Why the Mississippi River Might Be the Best Long-Distance Trip in the U.S.

If you've been following our adventures you know we are primarily thru hikers though we do enjoy a good long distance paddling trip when the opportunity arises.

 

Right in the middle of working my way through the Triple Crown of Hiking I found out about something I never knew was an option in the modern day: paddling the 2,300+ mile Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota down to the gulf aka the Mississippi Source to Sea or MS2S.

Similar to a lot of folks I primarily associated the Mississippi with having read Huck Fin in school. Meanwhile I had the impression that in the modern day that traveling down it in any sort of a paddle craft wasn't really possible as it had become more of an industrial / shipping river.

 

Then I came across a random website while hiking the CDT that not only explained it was a thing but mad it sound amazing. 

 

Considering I'm someone who stays relatively well informed about all the various long distance outdoor activities I was surprised something like this existed and that I hadn't come across it. And now having done it myself in 2023 I'm really blown away that it isn't more popular. Because it's a really amazing trip. 

If you've never heard of the source to sea the short version is you can paddle for 2,300+ miles from the headwaters in Lake Itasca, Minnesota all the way out to the gulf camping pretty much the entire way.

 

The river starts out small at the headwaters giving you a chance to learn as you paddle. There are even established paddle camps some of which have shelters and toilets. Further down it's a mix but for the majority the river has army corp of engineers land on either side making it easy to find camps.  

 

Sometimes we camped tucked away on small islands, other times we set up on beaches made from dredging the bottom of the river. And occasionally we had to get creative stealth camping off in the bushes or stopped in a town to stay at an AirBNB or friendly river angel to get a shower. 

Not only was the camping almost always straightforward but it was also some of the most memorable camping we've done. The experience of tucking away on tiny islands or setting up the tent on a pristine sandbar and swimming in the current as the sun went down are some of my all time favorite memories. All without the need for any sort of permit.

 

Then you have the locks.

In the section between Minneapolis and Saint Louis there are a series of locks and dams built to maintain enough depth to allow cargo ships to navigate the river. These allow free passage for watercraft including canoes and kayaks and the experience of being inside as 38 million gallons are flushed through all around you was one of the more memorable experiences of the trip.

 

While you are technically a lower priority than commercial traffic more often than not we passed through right away. You either reach out via a marine radio, call on a cell phone or pull a cord when you approach to contact the lock staff.

 

It's also quite easy to resupply along the way considering the Mississippi flows past countless towns and it's pretty trivial to carry a week or more of food in the boat.

A common refrain we've heard is from people who visited the Mississippi and tell of how busy it is and how it wouldn't be safe in a small watercraft. However we found that while there were a good number of  barges active in the middle and lower river the risk was vastly exaggerated.

 

The barge captains were all highly professional and as long as we took care to stay visible and not pop around a blind corner without warning our biggest annoyance was generally getting stuck waiting at the locks for an hour or two while a barge passes through.

Further down past Baton Rouge massive ocean going vessels were also on the river. These were generally easy to avoid as the river becomes quite massive and we could reserve the rare crossing for areas with a long line of sight.

It is true that there is a good amount of industry along the river particularly in the more southern sections. However there are also large undeveloped sections even around there when it's just you, the birds, and the occasional large carp leaping through the air. We never had a point where we couldn't camp for long. 

Even down south though outside of those industrial areas the majority of the river was natural and peaceful. We saw countless turtles, birds (including bald eagles), beavers, nutria, and towards the end gators. 

Resupply isn't really any worse than your average thru hike and I'd argue it's easier in a lot of ways since you are a lot less sensitive to the weight of food and water you're carrying. The one real complication is just the fact you don't want to leave your boat unguarded.

Others solved this by asking river angels or fishermen to watch their boats while others just hid them in the bushes. Since we had two of us we did the easier solution of leaving one person to guard the boat while the other went shopping.  

 

 

Also the pace of travel is a lot faster and more efficient thanks to the current.  By the time we were past the locks we were regularly covering 50 miles a day. And we were even occasionally able to take advantage of a compact hand sail to fly down long sections.

Don't get me wrong there are challenges along the way. We went through several sections where rain hammered us for days at a time. The headwaters had enough ticks and mosquitos for the first week that even the usual stoic Taters declared it was the stuff of nightmares. And we had to make our way through a weeks long record heatwave down south. But I've yet to do any long distance trip that didn't have some minor issues like that.