Day 110 on the Mississippi River

Day 110

September 27, 2022

Tuesday

LRM 277

2018 miles completed

I paddled 26 miles today.

Today I get to write about Morganza, Louisiana.

I left Natchez with 4 gallon jugs of good drinking water. Today is my third day out of Natchez. I started the day with two empty jugs. I needed to get water soon. I should be through Baton Rouge in two more days after today, and I didn’t want to try to get water in Baton Rouge. So I was looking for a place to get water. With some help from a friend I found Morganza, Louisiana.

On Google Maps you can see there is a gas station/convenience store near the river in Morganza. There is a levee right behind the store and you can see the road on top of the levee. There appears to be a trail from the levee across the spillway, or old river, at a narrow crossing, to the Mississippi river. At the river there is a landmark: an old abandoned grain silo.

My friend suggested I try to get water there. I saw a lot of troubles with this idea. There was no landing. I would have to leave my boat unattended. I would have to walk almost a half mile. But, I agreed to give it a shot.

When I saw the landmark I moved to the right side of the river. There were three sandy spots near the silo. The first two were thick mud. The third one, the one nearest the silo, turned out to be good solid sand that had been terraced by the river. I pulled the boat up on the first terrace. I tied the kayak to a piece of rusty cable coming out of the sand. I found my wallet, put on my shoes, changed hats to my Tennessee VOLS ball cap, and climbed the steep riverbank.

There were ATV tracks. I followed them. I passed a deer stand, feed box, and salt lick. I crossed the spillway at a narrow spot where two rails had been put down for the ATV to cross. Just passed the spillway there was a locked gate on the trail. I climbed over the gate. On the other side of the gate were the “NO TRESPASSING” signs. Then I surprised some cows who were grazing on the levee. I climbed the levee. There was a gas station right on the other side. I looked up and down the levee I did not see any roads leading over into town. So I walked down the other side of the levee through the grass and trespassed again by stepping over a chain on another gate into the parking lot behind the gas station.

In the back of the convenience store is the spillway café. There  I met Caroline Marionneaux and Mckennley Lacour. What wonderful French names, and what lovely and adorable young ladies. They fixed me one of the best “everything” hamburgers I have ever had. They toasted the bun. I had fries and two Bud lights with it.

Carolyn helped me fill my water jugs from the fountain Coke machine. We made a bit of a mess. My jugs don’t have very large mouths, and they are too tall to fit under the Coke machine water dispenser.

I got their names and told them how to read my blog. We took a selfie. I took my two jugs of water and walked back the way I came… across the two locked fences over the levee past the no trespassing signs and the Deerstand. When I got back my boat was still right where I left it. There was still enough time left to paddle a mile and find a place to camp on the other side of the river.

Both sides of the river are Louisiana now