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Big Muddy Canoe Trips Reintroduce St. Louisans To Their Mighty Mississippi

Mike "Muddy Mike" Clark, standing in the stern, guides adventuregoers underneath the Eads Bridge near downtown St. Louis on a recent afternoon.
Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Mike "Muddy Mike" Clark, standing in the stern, guides adventuregoers underneath the Eads Bridge near downtown St. Louis on a recent afternoon.
Mike "Muddy Mike" Clark, standing in the stern, guides adventuregoers underneath the Eads Bridge near downtown St. Louis on a recent afternoon.
Credit Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Mike "Muddy Mike" Clark, standing in the stern, guides adventuregoers underneath the Eads Bridge near downtown St. Louis on a recent afternoon.

Despite its ever-present vastness along the Missouri-Illinois border, the Mississippi River is easy for locals to take for granted. And all too often, residents completely avoid the river.

It’s one thing to drive above it on a highway or eat a meal at a restaurant overlooking the water; relatively few actually travel its meandering length. But the people behind Big Muddy Adventures are aiming to change that, one canoe trip at a time.

On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske talked with the company’s founder and lead guide, Mike Clark, who is better known as “Muddy Mike.” Also participating in the discussion was Roo Yawitz, general manager of Big Muddy Adventures.

Listeners also heard from some enthusiastic recent passengers.

Related Events

What: Upcoming Big Muddy Adventures trips

When: Various days (and nights!) and times

Where: Mississippi and Missouri rivers

St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill, Lara Hamdan and Alexis Moore. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.