Today  the Phatwater on the Natchez Gauge is at 41.75′ and falling.  We may attempt to circumnavigate Giles Island in the coming days, while the water still remains high enough to do so.  Below 40′ it gets tricky.  Locals interested in joining us are welcome, but it’s a long trip at 22 miles and much of it is either in sluggish water or against a determined head current when nearing the approach to the Mississippi on the northeast leg.  Here’s a view of the Island, showing its proximity to the Phatwater:

Speaking of Giles Island, we’ve spent a good bit of time there lately, constructing gardens and landscaping the area around the recently completed new lodge, for owners Nancy and Speed Bancroft.

This is before the job began.  We were concerned about high water, and the possibility of the Phatwater backing onto this spot, which is the highest natural point of the Island.  Last year, during the early construction of the lodge, the bottom four feet of this structure was underwater.

Here’s an old map of Giles Island, before it became an island at the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As the map points out, it was formerly referred to as Cowpen Point.  In 1933-34, during the Works Progress Administration, the “Giles Cut” was undertaken, ostensibly to reduce the time required to negotiate Cowpen Point, and shorten passage of river traffic to and from Natchez.  Some have looked upon this with dismay, and it is true that by initiating the “cut”, much of the former Natchez Under-The-Hill region was washed downstream with the erosion of the east bank of the Mississippi, a problem the Corps remains in constant battle against to this day.

There’s always an upside, of course. The result for Giles Island is that the cut has left it the legacy of a true wilderness and wildlife paradise, isolated by its very geography.  At 9600+- acres, it remains a timeless treasure, with but limited exposure to the destructive forces of development.

It is our hope, at Kayak Mississippi, to explore the possibility of conducting kayak tours on the several lakes found on the island, where birding and wildlife viewing are at a premium.

The recent high water can be seen here, in the flooded timber which Blackie Williams, our guide and Giles Island liaison, is racing through with Melissa ducking the wind.

On to other things.  We are at work sending out the second order of Phatwater Sub-V knives which arrived just before Thanksgiving.  I wish we could have gotten them to those of you who are expecting them sooner, but the Giles project consumed much of the past several weeks and, as we all know, we are at that point of the year where gross consumption is encouraged.

One final item.  I came across the shocking revelation, today, that the black rat snake, which locally is known as the “gray rat snake”, has been redefined by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.  No longer is our resident representative to be considered Elaphe obsoleta spiloides. Thanks to mitochondrial DNA sequencing and one Professor Frank Burbrink, of the City University of New York, our gray rat snake, also known as a “chicken snake” has now been reduced to Elaphe spiloides, which, for those of you interested, means “swift, spotted”.  Speaking of spotted, I spotted this one, recently, in a greenhouse, though the name “greenhouse” is also somewhat misleading since no part of it is the color green.

All for now-