TAKE ME TO THE RIVER

WE SHOVE OFF FROM THE RIVER ISLAND JUST AFTER DARK. I’m still relaxed at this point. The full moon is a lantern at our backs as we resume paddling down the Mississippi, aiming for the far-off lights of downtown. Our canoe holds four: my companion at the bow, then me, then two guides. The guides work for Big Muddy Adventures, an outdoor recreation company based in The Grove. Their goal: show St. Louisans, through outings like this, that exploring our big rivers is not nearly as scary as you think–that you can have fun out here and live to tell the tale. Such a mindset, if widely adopted, could fuel a new local economy. Big Muddy is just one of several companies, nonprofits, and individuals banding together to make this happen. They’re also proceeding with care. The big rivers deserve your love, but they demand your respect.

I, for one, am smitten–with the belches of spring peeper and leopard frogs on this wooded island; with the darkness, considering that we’re only a mile from a major U.S. metropolis (we can hear the whoosh of traffic on Riverview Boulevard); with the smooth water. We’re in a unique haven on the Mississippi: the only section that’s undisturbed by commercial traffic, 11 miles in all. What creates it is a canal to the east that allows towboats and their barges to bypass the treacherous “Chain of Rocks” rapids that are just upstream from us (and just south of I-270). As a result, the water alongside this island is gentle, like a lake. We speak in hushed tones. So do the eight other guests and third Big Muddy guide seated in the canoe behind us. If a river-recreation scene really blows up in St. Louis, this could be where it starts–here or up on the Missouri, which often has a similar feel.

Then we merge into the Mississippi’s main channel. Passing the mouth