Layne Logue is the owner of Quapaw Canoe Company in Vicksburg. The company operates paddle trips for customers along the lower Mississippi River.

Logue grew up in Vicksburg. He said his company is essentially a franchise of the Quapaw Canoe Company based in Clarksdale, Mississippi and run by river paddling expert John Ruskey.

“John Ruskey started this back in ’98 and he was the first one to do it. Nobody was canoeing and camping on the lower Mississippi river, at least maybe as a business,” Logue said. “And so he developed the procedures and techniques and safety aspects of canoeing the Mississippi River because it is dangerous out there if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Logue said the different franchises often share resources for larger groups of people.

Full-time, Logue is a civil engineer with the Mississippi Department of Transportation. He calls his canoeing venture his “fun job.”

Logue became interested in opening his own paddling business when he met Ruskey around 2011.

“So I started hanging out with him and doing trips with him and my first big trip with him was a 13-day trip from St. Louis to Carruthersville, Missouri, and it was a 300-mile trip and we went through St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau and just amazing towns up there,” Logue said. “It opened my eyes to the Mississippi River.”

The company offers single-day trips as well as overnight trips. Logue said the best way to experience the river would be to at least be camping for two nights to allow for a full day of paddling, exploring, and taking in the sights and sounds of the river.

“You’ve got two-to-three million birds that migrate up and down the river every year. And so you get to experience huge flocks of storks and Canada geese and snow geese and waterfowl. It’s just amazing all the wildlife that lives on it, and it is a pristine natural environment. You know, people kind of are surprised,” Logue said. “They think that, you know, there are 31 states that drain into the Mississippi River, and so people think  it’s a polluted river, but everything that lives on the Mississippi River is healthy and thriving. And that’s why people have these premier hunting camps and turkey camps, because the wildlife is just perfect.”

Overnight trips often have participants camping on islands along the river.

Logue’s team often cooks for their customers on overnight trips using Dutch ovens over an open fire made of driftwood.

Prices for the trips vary, but Logue says the best price point is reached when he can guide a group of six or more. To carry all the people and equipment, some of the canoes he uses are 30-feet long and weigh as much as 400 pounds.

“My favorite part about doing this? The beauty of the river: the sunsets, the sunrises, the nature, the bird migrations,” Logue said. “It’s a nature documentary that you’re a part of. I’ve seen dragonfly larvae come out of the river and blossom into a dragonfly right before my eyes. I get to experience things that people don’t get to see other than on documentaries or TV.”

For more information about the Quapaw Canoe Company of Vicksburg, Logue can be reached by phone at 601-529-7354, or by email at laynelogue@bellsouth.net.