Floating down a flowing river in a canoe is a great way to enjoy the wilderness. With the help of an outfitter, this can be a less strenuous alternative to hiking and it allows you carry all of the gear and food you need for a comfortable adventure. On this trip, I left the RV and Shayna back in Baton Rouge, joined up with three friends, and spent 3 days absorbing the beauty of Black Creek in Mississippi. We’ll show you our route, our equipment, and our camping spots to help you plan your very own trip through the stunning Desoto National Forest.
The town of Brooklyn, MS was our jumping off point for a 3-night adventure on Black Creek. Brooklyn is a short one and half hour drive from New Orleans, two and a half hours from Baton Rouge, or three and a half hours from Monroe. Black Creek Canoe Rental provides equipment rentals and transportation for 1, 2, or 3 day adventures. We selected a trip from Camp Dantzler to Fairly Bridge Landing. This is billed as a three day trip which we easily could have made in two days, but we slowed down on days two and three so that we could spend as much time in the wild as possible.
We arrived at Fairley Bridge Landing Recreation Area on Friday evening. This would be the ending point for our canoe trip, so we planned our first night there in order to leave a couple vehicles behind the next morning. Two of the four of us were camping in tents, and the remaining two (including myself) were camping in hammocks. This would later prove to complicate the selection of camping sites, but Fairley Bridge Landing provided great accommodations for hammocks and tents. After a dinner over the fire ring we got a good nights sleep in anticipation for our first day on the creek.
Day 1 on Black Creek
The mist was rising off of Black Creek as the crackling fire warmed our coffee. After filling ourselves with sausage, egg, & cheese biscuits we broke down camp, jumped in Matt’s truck with two canoes strapped to the top and headed north. The four of us unloaded our canoes and equipment at the Camp Dantzler launch north of Brooklyn. Unlike Big Creek Landry, Moody’s Landing, Janice Landing, Cypress Creek Landing, and Fairley Bridge Landing; Camp Dantzler does not provide designated camping locations. This one is simply a boat ramp next to a bridge on Churchwell Rd. The boat ramp ended a few feet short of the water line which would make launching anything except the lightest motorboat difficult. The water’s edge was adequate for loading a canoe with equipment. Three of us got to work setting up our vessels while Matt drove his (now empty) truck to Black Creek Canoe Rental. After talking with Brandon at the outfitter by phone the day before, we determined that Camp Dantzler was not an ideal place to leave a vehicle for a few nights while we paddled Black Creek. So we paid a very reasonable $20 to leave our vehicle at the outfitter and have them transport Matt back to the launch where we had readied the canoes for our adventure.
For this trip we elected to do the transport of our canoes on our own (with a little help from the outfitter for parking). You could choose to save yourself some effort and some time by allowing the outfitter to do all of the transportation for you. You’d simply arrive at their shop, pay for your rental and transportation, and they would drop you at your launch point. At the end of the trip they’d be waiting at your pick-up point to take your back to your vehicle. This is a great option for those who are renting equipment, have physical limitations that prevent them from lifting or carrying a heavy canoe, or don’t have an adequate vehicle to transport canoes.
Camp Dantzler to Brooklyn is a 13 mile paddle which we completed before lunch. This is the most populated stretch of the creek, with frequent homes overlooking the creek. While this is somewhat of a distraction from nature, I still recommend you paddle this stretch if your time allows. The waters swiftly carried us as wood ducks guided our way downstream. After a brief stop in Brooklyn for Matt to retrieve some critical equipment of inadvertently left in his truck, we continued on to a sandbar for lunch.
After lunch we entertained ourselves with some rock skipping competitions before pushing off for the second half of our first day’s paddle. We soon began to search for that night’s camp which turned out to be quite a challenge. A location with cleared, flat ground would have been easy to come by on any of the many sandbars we passed. But sandbars don’t have trees, which are a critical component of camping in hammocks. Where the wildness met the sandbars, the land was covered in thick brush devoid of trees mature enough to hang hammocks. Areas with large trees near the water were often guarded by steep slopes over 10ft which would make unloading our equipment difficult at best and dangerous at worse. The best locations seemed to be where smaller streams entered the main stem of Black Creek, but the first one of these we found was next to a forest road which seemed to be frequented by locals. We didn’t want to find ourselves with unexpected company late in the night, so we moved on.
As the shadows of the trees stretched long across the creek we settled on a location with a muddy bank and a steep slope that would have been passed over earlier in the evening. But a bag brigade led to quick and easy unloading and we found ourselves on a beautiful overlook with clear ground for tents in the midst of trees perfect for hammocks. We set up camp and threw our foil pack meals on the tripod grill. We had traveled 23 miles of the creek in a single day. Many of those miles expended on our search for an adequate camping location. Only 17 miles lay ahead with another night to split them. Tomorrow would be an easy day.
Day 2 on Black Creek
There was little hurry to be on the water so we lazily passed the morning with coffee and breakfast We loaded the canoes and explored Pearces Creek before stoping for lunch. This stretch of Black Creel was quiet and peaceful. Riffles danced in the glare of the sun. Creek water chilled the air. After a few hours and eight and a half miles we stoped to explore the Black Creek Trail where it turns away from Black Creek to follow Beaver Dam Creek. Where Black Creek and Beaver Dam Creek met provided an ideal camping location, with more gentle slopes on the Beaver Dam Creek and high ground between the two which has the appearance of being regularly used by hikers and campers. The Black Creek Trail passes through this area with a path down to a sandbar on Black Creek. It was the best of every world. With no pressure to cover more ground that day, we set up camp early and enjoyed an evening watching the water roll by from the sand bar.
Day 3 on Black Creek
Only eleven miles stood between our campsite and our pull-out on the last day. On the way we passed Cypress Creek landing which provided a ramp similar to the one we camped next to at Fairley Bridge Landing. A map provide by Black Creek Canoe Rental shows camping available at Big Creek Landry, Moody’s Landing, Janice Landing, Cypress Creek Landing, and Fairley Bridge Landing. If you’re looking for easy access to a camping location with known amenities, then using these sites is a good option.
Back at Fairley Bridge Landing, we found our vehicles just as we’d left them. We loaded one canoe on John’s truck to bring back to Matt’s truck which we left at Black Creek Canoe Rental. We loaded the other in Charle’s truck for the return trip to Baton Rouge. We bid each other farewell with plans for the next trip fresh on our minds.
In total we did 42.5 miles on black creek over three days. We paddled for 9.5 hours. The daily breakdown looks like this:
Day 1: 23 miles, 5.5 moving hours
Day 2: 8.5 miles, 2 moving hours
Day 3: 11 miles, 2 moving hours
Black Creek offers an easy canoe trip with plenty opportunities for developed camping sites. With the support of Black Creek Canoe Rental, you can design an adventure for the beginner or the expert. You can stage your RV at any of the camping sites maintained by the US Forest Service in the Desoto National Forest, though you’ll be boondocking. If you’d like more life support you can book a site at nearby Flint Creek.
