Where can i find out if the Loosahatchie river is navigable? Or if i can kayak it without permission to cross property lines while on the water?

TWRA is where I would contact first. I’m pretty sure on that one you should be good to go. I’ve never been on that one but the Hatchie is nice to kayak on. Several nice sections near me. How long of a trip are you looking for or just interested in that particular river?

TWRA contacted me saying it is a LEO question and they have sent my question to the local TWRA LEO.

I am very familiar with the Hatchie. My brother and i fished it a lot back in the day and i have hunted the Hatchie refuge for 30+ years. Haven't paddled it. Seems like an aggressive current for paddling. I would want to do it with a group. I am a beginner kayaker. Maybe more up river would be better for paddling.

I am looking at the loosahatchie because that is some clean and very cold water. If my kayak can draft it, it would be close, fun and cool on a hot summer day.

Understand wanting something close.  And he Hatchie is that for me. We generally drop a car and go down river.  Have done up river paddles the back to car as well. It’s a nice paddle and really not a bad current at all I would say even for a beginner.  Wife and I paddled it when it was flooded a few years ago. Upstream was not going to happen, but downstream was not that rough. The feel in a kayak is different from John boat. I think a lot of people who have been on it in a John boat imagine it a lot worse in a kayak than it is.

I’d be up for a group trip on Hatchie.  I don’t know how many kayakers we have in west side of state. I’ve been meaning to get out again soon. Life has felt busy and I’ve been slacking on making paddling time.

Please update when you here back from TWRA LEO.

Spoke with a local game warden. The loosahatchie west of hwy 194 is considered navigable. East of 194 can be iffy where that designation stops.

All of my life I have operated under the assumption that if you could physically float it, it was navigable. It's interesting to me that this is even a question. Exactly how big/small is this river, anyway? Admittedly I've never tried to float anything too small to float a kayak.

I think it has more to do with debris blocking the navigation of the river.  Trees love to fall into rivers.

Public Navigable Rivers is a legal term: are considered public navigable rivers. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water.

Back when rivers were the best or only way to get cargo across the country.

If a navigable river does not completely cross the property, you cannot proceed beyond the property line.

You cannot land or berth on the banks of the navigable river that are private property.

In other words, if you can float it, without getting out on the banks, it's navigable.

A little more complicated than that but generally yes. Also as long as the river completely crosses the property. If a river ends within private property, that remaining river is private property.