River Reflections: Celebrating Community and Conservation Through Paddling Adventures 

Only a week after frigid temperatures, ice, and snow in the Mid-South, we awoke to a beautiful clear day for our March First Saturday Paddle. During the event, our group of 20 paddlers experienced temperatures ranging from the high 50s into the high 60s on the Rossville to Piperton section of the Wolf River. The sky remained clear the entire paddle and only started to fill with light clouds in the late afternoon. In my opinion, the sky is never bluer than when it is viewed in the wilderness on a cool and crisp morning after a spell of extreme weather.  

During the paddle, we randomly experienced high gusts of wind making craft positioning a challenge at times and often when it was most critical. The river moved everyone downstream at a rapid pace making the trip end too quickly. Time on water was 3 hours and 45 minutes including the lunch stop. The river height was 7.19 ft. on the LaGrange gauge and 3.02 ft. on the Rossville gauge. The river level dropped 0.08 ft. in this 24-hour period.

A single Midland water snake (Nerodia sipedon pleuralis,) was seen sunning among the tree roots on river left in the channel that had been dug in the 60’s by a private landowner to quickly drain the agricultural fields of his farm in the Spring. Anteriorly, the Midland water snake has a pattern of dark crossbands on a light ground color. Posteriorly, the crossbands are replaced by three rows of alternating squarish blotches. The state of Alabama classifies it in the “lowest conservation concern” category.  I am guessing that means there are still plenty of them to go around.  

The next week, twelve employees from the State of Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation joined a pair of WRC personnel on a short paddle event in the area of the take-out of the Lost Swamp. For a couple of hours our small group of adventurers paddled in the swamp heading for the main channel of the river. When it was reached, we paddled upstream for another thirty minutes before stopping on river right for conversation and to enjoy each other’s company. Finally, we turned downstream, reentered the swamp and reached the take-out. All had a wonderful time on this beautiful section of the river. The event was best summed up by the following comment from a participant.

“Strong, very strong.  

Commitment and ongoing progress to help people fall in love with our west Tennessee rivers was shared today by a team building stronger and new relationships. Shared experience, shared learning, shared challenges, and shared simple joy of being on the water together.  

The work of conserving and sharing the Wolf River was furthered today. Thanks for all you do and I look forward to more collaboration and more paddling.” Greer T.  

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