The Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

NOTE TO PADDLERS:

The Rivergator is for your free use!  Please print or access from your smart phone.  (Presented here in roughly 100 miles sections from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico). 

 

Best case scenario: 1) print up section of Rivergator that you will be canoeing or kayaking.  2) Print up accompanying USACE river maps.  3) Print up NOAA River Stage Forecasts the day before you embark on your adventure for latest readings and forecast.  4) Lastly, listen to and print up latest weather forecast. 

 

Secure the above by inserting pages into 8.5×11 page protectors and bundle into a 3-ring notebook or waterproof map casing (available at most water outfitters such as Outdoors Inc. Memphis or online at REI or NRS).

 

If using a smart phone be sure and protect with water-proof casing!  The river is hungry for electronic devices and equipment that doesn’t float!  (I have personally left several marine radios, a half dozen knives and one camera with the sturgeon and catfish at the bottom of the river!)

 

The Rivergator is a public service brought to you compliments of the Lower Mississippi River Foundation with support from dozens of river experts and partner organizations

 

Who is the Rivergator written For?

The Rivergator is written by paddlers for paddlers. It will open the river for local experienced canoeists who have always wanted to paddle the Mississippi but didn’t know how or when or where to start and is appropriate for canoe clubs, kayak clubs and outdoor clubs, outdoor leadership schools, friends & families, and church groups & youth groups.  It could be used by the Girl Scouts for a week-long summer expedition to Tunica, or a group of Boy Scouts working on their canoe badge in the Memphis area — or a group of KIPP middle schoolers from Helena who want to get on the river at the mouth of the St. Francis for an easy daytrip.  Paddlers seek out new places to explore.  You could read the Rivergator during the winter months from your home and by spring snowmelt you could be making your first paddle strokes on a life-changing adventure down the Mississippi!   Rivergator will help you get there if you’re a long-distance canoeist who started at Lake Itasca, or a kayaker who is coming through south after paddling the length of the Missouri River from Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains.  You could be a stand-up-paddleboarder who put in at the Great River Confluence of the Upper Mississippi and Big Muddy Missouri in St. Louis.  Regardless of where you wo;; be starting the Rivergator can help you in your journey.