I’ll be there a couple of days while my wife visits relatives.
Chunky river close by
Reports on p-net places to paddle. On my to-do list, no personal experience there yet. There is one section that crosses hwy 80 twice, six and half miles of river, three miles of hwy. P-net reports talk about some rental places, don’t know.
You bringing your own or looking to rent? I loaned out my Paddling MS bible, I’ll get it back tonight and can pass on a few more.
Water levels are very low in much of
the deep south. Take that into account in your planning. I wouldn’t be looking at the Chunky right now, but larger rivers may be feasible.
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The Okatoma (near Hattiesburg–appears to be about 2 hours from where you will be) is passble. Just paddled it this past weekend and going again this weekend to do another portion. Below Sanford/Lux some paddlers said they ran into low water conditions that were too frequent to be worth it…but above that it was nice (I did Seminary to Lux last weekend if that helps.)
You can check the water tables. About 7-10 feet is optimal. It was 7.5 this past weekend and shouldn’t be much changed.
Just from a bridge view, Wolf River also looked passable…and I"m sure all the bigger rivers should be passable by default.
85 cfs is “nice”? It’s usually double
that at this time of year.
Data shows flow was over 100 cfs
at Sanford when I ran the Okatoma. Yet that was a really scratchy level. After many years of exploring all sorts of creeks, my criterion for a “good” run is 250 cfs or more. YMMV, but I hate to see someone directed to a creek running only 85 cfs.
Thanks everyone. It looks like I may
just spend time with my wife’s relatives, who are nice folks.maybe do a little exploring by car.
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I guess nice is a rather relative term. It was absolutely nice for me, which is why I’m going back again this weekend for an overnight.
I did scrape a few times in some areas and had to get out once. I guess everyone is different because that’s a good trip for me. Water levels really are low almost everywhere around here so hey, I’ll take it.
Other options
All the streams will be pretty low. You can check into Neshoba County Lake and Oktibbeha County Lake. They are state run lakes (MDFWP), google them for contact info. My book says they have boat rental but the websites don’t mention it. Both within spitting distance.
If you pass on the paddling check out the Bienville National Forest, they have some hiking trails, short ones and long ones, depending on your pegs. Nice weather for hiking this time of year but in a couple weeks you’ll want to pick up an orange vest before you go.
string, it looks like Decatur is sort of
between watersheds. Using USGS, the one I’d go to is the Chickasawhay, for which the Chunky is a tributary. The Chick has been running steady at 200 cfs for a while. There’s a meandering section, 16 miles from Stonewall to Quitman, kinda too long for a day trip at low water. Below Quitman are shorter sections, but that’s getting far from Decatur. I also noticed an interesting, complex lake just west of the Chick near Quitman.
NW of Decatur, the Pearl doesn’t get up to 200cfs until near Jackson.
Maybe you should drive over to a road crossing of the Chunky and have a look, just for future reference.