Within an hour, seven were rented and outfitted and the flotilla of paddlers set off in the meandering flow. We met the group a few hours later in downtown Dyersburg and enjoyed the challenge of a true river rat landing. I spent a few hours helping folks land and climb up an ingenious ladder to the top of the bank, then with assistance from Dyersburg’s finest, the firemen, we hauled each boat up to the high ground. Watch a video of this great event.

Dyersburg has become the headwaters of a proposed “Blueway” which connects this old Northwest Tennessee community to the river metropolis- Memphis, TN- as part of a water trail and development area. Under the direction of the lovely and talented Diana Threadgill, the Mississippi River Corridor has become a very effective and exciting agency helping to develop awareness and access to the greatness of the Great Rivers. Diana not only makes it happen in the office, the board room and the community, she is a very fine paddler too. Steve Guttery, Director of Downtown Development for Dyersburg Chamber of Commerce, is another excellent advocate for river recreation and conservation. Steve and his colleagues have turned the realization that Dyersburg exists because of the Forked Deer River into a blossoming development strategy. One example is the transformation of an old lumber yard into a park including a masterfully rehabbed lumber storage structure now the home of the local farmer’s market and civic events. All in all, I’d say Dyersburg TN is a river city that gets it.

Jon Bowermaster, one of the world’s foremost explorers, recognized this same phenomenon recently in Antarctica, believe it or not, on an island where penguins, seals and birds are the only inhabitants. In a follow up post, he notes the shocking truth about plastic bags.

In the U.S. alone, more than 100 billion cheap plastic bags are distributed every year, bags which never really go away, many of which end up in our waterways. Less than one percent are recycled.

1 % of 100 billion annually! That means 99 billion bags are not being recycled. Outrageous! Jon then shares his personal resolution to “go cold turkey” on plastic as much as he possibly can, beginning with a commitment to carry his cloth shopping bags on all shopping trips. Certainly, this is something that we can all integrate into our own stewardship plan. Big Muddy Adventures certainly is, and moreover, we are taking this a step further by carrying and filling large trash bags (albeit plastic ones) with the plastic we find on all of our trips.