The Mississippi River is 2, miles from its source to the Gulf of Mexico, and the second-longest river in North America. To communities along the river, it provides lifeblood to their communities, and for the 80 to people who kayak the entire length each year, it offers a challenge. So, how long does it take to float down the Mississippi River? The short answer to how long it will take to float down the Mississippi River is around three months.
However, as in most things, some factors can change this. For example, your level of fitness, how long each day you will and can paddle, weather, and what you are looking for with this trip. Do you want a pleasant journey, or is it a challenge to complete as quickly as possible?
Kirk Milhone and Kevin Eckelkamp hold the record for paddling the length of the Mississippi. The pair completed the journey in thirty-five days, eleven hours, and twenty-seven minutes , in starting from Lake Itasca and ending at Lower Mississippi. The team are very experienced canoers who have previously attempted to paddle down the Amazon, and up the west coast of Canada to Alaska. Occasionally the trip will end in tragedy with the death of the paddler; around 0.
Safety is the biggest challenge facing any individual or team planning to navigate the length of the Mississippi. In the s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers constructed a series of locks and dams along the Mississippi so that a channel for navigation could be maintained with a minimum of nine feet of water. These locks and dams can be a significant hazard for small craft with inexperienced handlers. It is not permitted to enter the general water feet upstream of a dam, and feet downstream.
Remember that the Mississippi River does not just run through rural areas. It also flows through highly urban areas, and the riverside can be a dangerous place to be, especially at night. Avoid canoeing in high water as the fast currents and navigation channel can drag flimsy canoes into floating timber and other obstacles.
Floodwaters can contain some solid objects which can smash into the canoe with great force especially in directional waters located at Lake Itasca, New Orleans and the mouth of the Gulf of Meixco. Stay clear of towboats! They have the right of way, and they create strong wakes throughout the length of the Mississippi River. It can take half a mile before they can stop, even if they do see you.
First was that the river went into flood stage when we reached Saint Louis, the volume doubled, the current increased noticeably, and the load of logs was substantial. Second was the absence of recreational users south of Saint Louis. Given the abundant recreational use of the river north of Saint Louis, I was shocked by the near total absence of recreational use to the south — in miles of river travel we saw perhaps a dozen people using the river recreationally, either from pleasure boats or fishing from shore.
Once we crossed from the Mississippi to the Atchafalaya, I relaxed again and enjoyed that final week very much. I enjoyed the Cajun bayous, the small towns, the alligators, and the scenery. I regret that I carried the fear while on the Lower River, as it interfered with an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable and magnificent outing.
I entered this trip as a highly experienced long-distance backpacker, reasonably experienced dirt-road bicycle tourist, and completely novice canoeist. Our trip was fascinating. The entire river corridor was much wilder feeling than I ever imagined. We essentially traveled through riverine forest for the entire trip except when passing through towns and cities. The forests look healthy and are not marred by clear-cuts.
The settled areas were mostly very compact and on the Lower Mississippi often were frequently not even visible from the water.
Outside of the tows below Minneapolis and weekend powerboats above it, there is extraordinarily little river traffic. In the headwaters section, we went three days without seeing a single other person either on the water or on the banks.
We were pleasantly surprised by how much of our trip felt like a wilderness experience rather than traveling a watery freeway through civilization. I enjoyed the process of paddling and soon became very comfortable with our boat. I felt safe, secure, and believed we could control it well enough to deal with any situation we were likely to have. We were fortunate with generally great weather, few delays at locks, helpful and friendly people we met along the way, and no breakdowns of equipment.
We had decent campsites every night and frequently great ones. The only real hassle was the mosquitoes. I wish we had found a way to be comfortable with leaving our boat and gear unattended so we could have explored the riverside towns more than we did; that was the biggest negative of the trip to me.
Overall, the trip was a fabulous experience and I am very pleased that we did it. I would unhesitatingly recommend this trip to anyone with a sense of adventure and a willingness to try something out of the ordinary. The MR is the main stem of the largest drainage system in North America and currently runs about river miles from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to its termination at South Pass in the Gulf of Mexico.
The average discharge at its mouth is , cubic feet per second; this is equivalent to 18, tons of water passing a fixed point in one second or well over 1,, tons of water per minute.
More information on the river can be found here. Each segment has its own distinct characteristics and flavor. The Headwaters is the most scenically diverse portion of the river and runs miles from the put-in at Lake Itasca upper river mile , as measured north from the confluence with the Ohio River to river mile at Upper Saint Anthony Lock in Minneapolis, the largest city on the river.
Early miles are narrow and shallow, there are extensive marshlands and some huge lakes, coniferous forests line some of the riverbanks, and there are easily accessible towns. The longest unpopulated stretch of water and many portages are found in the Headwaters. There is significant recreational use, primarily on the lakes behind old dams. The Upper Mississippi runs miles from the first lock river mile to the last lock river mile in St.
This section includes 27 29 on our trip sets of locks and dams that must be negotiated by the paddler. The river gets big and carries commercial traffic in the form of tows. Towns are relatively frequent and are usually easily accessible. There are many recreational boaters on this segment.
The Middle Mississippi runs for miles from Saint Louis to upper river mile 0 at the confluence with the Ohio River. Recreational use drops to near zero. The Lower Mississippi runs from the confluence with the Ohio River lower river mile as measured from the Gulf for miles to the Old River Lock river mile The Mississippi is really big, having absorbed the Missouri, which doubles its flow and the Ohio, which doubles it again.
We encountered many big tows every day, but almost no recreational users either on the water or on the banks. There are neither locks nor portages. Towns are much less frequent and access to resupply is more complicated. At the Old River Lock, a paddler has to chose between two Outlet options. Transiting to the Atchafalaya River is one way to complete a MR trip to the Gulf, and this is the route we chose.
The alternative is to continue miles on the Lower MR through Baton Rouge and New Orleans; the river from the Gulf of Mexico to Baton Rouge is the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere with million tons of cargo passing through annually. South of Baton Rouge the river is navigable by ocean-going vessels and marine traffic is very heavy, and by most reports, intimidating and potentially dangerous. The Mississippi enters the Gulf in a classic delta: the big river splits into multiple distributaries as it flows out into the sedimentary delta it has built for itself upon reaching the Gulf.
These distributaries originate as far north as the Baton Rouge area. One of the largest of these distributaries is the Atchafalaya River. The problem with letting the river do what physics says it should is the human infrastructure and commerce dependent on the Mississippi flowing to the Gulf as a navigable river in it current alignment. We cannot let that happen, so the Army Corps of Engineers has spent vast amounts of public dollars keeping the Atchafalaya from becoming the main course of the Mississippi.
All that prevents river capture from happening are a number of concrete control structures , and a lock with a foot drop from the Mississippi to the Atchafalaya. It seems inevitable that in the long, or not so long run, the Atchafalaya will get its way and become the exit for the Mississippi whether we like it or not. We discovered that the wilder lower reaches of the Atchafalaya were a great place to paddle.
Several other paddlers with experience on the Lower River had also recommended the Atchafalaya as the exit of choice. To transit the Atchafalaya, leave the Mississippi main stem at river mile After entering the Atchafalaya there are many routes to the Gulf.
We were very pleased with the route we took; it is a quiet and beautiful alternative that is a geologically honest way to finish a MR trip. Details are shown on this CalTopo map. Also mapped is a Lafourche Bayou route recommended by a New Orleans paddler; we are not familiar with it, but it is another option to consider.
We drove a one-way rental car from California to Bemidji, MN. He hitched the thirty-five miles back to Itasca as there is no public transit between Bemidji and the Lake. Some people finish their trips at river mile in New Orleans. Some finish at Head of Passes Junction at river mile zero.
Some paddle about 15 miles further south all the way to the open Gulf. There are many other possible variations, since the region has an intricately interconnected series of waterways. Other take-out points may require arranging a boat pickup, hoping to hitch a ride on a passing boat, or paddling back upstream to a boat ramp. In New Iberia, we got a one-way rental car, and drove ourselves home, thus avoiding having to ship our canoe and gear.
All of these maps are available in pdf format from the links above. The maps are very detailed, showing navigational features like riverbank navigation lights and mile-markers.
River miles are also intermittently posted on large signs on the banks so you can easily tell how far you have traveled. In our opinion, these maps are necessary and sufficient in terms of paper maps. We also downloaded USGS topographic maps and Google satellite images of the entire route and surrounding areas into our iPhone using the excellent app Gaia GPS ; we used this as our primary navigation tool. You can possibly speak with the lockmasters via telephone, but we tried to use a phone only once and on that occasion reached a message center and not a human.
Several sites enable you obtain real time and forecast river flow data; this information is critical when choosing paddling routes and campsites:. We also used iPhone apps Rivercast and Streamflow Plus to view river flow data, including the recent past and the 7-day forecast.
We used an Army Corps site to check the status of locks. Ruskey is a long time river paddler who has been systematically detailing everything he knows about travel on the lower river. He describes both the main channel and alternative back channels.
And most importantly, he includes information about what the water levels have to be to ensure that the alternative routes are passible. At low water, many back channels are impassible due to emergent wing dams or sand bars. We paddled as many back channels as possible and never regretted it; the RiverGator data was invaluable. RiverGator also recommends good campsites and includes interesting and relevant historical and cultural information about the river.
We were extremely grateful for all the work that Ruskey has done. About half of the thru-paddlers completed the trip in eight to ten weeks.
Here is a list of elapsed durations; note this is start to finish, not the number of days paddling on the river:. We took 58 days with an Atchafalaya exit; we took no zero days, paddled eight to ten hours a day and only lost a few partial days to bad weather. We believe we had shorter than average delays at locks. We had a lot of serendipitous volunteer assistance for re-supply activities. We enjoyed socializing during meals and at campsites, but we did not spend much time off the water visiting museums or other points of interest.
We rarely dawdled when paddling, however we rarely paddled very hard. We had good equipment, not a lot of it, and knew how to do everything except canoe before we started the trip. We were well prepared and carried a lot of navigational data so we knew what to expect downstream. We were two people paddling one canoe; a solo canoeist would likely travel more slowly; a kayaker might be a bit faster.
If you travel on your own, then you have to do everything by yourself instead of being able to share community tasks. Trip duration is highly dependent on water levels and wind. Depending on the water temperature and skill of the paddler, when the wind is strong enough to kick up whitecaps, it may be unsafe to be on the water. In strong winds we were forced off the river entirely. When the river is high, the current is stronger and faster, and there are more options to take the shorter route around inside curves over the top of wing dams and sandbars and to make use of backchannel shortcuts.
High water also brings a lot of debris, which can complicate paddling. It is impossible to predict ahead of time how far you can paddle on a given day.
Distances covered will be affected by current or lack of it, winds and weather, lock delays or not, resupply activities that sometimes can be surprisingly time consuming, your physical and mental state and so forth. It is impossible to create a day-by-day plan for paddling this river. We chose to start in early August in order to enjoy relatively long days, avoid the worst of the heat as we headed south, travel when the water temperature was warm; and minimize the worst of the insects.
This worked well for us and we have no regrets other than missing the autumn colors. In one party attempted to start in mid April, but snow and ice forced them to begin at Grand Rapids instead of Lake Itasca.
On the other hand, the parties that started in May had cold weather early in their trips. People have paddled or rowed the Mississippi in kayaks, canoes, stand-up paddleboards, rowboats and rafts. In the Headwaters section upstream of Minneapolis you must be able to portage your craft numerous times to get around beaver and power dams making kayaks or canoes are the most viable option.
South of Minneapolis no portages are required. Some people use canoes in the uppermost reaches of the river and then switch to kayaks or rowboats in Minneapolis. Here is a summary of the boats we know of used by thru-paddlers:. We know of three parties in that had a ground crew. One was a group attempting to set a speed record. The second was a high-budget trip using rowboats and hotel accommodations.
And the third had a professional film crew making a documentary movie. We believe that all other paddlers travelled without dedicated ground support. Parties with ground crews had numerous challenges connecting with ground crews when high water blocked vehicle access to boat ramps, or when weather and water conditions made it impossible to paddle to the pre-determined meeting place. We believe the trip is actually easier self-supported than with a support crew; being self-contained allows one to paddle when conditions are favorable and stop anywhere when conditions are unfavorable.
When we decided to paddle the Mississippi we owned neither canoe nor kayak and had no basis for choosing one over the other. We knew we wanted to share one boat, and initially considered a tandem kayak. However, we eventually decided that a canoe would be a better choice for the two of us. The key factors for us were ease of access to gear, ease of ingress and egress into the boat, multiple options for paddling position, and the smaller length and lighter weight of our chosen canoe than kayaks with equivalent capacity.
We did not regret our choice at any point in the trip. We bought a used Kevlar Souris River Quetico 17 canoe. With various modifications we made to the boat, it weighed about 44 pounds, making it easy to carry on portages, to campsites, and at town stops.
We are novice canoeists so cannot compare the performance of our boat against other canoes, but were extremely happy with the Quetico. We thought it was roomy, stable, fast, and easy to maneuver. In the roughest conditions we paddled, we only took on minor amounts of water which required just a sponge to bail out the boat.
We designed and built a fabric cover that enclosed the center portion of the canoe. It was supported on a fiberglass wand attached to the two secondary thwarts. The cover shielded all of our gear from directly sunlight and shed a lot of the rain and splashing so less water collected in the canoe.
It also helped deflect crosswinds that might have caught on the inside of the boat. The cover was very easy to attach and detach by using a cord that wrapped around small buttons we screwed to the gunwales. We also bonded nylon tie down loops to the inside of the canoe and used them to clip a cargo net over all of our gear.
This was very easy to attach and detach and enabled us to tightly secure our load to the bottom of the canoe so it could not shift around. Made of carbon fiber, these bent shaft models weighed about 10 ounces each. Given that a Mississippi trip will require well over a million individual paddle strokes, having a lightweight paddle made a difference.
We used the same lightweight tent, pads, and sleeping quilt we use on our backpacking trips. We packed everything in light duty dry bags that we put inside lightweight frameless packs so we could easily portage our gear.
We carried our food in a litre dry bag and a litre mesh bag. We kept these charged with a Suntactics solar charger. We used the radio to communicate with the lockmasters, and it was worth it for that purpose alone. We also listened to channel 13, which is used by tow pilots to communicate with each other. After listening for a few weeks, and after learning from a retired barge deckhand that it is appropriate for recreational boats to speak on channel 13, we did communicate with tow pilots on a few occasions.
Finally, the VHF radio is by far the most effective way to request assistance if you have a life-threatening emergency in the water. Food and water added to that. This is substantially heavier than our backpacking kit, but far lighter than the kits of most paddlers. In general, obtaining food along the river was relatively straightforward. The longest stretch with no towns is the roughly 90 miles between Grand Rapids and Palisade in Minnesota.
Between Lake Itasca and St. Louis, most of the river towns are small, close to the water, and easily accessible from the river. Stores and cafes are usually within easy walking distance. On the most northerly section of the river, some of these towns are very small so choices for places to eat and buy food are limited.
Resupply gets more complicated south of St. The towns are protected by levees and frequently set well back from the river because the floodplain is so wide. Commercial districts are historically located close to the river, but in many towns the main streets are commercially dead, killed by big-box stores at the outskirts of town.
This means that in many towns there are no grocery stores in easy walking distance. There are numerous big floating casinos along the river with inexpensive all-you-can-eat buffets; these were a great source of diverse calories. It was slightly weird being in these places, but nobody made a fuss when we river-rats showed up.
We were always able to obtain drinking water from known clean sources and never drank water from the river. The river itself carries a lot of sediment for much of its length, so if you plan on filtering, you will have to deal with clogging. The Lower Mississippi also has a lot of runoff laced with agricultural and industrial chemical residues. We found water sources easily in towns and local campgrounds for most of the trip.
We carried fifteen liters capacity for the two of us, and this was adequate for our needs until we reached Helena, Arkansas. South of Helena, where water sources are more widely spaced, we also carried a couple of gallon containers of grocery store drinking water.
We stayed in a hotel only once, and we paid for a campsite only once so the vast majority of our expenses were for food. We ate in restaurants or cafes at nearly every opportunity, about 20 times; the rest of our meals came from grocery stores. Camping along the river is one of the great pleasures of the journey and is necessary because there are long stretches with no commercial accommodations.
We never had any significant problems finding at least adequate campsites, and frequently had five-star sites. In Minnesota, the DNR has established a string of canoe camps along the river, many accessible only by boat. These vary in quality from tiny plots with barely room for a tent to sites with a shelter and pit toilet. There are also some commercial and public campgrounds further down the river and these are usually marked on the river maps.
Usually, though, the paddler will need to improvise and find suitable rough campsites. Long stretches of the Mississippi are in public ownership so riverside camping is quite legal. Along the lower river at normal water levels, a multitude of sandbars provide very fine places to camp.
When we were in view of a building, we asked permission, which was cheerfully granted everywhere but in downtown Bemidji; otherwise we simply set up camp. Nobody ever questioned our use of any place we camped, and we were often welcomed with open arms and good company. Make sure that your boat is well above any possible rising water, including waves created by passing nighttime tows, or tie it securely to something that cannot possibly wash away, or preferably, both.
There have been paddlers whose boats washed away during the night and this can really mess up a trip. Between Lake Itasca and Bemidji, there are beaver dams and downed trees blocking the river. Water levels will affect your experience at these dams. The number and location of fallen trees varies over the years. In some places other river users had come through with chainsaws and removed some of these obstacles. We were able to run or drag our canoe over some of the trees and had to portage our boat up the bank and around others.
Getting trapped by these obstacles could be possible in high water conditions so caution is advised. Below Bemidji, there are eleven man-made dams that must be portaged. Behind these dams are lakes of varying size; there was no current in these lakes so paddling required more work than on the open river. Most recreational use along this portion of the river was in these lakes. The portage routes are marked on the Minnesota DNR maps. The portages ranged from simple to real pains.
Some portages require traveling on pavement through towns and crossing busy streets. The first portage is at the exit of Cass Lake at Knutson Dam. Depending on the water level, you may be able to paddle over the shallow spillway; we did this, but scout from shore carefully ahead of time. In Grand Rapids, the Blandon Dam operates a free portage service. And with those gestures has come sage river wisdom.
Louis has offered some. I think there is a lot of truth in that," he added. Literally, in the same boat. Bob Timmons covers a variety of topics, from conservation to recreation, and coordinates the Star Tribune's Outdoors Weekend section content.
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