A Wonderland of Canoe and Kayak Training and Touring      Here's a map I drew of my home paddling water.  It's not to scale or anything, but it shows most of the places you can go during a typical downtown Memphis paddling session of a couple hours or so.  I suggest that out-of-towners cross-reference this map with a road map of the Memphis area.      Like most maps, this one depicts bodies of water in blue, but there's actually nothing blue about the lower Mississippi--there's a reason people call it The Big Muddy!  The city of Memphis sits atop a bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi.  The west bank is low-lying farmland and hardwood forest in the state of Arkansas; this side of the river floods when the Mississippi rises above 30 feet on the Memphis gauge.  Just as the map suggests, Mud Island and President's Island are not really islands, and the fact that we call them islands is one of the many quirky pleasures of life in good old Memphis, Tennessee.     A number of local paddlers, including me, keep their boats at the Harbortown Marina, which is the one in Memphis Harbor just north of the Auction Avenue bridge.  This marina is private, but good public access is available just across the harbor at the boat ramp beneath the Auction bridge.

A word about safety:
     I don't recommend the Mississippi River for the beginning paddler.  Although on a calm day most of the river seems like little more than a big, slow-moving lake, the current is really quite swift and there are some dangerous spots--hydraulics, moored barges, industrial debris-sieves--that only an experienced paddler, well-versed in river-flow dynamics, can easily identify.  The river also demands fitness and stamina of those who wish to paddle it--even an experienced paddler can find himself overcome with exhaustion in hostile territory if he is not in reasonably good shape.
     The size of the river makes hypothermia a serious threat, as a swimmer who cannot regain control of his boat will be in the water for a long time.  The rule of thumb for whitewater paddlers is to be wary of hypothermia whenever the sum of the air temperature and water temperature (Fahrenheit) is less than 120, but because a Mississippi swim is likely to last much longer than a swim on a smaller whitewater river, paddlers here should be extra-conservative with this reading.
     If you're just starting out in canoeing and kayaking, be patient and invest the necessary time to become familiar with your boat and paddle and the way moving water works.  Stay on lakes and smaller rivers for a while (or in Memphis Harbor, which is just like a lake), and work hard to achieve the skill and fitness the Mississippi demands.  When you feel ready to venture out onto the mighty river, pick a calm day and go with an experienced Mississippi paddler.  Above all, don't give up!  Every good paddler was a beginner once upon a time.

     I hope everybody reading this page will come away with a greater appreciation for our incredible natural treasure.  The following photos depict just a few of the river's moods.