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Wildlife and Nature Quapaw Canoe Company does custom canoe/kayak expeditions on the Lower Mississippi. Most of our floats are in the remote section of river flowing between Memphis and Vicksburg, where only two bridges are found in a three-hundred mile length of river. Here there is little sign of mankind (save tugboat traffic) and the river meanders between long sandbars (during low water!), islands, and unbroken bottomland hardwood forests. Our range includes the middle section of river from the Missouri (St. Louis) to the confluence of the Ohio at Cairo. We also do floats on the Yazoo, the Big Sunflower, and the lower reaches of the Arkansas and White Rivers. Please call 662-627-4070 to arrange a float. Four-season operation, Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. Call Quapaw today for your float. (By the way, i prefer long sections of text over computer wizadry and pyrotechnics (i hope you do too!)- the internet won't replace printed literature. But it is a wonderful tool for the communication of the written word. -john) Quapaw Canoe Company is a small company with an enormous range - the Lower Mississippi River. Our motto is "Have paddle, will travel." Quapaw was founded in 1999 to provide access to the wild beauty of the Lower Mississippi River, America's great forgotten wilderness. We believe in Thoreau's statement "in wildness is the preservation of mankind." Custom guiding means we set schedule to meet your needs. Call us and we'll make a float you and your group won't forget. Quapaw is recognized by the Delta Outfitters Association (Stoneville, MS), and is a member of Worldwide Outfitter & Guides (underwritten by Loyd's of London). Quapaw provides canoes, paddles and highest floatation & quality U.S. Coast Guard approved type III life jackets. All expeditions are outfitted with first-aid kits, rescue ropes, life preservers, cellular communication (river to shore), and VHF marine communication (the type used by tugboats, U.S. Coast Guard, and all other river traffic private or commercial). Please remember that "while on the river, there is no time but river time" (J. Ruskey). Itinerary subject to water level, prevailing weather, and the whims of the Ol' Man." Quapaw conducts expeditions for groups ranging from one person to ten. Available year-round, although the best seasons in the mid-South are Spring and Fall. Prices can be as low as $55/day (depending on length and number of people). All cooking gear provided. Campsites are made on sandbars, towheads, and islands located adjacent the main channel of the river. Please call (601) 627-4070, or write john@island63.com for more information. Quapaw Canoe Company offers three distinct wilderness experiences on the Mississippi River: 1) a Float Trip; 2) a Round Trip; and 3) a Habitat Trip. The first, a Float Trip, is the classic Mississippi River experience. You put in at one place upstream and float downstream to another. At times it is necessary to paddle; at others you can kick back and enjoy being afloat one of the big rivers of the world, and watch the landscape slide endlessly by. A Round Trip involves paddling upstream, usually around an island, and then floating back to your put-in. It will involve several ferry-line crossings of the river channel. Physically it can be much more demanding than a float. Paddling is required, at the very least on the upstream sections. The reward is that you get a closer feel of the riverbank habitat of the Mississippi River, something not afforded quite as intimately during a Float Trip (in that on a float you are mostly floating somewhere mid channel, hundreds of yards from the bank). A Habitat Trip is one made to a specific habitat of the Lower Mississippi Valley, be it a wetlands, a bayou, a back channel, or hardwood forest. The journey made is not in getting somewhere, but in being there; in experiencing the wildlife and environment of that habitat. Camp becomes a stationary place from which smaller day trips are made into that habitat. Camp is usually made on an uninhabited river island or towhead. A habitat trip might involve some upstream paddling, but can also be tailored into a float trip. Float Trips: A Float Trip, is the classic Mississippi River experience. You put in at one place upstream and float downstream to another. At times it is necessary to paddle; at others you can kick back and enjoy being afloat one of the big rivers of the world, and watch the landscape slide endlessly by. 1 day Friar's Point - Quapaw Landing (14 river miles) 2 day (1 night) Mhoon Landing to Quapaw (50.5 miles) Quapaw - Rosedale (45) Vicksburg - Grand Gulf (28) 3 day (2 nights) Memphis - Helena (73 miles) Helena - Rosedale (71) Rosedale - Greenville (61) Greenville - Lake Providence, LA (50) Vicksburg - Natchez (73) Week (5-7 days) Cairo, IL - Memphis (219 miles) Memphis - Rosedale (144) Rosedale - Vicksburg (155) Vicksburg - St. Francisville, LA (171) St. Francisville - New Orleans (166) Round Trips A Round Trip involves paddling upstream, usually around an island, and then floating back to your put-in. It also involves several ferry-line crossings of the river channel. Physically it can be much more demanding than a float. Paddling is required, at the very least on the upstream sections. The reward is that you get a closer feel of the riverbank habitat of the Mississippi River, something not afforded quite as intimately during a Float Trip (in that on a float you are mostly floating somewhere mid channel, hundreds of yards from the bank). 1 day Island 63 (10 miles; put-in at Quapaw Landing) Prarie Point Towhead (10 miles; put-in at Helena, AR) 2 day (1 night) Circumnavigation of Montgomery Island (17 miles; put-in at Rosedale) Island 62 (10 miles) 3 day (2 nights) Old River: Circumnavigation of Island 82 (25 miles; put-in at Greenville) Week (5-7 days) Circumnavigation of Big Island, including sections of the Arkansas River and the White. Very demanding. (35 miles) Habitats A Habitat Trip is one made to a specific habitat of the Lower Mississippi Valley, be it a wetlands, a bayou, a back channel, or hardwood forest. The journey made is not in getting somewhere, but in being there; in experiencing the wildlife and environment of that habitat. Camp becomes a stationary place from which smaller day trips are made into that habitat. Camp is usually made on an uninhabited river island or towhead. A habitat trip might involve some upstream paddling, but can also be tailored into a float trip. 1 day Island 63 2 day (1 night) Island 62 (Towhead island with long stretches of willow broken by stands of cottonwood, all surrounded by a sea of big-grained yellow sand. Bisected by a swamp which empties into a chute on the Arkansas side) 3 day (2 nights) Cat Island (4 mile tall island, 2 miles wide, a forested levee ridge running the length of the island affording good camping regardless of river level, a distinct stand of cedar mid island on channel side. Hardwood forests, willow/cottonwood forests, and back channel habitats) Choctaw Island (8 miles tall, bisected by several bayous and swamps, big grassy meadows, harwood and willow forests. The top of the island is a sandy towhead that gradually drops into an enormous swampy floodplain. Wild fowl abound, as well as reptiles, deer, beaver, raccoon, and boar) Week (5-7 days) Confluence of the Arkansas (An incredibly lively river delta, the meeting of two of America's major rivers, land forms and river channels highly changing from flood year to flood year. Wildlife and plant forms abound in the forests adjacent, some of the largest unbroken stands of timber in the mid-south. Rich wetlands, willow/cottonwood forests, and backwaters. After traveling 1600 miles from Colorado's Mount Elbert (14,433 feet) the Arkansas dumps into the Mississippi here, noticeably swelling its flow and broadening its expanse.) Special thanks to John & Laurie Moore of 305spin.com for making this website happen. |
