High Water Mark Trail? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 9, 2018
Threads
15
Messages
73
Location
Vicksburg MS
Guys,
I wanted to get some opinions on the High Water Mark Trail. I saw a mention or two on here (Cottonland) searching through some older threads. Any recent rips?
I have a small group out of Vicksburg (3ea 470s) and we are trying to get a 3-4 day trip up. We are not looking for anything overly difficult, but not a gravel road either.
What are the best times of year to go? Using Instagram and reading trip reports it looks like most were going Oct-Dec or March- May.
I read that the water levels are key. What River Gauges should I be looking at? What stages/levels are impassible?
Thanks for any help.
 
There’s a lot of variations of what’s called the High water mark , be careful of just following some track you get off the internet or that someone you don’t know gives you. A friend and I just did a rescue mission for a guy from Memphis who was following a version of the HWM he found. He was on a remote trail that only got worse past where he broke. He was in WAY over his head and had destroyed a A arm and broke a front strut folding his front wheel under his vehicle on his pathfinder , but I’m sure you will get trusted info here.
March- May is going to get you possible high water, hence the name, some like trying to ford deep water which is what the original HWM was designed to do , Downed trees from spring storms are also a issue in the spring
After June the creeks stabilize but the weather is hotter. October is a good month with the creeks being low The trails have been cleared and The leaves are turning.
It’s a lot more fun just building your own routes using maps Sat images ,and navigation apps and such than following someone else’s , but just be aware of the MVUM ( motor vehicle usage map) Which shows roads that are legally open to travel and changes from year to year with road conditions . there’s a lot of overlooked roads to the east and west of the HWM area, which has gotten beat to death the past few years.
 
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Also coming from Ms. you should really look at the Ark. Portion of the TAT ( trans America trail) approx 480 miles from Helena to NE Oklahoma But also runs into Ms. and beyond
Mostly dirt or single lane pavement where necessary. It can be done in 3 days And It runs through some great country With a side trip to the Nearby La. purchase monument , it is really overlooked . The area folks consider the HWM is really getting crowded and beat to death from locals and folks from all over . I’ve seen folks There from as far away as Maine , Arizona and Oregon The past couple months
If your set on running roads in N central part of the state , October is a great month and you could learn a lot about the area by attending the rendezvous in the Ozarks Overland event in mid October at Byrd’s Adv. center at Cass
 
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@slacker24-7 that was some great info. I dont even know what you all are talking about, but after that, i feel like I need to do some research on both.
 

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