camping – Paddle St. Louis

(Apologies in advance – likely long, overly detailed, sometimes technical, and paddle-nerd speak. Capturing these details probably more for me for future reference, but also maybe to help fellow paddlers with future planning and trip logistics. In any case, thanks for reading!)

Big Picture

New Haven, MO to Burns Point, LA

Dates: Oct 1, 2025 – Oct 30, 2025 – 28 total paddle days, 2 zero days (travel to and from STL for the 24 Hours from Home Challenge – average of 38 miles per day, long day: 65 miles – New Haven to Pelican Island, short day: 5 miles getting into Caruthersville, MO

States: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana

Missouri River: 82 miles from New Haven, MO ramp to the confluence of the Mississippi.

Mississippi River – Upper: 195 miles from confluence of the Missouri to confluence of the Ohio

Mississippi River – Lower: 649 miles from confluence of Ohio to Old River Lock/Canal entrance (+1 mile up and back to Vicksburg ramp on Yazoo River)

Old River Lock/Canal: 6 miles

Atchafalaya River: 104 miles from Old River Canal to Six Mile Lake

Six Mile Lake, Intercoastal Connector/Diversion Channel, Horse Bayou, Gulf of Mexico: 29 miles

Grand Total: 1,067 river miles

Boat/Gear/Tech

Mostar – Timber Longboard, Co. 20ft cedar strip kayak – custom build by Shane Camden, 60 – 65lbs unloaded, est. 350lbs fully loaded

Paddles: RPC paddles – mid-wind blade, Swift euro blade as a backup

C-Tug collapsible kayak cart – though only used on the Chain of Rocks portage and hauling my boat up the ramp at Vicksburg for overnight safekeeping

Tracker: Garmin InReach GPSMAP 86I (thanks Bill Behrns!) + monthly subscription for messages/live tracking capability

Key Apps/Sites used: Google maps, Windy, Weatherbug, Findship, Marine Traffic, Navionics, USGS river guages, Garmin apps, Rivergator

VHF radio for barge/lock communication (thanks Bill Behrns!) – barges use channel 13, Old River Lock uses channel 14

Samsung S23 Android phone, replaced with Samsung S25 Android phone – upgraded due to dropping phone in the intercoastal waterway on the final day of the trip

JBL portable speaker for occasional playlists, audiobooks, podcasts

Portable keyboard for typing out longer blog posts

Batteries: Assorted brands of portable batteries/bricks, could charge critical devices for up to 5 or 6 days until having to recharge batteries, no solar charging on this trip

Nutrition

Dinners: pre-dehydrated meals (homemade), assorted. Favorites were pasta/ham/sauerkraut, garlic rice/chicken/broccoli/butter chicken leather, pasta/chicken/broccoli/tikka masala leather, pasta/ground beef/tomoto sauce leather, chicken/carrots/black bean/wild rice, pasta/chicken/broccoli/king mushroom. Key add-ons: concentrated chicken stock, Boracayan Jerk seasoning, Cholula hot sauce. Rehydration via JetBoil/camp pot. Assorted meals from local bars/restaurants when I could score them

Breakfast/Daily Snacks: assorted breakfast bars, protien/nutrition bars, PB&J snacks, turkey jerky, Briney’s Boiled Peanuts – amazing – thanks Zach!! Huell powder/shakes – Vanilla and Berry (meal replacement)

Estimated 10-15lb bodyweight lost

Hydration: 5 gallons of water, refilled every 4 or 5 days at local sources, morning coffee via Jetboil, Liquid IV mix packets, instant strawberry/lemonade packets, nightly whiskey ration – assorted brands, cold beers when I was lucky

Geography/Key Towns Visited

St. Louis, Chester, IL, Cape Girardeau, MO, Wickliffe, KY, New Madrid, MO, Caruthersville, MO – boat storage for 2 days, rental car from Enterprise Dyersville, TN, Memphis, TN – overnight with River Angels, Helena, AR, Greenville, MS, Vicksburg, MS – overnight at Mulberry Hotel, Natchez, MS, Riverview RV Resort – Krotz Springs, LA, Calumet, LA, Burns Point, LA – takeout

All other nights was sandbar camping on terrific low water/Autumn river levels – specific camp locations are plotted on my google maps account, can share upon request. I did record river levels at various locations during my trip but won’t share that level of detail here. It was very low.

Paddle Partners

Brian Thompson, Justin White of Cape Girardeau, MO – Wittenberg Access to Trail of Tears SP,

Lynn Fingerhut of Peoria, IL – Calumet, LA to Burns Point, LA

Key Clothing/Gear

NRS paddle shorts, Magellan Water Shoes, assorted long-sleeve/hooded SPF tech shirts, NRS splash jacket, Trak Kayak skirt, Merino wool sweater worn almost every night on the sandbars

Tent/sleeping: Marmot 2p – 2 tent poles snapped on trip, but love this tent. Kilos Gear sleeping pad – this thing was comfortable but not built for regular use, cannot recommend – sprung a leak 12 nights in, upgraded to a Nemo sleeping pad in Vicksburg. Sea To Summit Aeros pillow, silk sleeping bag liner

Golf umbrella for sailing, rain, wind block, shade, emergency rain displacement with leaky tent roof

Assorted brands of dry bags, mesh bags

Elastic clothesline for nightly drying out of clothing & gear

Summary Thoughts and Advice

Overall, loved this trip. In hindsight, the mileage and timeframe was pretty ambitious. I thought I’d have no issue cranking out 50 mile days making the just over 1000 mile trip in 30 days very doable. But on days where I did get close to 50, those were generally long days. A solid paddling day I felt good about for me on this trip was around 42 – 45 miles. Had pretty strong current on the MO – probably 4 mph current and paddling was doing 6.5 mph. Upper Mississippi slightly slower, estimating 3mph/5mph. After the Ohio confluence – slower at 2.5 mph/4.5mph. Atchafalaya – even slower at 1mph/3.5-4mph. If I had to do over, I likely would have left a week earlier and spent more time in towns along the way – really want to see more of Vicksburg & Natchez and meet up with more legendary river angels and contacts. Quawpaw Canoe Company – I will return!

Easily encountered the most expansive sandbars I’ve seen in my life on this trip. And it was incredible to have miles of open sand all to myself nearly every night – open air, pristine night sky, few bugs and pests, wildlife sounds and just the hum of barges passing throughout the night

Tons of wildlife: innumerable bald eagles, Herons galore, tons of waterfowl, lots of migrating Pelicans, luckily no jumping carp encounters making contact with my body, coyote, deer, cows, snakes, toads and gators galore down the Atchafalaya to the Gulf

Tons of barge traffic – hard to estimate – passing or getting passed by maybe 20 to 30 barges/tugs a day, I think the largest load I saw was 48, did encounter America Cruise Lines and the UAT NASA cargo transport ship. Only encountered 3 other through paddlers on the trip. Tons of Loopers, though almost all above the Ohio confluence. Fairly easy to know where the barges were going to be and how to position myself well out of their way. Did have to get on my radio to talk to the barges every once in a while to let them know I was there and where I planned to navigate. I usually only talked to the barge captains when I heard them talking about me. If you do this trip, I do recommend learning the phrases “passing you on the 1s” and “we’ll see you on the 2”, etc. And do your best southern/cajun accent when you do get on the radio, you’ll fit in better.

Once again, I appreciate all of you who took the time to follow my journey here, on Facebook and Instagram. If you are hungry for trip photos, I suggest cruising on over there. I shared many stories, others are mine until if and when I decide to share, which I’ll happily do when I see you on or near a river in the future. A huge thank you to anyone who helped me out on this trip, whether I met you out on the river or at a town, or loaned me some gear, or even key pieces of advice. I couldn’t have done it without your support!

Sitting here at the Riverview RV Resort, which is the last vestige of civilization before entering the vast Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge. Nothing but swamps from here to the Gulf. No sign of gators yet, we’ll see if that changes.

The Atch has been very beautiful so far, but it is pretty slow compared to the Mississippi. If there is any current at all, it is maybe half or 1mph. If I ain’t paddling, I ain’t moving. I covered around 26 miles so far this morning from my slopeside campsite. It started out clear this morning, but then the fog rolled in, and I was paddling with around 1/10 of a mile visibility. Barges aren’t really prevalent on this river, so I felt safe enough. And I stayed within sight of the bank in order to make sure I’m still going downstream. Ask me how I know to make sure you are paddling downstream.

Since I last posted, it’s been a fantastic week of lower Mississippi paddling, Tons of sandbars, even more barges, a fantastic afternoon/evening in Vicksburg complete with food, beer and a hotel room – shower most importantly. A day and a half later, I made it to Natchez, where I spent some quality time at a few establishments “Under the Hill”, the area that in its past was notorious for debauchery, criminality, in other words, where all the fun was happening in riverboat times past. I sat down next to a nice guy named Gene at the Old Magnolia grill, who was heavily invested in the Ole Miss/Oklahoma football game. I cheered along with him to an Ole Miss win, then after, he offered to drive me up the hill to Natchez Brewery where I scored a couple crowlers of their finest swill. Tasted amazing on the sandbar that night. Speaking of that night, I saw storms in the forecast, but didn’t assume anything severe, so I picked a campsite out in the middle of a sandbar instead of somewhere more sheltered. Well buddy. Around 11:30pm, it started storming. Rain, thunder, lightning – luckily the wind wasn’t insane or my tent probably wouldn’t have held. My tent being of quality material, but well-travelled, the roof leaks, so MacGyver over here put up the umbrella inside the tent to deflect water off to the side versus on me. It worked pretty well, I slept for a few hours in the fetal position under the umbrella, and only ended up with an inch of water at the low side of the tent in the morning.

I entered the Atchafalaya River system yesterday morning when I made a right off the Mississippi and went through the Old River Lock. This system of locks and diversion structures actually channels 1/3 of the Mississippi River flow into the Atch. Hard to tell, as there’s been not a bit of current as of yet. I’ve read a lot about the Old River Lock system, and how massive and critical a piece of infrastructure this is. Without this lock system, the Mississippi River would assume the Atch basin as its natural course, and the Mississippi through New Orleans as we know it today would be reduced to a trickle. The resulting effect on shipping, industry and America’s economy, to say nothing of New Orleans’ fate, would be disastrous. So the Army Corp of Engineers maintains the lock system to ensure the Mississippi stays where it is. In flood years of the recent past, the Old River Lock system has been in serious jeopardy of failing. And there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Once the river goes where it wants, there’s no going back to what was. So we hope against hope that the Old River Lock keeps doing what it’s doing, the government budgets a not enough amount to maintain the system, though the river is undefeated so far since the beginning of time.

In about 50 miles, I will pull off the Atchafalaya and enter 6 Mile Lake, then a man-made diversion channel. Then I’ll get into Hog Bayou, where a meandering channel will take me the last few miles to the Gulf and to Burns Point, where I’ll end my journey.

As I mentioned previously, I do have a bit of regret that I am on a timetable for this trip. A trip like this should be done open-ended, leaving time to explore, take a relaxing day off on a huge sandbar, stop into towns and learn as much about their rich histories as possible. This has been a paddle-heavy trip for me, probably averaging about 45 miles a day. Just the nature of how the trip came about and other assorted logistics. Alas, any river travel is second to nothing in terms of adventures in my book, but I don’t consider myself a paddle racer first and foremost. I live for long meandering expeditions and deep exploration and spending time with the people and at places along the river.

Pretty soon, I’ll be at home, it will be freezing outside, I’ll be thrust back into the realities of a civilized existence, so I am going to soak up every second and every paddle stroke of these last few days. I thank you all sincerely for reading. I will likely share some more reflections after the trip. For now, I’m going to drink a few more cold beers, wait for it to cool off, and maybe get back on the river for a few more miles before the Lousiana storms roll in tonight.

See you all down the river.