mississippi River with 3,000 acres of open water. The lake dives to over 50 feet deep in places. The recommended trail begins and ends at the State Park and makes a short loop around its southeastern extreme.

Lake Concordia Paddling Trail

Small but very deep oxbow lake, Concordia sparkles with the clearest water of any of Northern Louisiana's oxbows. Great swimming, but be wary of gators. Over 150 deep in places. Thickly populated with houses and piers along its southern end, and busy with motorboats during the summer months. Paddlers can find some peace and more wildlife at the northern end of the lake amongst stands of bald cypress and clumps of vegetation. Good paddling for canoes, kayaks or stand up paddleboards.

Lake St. Joseph Paddling Trail

3-5 miles round trip

Lake St. Joseph is thought to be one of the oldest oxbow lakes along the Lower Mississippi. It is also one of the most storied: It was important to the Mississippian peoples who populated the region, and later to the Tensas people who lived in numerous villages along the lake. It is the site of Louisiana’s first Christian mass, which was conducted by the LaSalle Expedition. Along its bank is found “Winter Quarters,”

Lake St. John Paddling Trail

Mississippi River Old oxbow lake. St. John is ringed by houses and fields on all but its northeastern extremity. Hence the best paddling, and most plentiful wildlife is found at the same. At writing time (2013) the only reliable public access close to north end was found at the Spokane Fishing Resort, but we were told by locals a public access was being planned for an old primitive ramp located in the far NE end of the lake, in a smaller but connected pond/wetlands swamp.

For the Rivergator: Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

The www.rivergator.org is a free public use website

presented by the Lower Mississippi River Foundation.

Re-printing of text and photos by permission only with proper credits.

Mississippi Delta Paddling Trails:

Water Trails of Northeastern Louisiana:

Yazoo River

King’s Ferry Landing to Vicksburg

Custom Google Map

River Levels:

Go to USGS Gage:

Or use the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center:

Don’t Forget to Pack:

Hunting Season

King's Ferry Landing

Mile 1.2 Upper Vicksburg Harbor

Mile 2.8 Centennial Lake Entrance

Centennial Lake

DeSoto Lake Cutoff

Vicksburg National Military Park

Mile 3.7 Fort Hill Bend

Mile 4.5 Downtown Vicksburg

Mile 5.1 The Vicksburg City Front Boat Ramp

Centennial Lake Roundtrip

Vicksburg to Racetrack Island

Racetrack Island to Middle Ground Island

Middle Ground to Fairchild Island

Fairchild Island to Natchez Island

Natchez to Palmetto Island

Palmetto Island to Hog Island

Hog Point Towhead to St. Maurice Island

St. Maurice To Fancy Point

Fancy Point Towhead to Baton Rouge

Saturday, December 6, Yazoo River

Sunday, December 7, Reid Bedford Point

Monday, December 8, Middle Ground

Tuesday, December 9, Skull Island.

Wednesday, Dec 10, Natchez Islands.

Thursday, Dec 11, Palmetto Island.

Friday, Dec 12, Hog Point Towhead.

Sat, Dec 13, St. Maurice Island.

Sunday, Dec 14, Fancy Point.

Monday, Dec 15, Glass Beach, Baton Rouge

The Sandbar Fight or The Wells-Maddox Duel

The Devil’s Punchbowl

The Briars and BriarVue

The Mamie S Barret

Vicksburg services, accommodations and restaurants:

Internet access

Bike Rental

Transportation: cabs, public transport, car rental, bus station

Things to see

Camping

Supplies

Places to eat

Accommodations

The Rivergator: Literary Analysis

The Naming of the Rivergator

Guidebooks

Personal Travelogues:

Mark Twain:

Scientific/Historic/Graphic Works:

Losing tents in front line winds:

Losing a canoe in the wind:

Kayaking in the wind:

Losing a life in the wind:

Lake Country of Northern Louisiana

Lake Bruin Paddling Trail

Lake Concordia Paddling Trail

Lake St. Joseph Paddling Trail

Lake St. John Paddling Trail

More from this section

Vicksburg

Mile 363.5 - LBD Natchez-Under-the-Hill

Mile 365.0 - RBD Opening to Old River -- Bottom End (Marengo Bend Lake)

Mile 367.5 - RBD Opening to Old River -- Top End (Marengo Bend Lake)

Mile 367.0 - LBD Devil’s Punchbowl

Mile 367.0 - Miles 367-365: LBD Remnants of Cypress Forest