Weiss Lake Paddle 2010
June 25th, 26th and 27th, 2010.
This year’s Weiss Lake Paddle was a follow-on to the event started by a grant from State representative Richard Lindsey that launched regional interest in the area. The 2009 event was the Alabama Scenic River Trail’s first large event, and the first large paddling event for Cherokee County. The event seemed to perpetuate itself easily, with a lot of thanks to Thereasa Hulgan and April Woodfin of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce and Don Coley, a local booster of many outdoor activities in the area.
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Above: The local contingent from the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce ran things for us while we had all the fun.
The big thing we learned in 2009 was that events are much easier if you don’t move around the lake. While the event was a real tour in the true sense of the word, the suggestion was made to use Driftwood Campground as a base of operations. So that’s what the 2010 tour was all about.
Thursday night was like a family reunion as paddlers filed in for registration and set up the sprawling camp. We saw a lot of familiar faces from last year and several who have been regulars at our events since last year. We cooked and camped on the lip of the lake and watched an awesome full moon rise over the water.
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Above: Ready to depart from Driftwood Campground. The water is just a few steps away.
Our community kitchen went little used as the campground offered sausage, biscuits and coffee starting about 6:00 a.m. each morning.
Friday’s paddle was an out-and-back from Driftwood to the mouth of Little River. Everyone in the state knows about or has visited the famous deep canyon, but few know about the canyon below the falls. It turned out to be a great—if challenging—trip up a clear creek with cold, cold water from the top of the mountain. The challenge was not in fighting the current up the mountain, for there was very little current, but rather in getting to and from the creek across the big water of Weiss Lake. Within a mile of the mouth our group—held together nicely by Trip Leader Troy Fuqua of Madison—encountered a heavy rain with lightning. We headed for an inviting grassy expanse with few trees to attract the lightning. Then the landowner approached and instead of being sent away we were invited to wait out the storm in his capacious boathouse a hundred yards from the water. We snacked, talked, checked the weather and talked VW vans with him until the storm blew over than then it was back in the boats.
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Above: Taking a break on the Coosa.
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Above: In the cold, clear water of the mouth of Little River.
The return trip was good paddling but for the last several miles when the rear guard of our group came face-to-face with high water and wind. We struggled with each stroke as the front went through, our only reward being the slightly cooler temperatures behind it when the winds calmed.
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Above: Stopping to smell the Lotus on Lake Weiss.
Friday night’s meal was another celebration among friends, and during the evening plans were circulated that would change the next day’s paddle to avoid the day’s scenario on open water. Instead of a fifteen-mile one-way paddle past historic Cornwall Furnace iron works, the group opted for a stint on Terrapin Creek, a decision that depended upon a report on the water level. One of the paddlers produced and iPad with a link to Terrapin levels. You want to do this creek—at least the part we wanted to paddle—above 150 cubic feet per second (200 is perfect) and the gauge was reading 136 that night, which was marginally close. The water on the Terrapin comes out of Georgia, so it matters how much rain is falling across the state line and not in Alabama. Georgia came through for us because the next morning we were treated to a flow rate of 180 cfps or so. On to Terrapin!
We took our time getting on the water that Saturday because the Terrapin between the Stewarts Bridge put-in and our landing at Terrapin Outdoor Center because the creek is swift and because we were so tired from the previous big-water paddle. Fortunately we had brought enough shorter boats to accommodate those of us with long boats and we had some nice shuttle capacity plus help from Don Coley. From the minute we put in, the ride was challenging and exhilarating. We had two great guides in Mark Lee and Theresa Ward who are regular visitors to the Terrapin. Experience comes in very handy on this creek because things happen quickly in the mild rapids and your hands and eyes will be busy much of the time you are on it.
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Above: Yours truly negotiating the infamous "Rock Garden" on Terrapin Creek.
We got back to the campground to find many of our canopies and awnings drenched by a rainstorm that fortunately missed us on the Terrapin. After handing up a few soaked tents and replacing them with our spares, we headed up to the campground’s kitchen for a home cooked meal that was part of the event fee. After the meal, the campfire talk turned back to the Terrapin and rightly so: we had all done so well, event the whitewater first-timers! Those who had longed for some whitewater paddling adventure got their wish. Those who wished for a fun-filled day on this well-loved piece of water got theirs, too.
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Above: Everyone played and escaped the heat in the cold water at Seven Springs on the Terrapin.
The next morning’s trip was to be another out-and-back to Yellow Creek Falls (this creek comes in to Weiss Lake and the Coosa River from the north, just to the west of Little River, and tumbles dramatically into the lake at a wonderful swimming hole that was a favorite of last year’s paddle) but the already-tired group opted for a shuttle to a ramp near the falls for more play time there with less work. The group broke up with a cheerful see-you-next-year-right-here and it was back to the real world and home under a bright blue Cherokee County sky.
Thirty miles on the beautiful Cahaba: Centreville is the center of this paddling universe
June 12th and 13th, 2010
Over the last year or so, the Alabama Scenic River Trail has worked with the town of Centreville to develop the town's Cahaba River Historical Park into an asset for the paddler. The Cahaba River, undammed and wild, offers a reality check for those who have never been on a river with living things in it as they should be: the water is clear and the river is teeming with life. Gliding over its surface and looking down into the looming rocks below is eerily similar to flying an airplane over a bank of clouds under a full moon. Mussels dot every stone like glistening black confetti.
The two-day adventure used Centreville's new riverside campground as a base camp. We shuttled the boats and paddlers up to the Cahaba National Wildlife Refuge and paddled back to the camp on the first day, then left from there to take out below the bridge at Harrisburg Road on the second.
The park is the site of the town's new campground for river travelers, a broad and level field within the park on the shoulders of the river, in sight of the Walnut Street Bridge. It's one of the few places in the state where campers are a short dash from ice, a farmer's market and other amenities. The local food is good and priced right... when our group camped, they headed often as not to the nearby mexican grill and the several meat-and-threes.
The park came into being primarily through the efforts of the local group Friends of the Refuge and Mayor Tommy Bamberg. Our outing was the first good-sized group camp there, and we were well-accomodated. The people of Centreville were so outwardly helpful to all who attended that that we couldn't believe it! These people really want your tourism business and have worked hard to get it. If you're in the area, please visit the park at 421 Montevallo Road (Highway 25), Centreville, AL 35042. Centreville, for those who don't know, is down beautiful Highway 5 a piece below Interstate 59/20 between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.
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Above: Having some fun on one of the many drops on the Refuge.
The Cahaba has two personalities in the Centreville region. Above the park lies the Cahaba Refuge, whose access to the river provides swimming, paddling, a lot of nature studes through the Cahaba River Society and close-up views of the famous Cahaba Lilies when they bloom in May and June. But no camping is allowed here (that's where Centreville's park comes in handy). The river on the Refuge runs excitedly down the fall line over drop after drop and shoal after shoal for miles. The fall line is essentially a ramp that runs off the stone substrata under the state's northern geology and sends our rivers meandering aimlessly throught the coastal plain above the Gulf. The ramp at Centreville's park is at the very toe of the fall line, and the river wanders through farmland bottoms with ample sandbars left and right all the way to its terminus at its confluence with the Alabama River below Selma.
Our entourage began its gathering on Friday evening and put in after a shuttle to the refuge mid-morning. Low normal for running the river was supposed to be a bit higher than what the gauges were reading that morning. Obviously the gauges were wrong: the water looked low. We had come to run the river and ran it anyway. After we put in, we were immediately surrounded by lilies still in bloom. We ran drop after drop, and dragged our boats across the ledge at every one and almost every shoal between. We were exhausted after the first mile or two, but pressed on in the belief that we had only eight more miles to go before returning to camp in Centreville. Were we ever wrong: a GPS error served us by our advance party was wrong by a long shot. The mileage turned out to be more like seventeen into town! By the time we had figured out our mistake, we were past the only optional takeout at River Bend bridge. Would we have taken out there had we known what a long trip we had ahead of us? No. We were tired, but we were having fun, and we were in awe of the Cahaba. The next takeout was our campground, and that's where we headed.
After wearing us out in the first set of rapids and shoals, and then making is paddle the slackwater beyond that back to Centreville, the river once again reminded us of why we were there in the last mile before the ramp where it gives its last hoorah on the fall line. We were busier than the proverbial one-armed paperhanger, guessing and shooting the tricky drops on the way past the park and all the way to the ramp. At least here is was a fair game of pinball; only a few scraping rocks were felt and nobody got stuck as they did up in the refuge.
Local historan David Daniel came out to inform and entertain our bleary-eyed group just before our early retirement. We may have seemed to fatigued to listen, but his presentation was the talk of a good bit of Sunday's paddle, which is saying something considering the beauty we were immersed in at the time.
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Our parade comes through a loop in the winding river below Centreville on our float's second day.
We all agreed on our graceful and mercifully easy Sunday float (that distance was wrong, too, but not by the same factor as Saturday's seventeen miles. We ended up doing nearly thirty miles over both days) was agreed by all to be our reward for the day before.
A paddle down the Cahaba is an excellent choice for a beautiful little adventure. Be careful to pick your time for the upper run. But get down to Centreville and do the stretch from the town's Cahaba River Historical Park down to the Harrisburg Road bridge anytime you like. Or better yet, join us next time.
Popular demand says we will do it again.
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Ghost Paddle: beautiful scenery, and a lock-through of Claiborne Dam
November 7 and 8 2009.
A very interesting paddle trip on both sides of the Alabama River where we explored almost every gunkhole between our put-in above Haines Landing and our takeout at the Highway 82 Bridge below Claiborne Lock and Dam.
We used the US Army Corps of Engineer's excellent Isaac Creek Campground as a base camp for our two-day exploration of this scenic stretch of the Alabama River. Friday night registration was topped with a barbecue dinner and a ghost-hunting jaunt to Haines Mountain.
On Saturday morning we gathered for breakfast before departing for the fall colors along the river. The sixteen miles we travelled and meandered that day were mostly downstream and in slack backwater but we did have some strong headwinds that kept us hugging the lee bank. We were wowed by the exquisite weather and the scenery at Cane Creek, Stump Lake and the backwaters of Isaac Creek.
Camping Saturday night back at Isaac Creek included catfish, okra, sweet potatoes, fried potatoes and other southern delectables. An area band entertained us with sweet live music and we were treated to a bit of dancing with our own star and hostess Linda Vice. We lived up to our EAT BIG motto that evening, and the cameraderie among the group, which comprised folks from Tallahassee to Lousiana and from Mobile to Atlanta, was all that ASRT followers have come to expect.
Sunday morning saw the group through Claiborne Lock and Dam, most of them for the first time through a big-time lock.
