5/30/09 - Fairhope

(1) Above left: Getting to see the sunrise over the Fairhope Yacht Club required an early start in order to be at the Grandman Trialthon on time. (2) Above right: The Mobile Bay Canoe and Kayak Club had members stationed all along the swimming course to provide support for the swimmers. The Grandman Trialthon benefits Mobile Baykeeper, The Gulf Coast Area Triathletes, The Baldwin County Trailblazers, and Camp Rap-A-Hope.


(3)(4) Above left and right: Triathlon participates are split up into seven waves to make it safer. If they all swam the 1/3 mile course at the same time it would be chaos.


(5) Above left: The last of the swimmers make their way to the transition area where they hop on their bicycle for a 16 mile ride and then conclude with a 5k run. (6) Above right: After the all the swimmers were on land I headed over to Fly Creek. A Fly Creek group is suing over upstream construction activity that was polluting the waters. Ironically, this Fly Creek resident is polluting the air around the creek they want to protect.


(7) Above left: Colorful sailboats on protected waters make for nice reflections. (8) Above right: The new Fairhope Yacht Club building can be seen in the background. The old building was destroyed by a hurricane.

5/16/2009 - The Dog Paddle (2009)

Below are photos from "The Dog Paddle" of 2009. Click on images to see a larger view.

















Other activities besides the kayak races were a blood donation bus, live music, dog parade, food and drink, educational booths, flea market and more. This was a real nice event.

Thanks go to all the Dog River Clearwater Revival organizers including president Bruce Coldsmith, Ann Gathings, Claire Wilson and others. A big thanks also go to the sponsors of the Dog Paddle - The Hiller Companies Inc, Alabama Capital LLC, Springdale Travel, Grand Mariner Marina, Fairhope Boat Company, Merchants Transfer Company Inc, Kangal and Associates, Five River Outfitters, Port City Rentals, Alabama Outdoors, Dog River Marina & Boatworks, Greer's Market, Dees Paper Company and Parkway Storage.

5/2/2009 – Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge

Launch: Service Park boat ramp which is about 3-4 miles west of Coffeeville. Coffeeville is 30 miles northwest of Jackson, AL – about a 2 hour drive from Mobile.
Launch Fee: $3. (Lock box envelopes have tag for display in your vehicle.)
Trip Distance: Approx 20 miles.
Route: Paddle up the Tombigbee River 3 miles to the Turkey Creek entrance of Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge, explore the many available waterways, and then return.
Pace: Leisurely.
Weather: Sunny, 70-85 degrees, no tidal influence, winds calm to very light, almost no current except for very slight current in the Tombigbee.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife manages the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) primarily for migratory waterfowl. What’s up there? That’s what I wanted to find out today.


(1) Above left: Foggy morning at the Coffeeville Dam Service Park boat ramp. (2) Above right: After the first hour of paddling, I thought I’d wasted my time because it is an ugly paddle up the Tombigbee unless you like looking at tire dumps. This tire erosion control does not appear to work very well.


(3) Above left: The do’s and don’t of the refuge posted at the Turkey Creek entrance. (4) Above right: A cormorant taking flight.


(5) Above left: There were areas blanketed by sedge flowers. (6) Above right: Birds like this prothonotary warbler were plentiful. Bird music in the air waves was vibrant.


(7)(8) Above left and right: When one boater said to another, “boy, that kayaker has a lot of guts…” I could tell this might be a good place to kayak. Choctaw NWR indeed is a wonderful place to kayak. There are submerged stumps in the refuge waters so most power boats move very slow using a trolling motor – that means no wakes and no noise. Paradise! Don’t let your guard down though – kayakers hit the submerged tree stumps too.


(9) Above left: Alligator smiling for the photo. (10) Above right: There were plenty of water lilies in bloom. You can see a spider marveling at the beautiful flowers too.


(11) Above left: Choctaw NWR reminds me a bit of the open prairies at Okefenokee Swamp because of the brown peat in some areas. (12) Above right: Wild pigs running along GG'ing (grunting and grubbing).


(13) Above left: Herons were all over the place. (14) Above right: Dozens of ibis and other birds in a feeding frenzy for crabs.


(15)(16) Above left and right: Choctaw NWR is a birder’s paradise. I followed along at a bird’s pace with some of the water fowl as they walked along the vegetation digging for food. They were aware of my presence but were unafraid. The only thing I’ll shoot them with is a camera.


(17) Above left: This shot is typical of the area. There is not a lot of shade so bring your sunscreen and wide brim hats. (18) Above right: This dog almost fell overboard trying to get a bite on the wiggling fish. The dancing dog was cute. This couple said the dog also likes crickets and once got into trouble by eating one with a hook in it.


(19) Above left: The sign on the right was enough to influence me to turn around. What's a submerged dam? The rule that says, “When in doubt, don’t,” applies to kayaking. Here is a aerial view of the dam looking upstream. Even a little submerged dam is very dangerous. Check out this dam link. (20) Above right: Taken on the Tombigbee River looking downstream towards the dam.

Today was absolutely beautiful – a big two thumbs up for the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge. It is definately worth a two hour drive from Mobile and is big enough that it would take a week to fully explore. There are motels in Jackson (30 minutes away) and a campground at the Service Park launch site.

4/25/2009 - Garrow's Bend

Launch: Causeway near the Triple Boat Ramps.
Route: Down the Tensaw, across to the Mobile River, down Mobile River to Arlington Channel and to Garrow’s Bend and back.
Distance: 21 miles.
Weather: Sunny, 75-85 degrees, winds calm to begin with then picking up to 10-15 mph in the afternoon. Current 1 to 2 mph in some river locations. High tide to tide going out in the afternoon.

Note to kayakers: Maximum ebb flow (tide going out) mixed with strong winds out of the south can cause unfriendly kayaking conditions in the deep river channels. Wave size can double or triple. It can be challenging at times to cross Mobile River south of McDuffie Island and the Tensaw River south of the Battleship.


(1) Above left: Conditions were still foggy after giving it two hours to burn off. (2) Above right: Boats that have sunk for whatever reason, are left to rot and pollute the waters making it look like we live in a third world country trash dump.


(3) Above left: White Pelican. (4) Above right: Brown Pelican


(5) Above left: Mobile Container Facility Crane. The last of the fog (seen on the horizon) was finally burning off. (6) Above right: Mobile Container Facility Dock on Mobile River.


(7) Above left: Today’s kayak trip was to see if two major construction projects are harming local waters. On Mobile River, the waters were well protected by silt fences, haybales, fabrics, and booms at this dock construction (Austal expansion I think). Didn’t see any sign of erosion into Mobile River. Two thumbs up to the contractor on this site. (8) Above right: The Garrows Bend Intermodal Container Transfer Facility project by the Alabama State Port Authority was in pathetic condition. Mountains of red dirt and not a single erosion control method in most places with the exception of a boom out in the water. This photo shows red dirt eroding into the water. What's the issue with dirt going into the water? For more on sediment pollution, click here.


(9) Above left: More shots of the Garrow’s Bend Container facility project. Here erosion channels can be seen in the red dirt and there is red dirt visible down on the water’s edge in the rock area. Again, no erosion control here. (10) Above right: Two short silt fences in the water. What purpose do they serve when sediment can just go around? They probably hired out of town contractors to do the construction work for this big project. Garrow’s Bend has quite a bit of history to it. Click on this for Garrow’s Bend History. It makes me want to turn the clock back.


(11) Above left: The red dirt made for a nice background reflection for this Ruddy Turnstone. (12) Above right: Not sure what kind of bird or duck this was. It was having a bad hair day.


(13) Above left: Saw a new shrub along the banks I’ve never seen before. This is Huisache or Sweet Acacia. (Acacia farnesiana). (14) Above right: I was in Garrow’s Bend several years ago and it didn’t look anything like this. Upper Dog River now has competition for being the trashiest waterway in Mobile.


(15)(16) Above left and right: More scenic photos of upper Garrow’s Bend. In my opinion, let them put all the industrial sites they want in the Garrow’s Bend area. Garrow’s bend is just another trashy Mobile waterway not worth kayaking in. The people of Mobile obviously do not care about this area. This looks like more photos from third world countries. Here are a few water pollution facts. 40 percent of America's rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. Each year, plastic waste in water and coastal areas kills up to: 100,000 marine mammals, 1 million sea birds, and countless fish. The facts indicate there are consequences to our actions. No need to worry about Iraq getting a nuclear bomb and blowing us up. We’re well underway in the process of committing suicide by polluting our own precious water resources. That's 40 percent gone already...


(17) Above left: Garrow’s Bend is home to the Alabama State Docks coal terminal – the largest in the country which handles about 20 million tons of coal a year. This is a photo of the rail car dumper. Another perspective can be seen here. (18) Above right: The Mobile Coast Guard is also located in the Garrow’s Bend area. You would think the banks of the waterway around the Coast Guard base would be clean. Wrong…


(19) Above left: Despite all the heavy industry in the area, birds still are abundant as in this photo from upper Garrow’s Bend. (20) Above right: Sea Gulls taking a bath in Mobile River off Little Sand Island.

4/19/2009 - Alligator Bayou

Launch: Hoppes Launch (northeast side of Dog River at Dauphin Island Parkway)
Cost: $5
Route: Across Dog River and up Alligator Bayou and back.
Weather: Clouds giving way to sun, 60s-70s, breezy, higher than normal water.


(1) Above left: Went to McNally’s Park to launch and the launch area was full of debris which explains why the parking lot was empty. Decided I’d rather pay $5 to launch at a clean and maintained site – went to Hoppes. (2) Above right: Hoppes Launch – no trash here and there was a snowy egret there to greet people.


(3) Above left: Snowy egret taking a poke at some minnows. It missed. (4) Above right: Pelican pushing off from the water to get airborn.


(5) Above left: I read a paper that questioned if a large nearby nursery’s fertilizer runoff is causing excessive growth in Alligator Bayou. There was indeed very dense vegetation in the water – a type of vegetation I don’t see much in other parts of the delta. But that vegetation was strictly in the upper part of Alligator Bayou. There are canals that run along part of the nursery where one would expect to see the same dense water vegetation, but the canals didn’t have any. There are parts of creeks completely vegetated in the Delta that are in far worse shape than Alligator Bayou. None of the waterways around the Nursery were not blocked by any vegetation. (6) Above right: Whatever the vegetation is in the water, when it dries out on land, Swamp Sparrows make good use of it.


(7) Above left: Some of the canals around the nursery provide a beautiful view of flowers. With a little planning in the arrangement of flowers, kayaking the nursery canals could be a major attraction for kayakers while providing good public relations for the Nursery. (8) Above right: The only negative thing about the Nursery that I saw was loose plastic planters that were lining the edge of the canals in some areas. The Nursery should have their people clean the edge of their property bordering waterways. This isn’t trash that a coastal cleanup effort should deal with. Trash wise, Alligator Bayou was very clean.


(9) Above left: Saw lots of fish and ducks in Alligator Bayou. (10) Above right: If planning to paddle the Alligator Bayou area, it would be wise to have a route mapped out. There are enough canals around the area that one could get lost. The end of one of these canals comes out right at Hamilton Blvd.


(11) Above left: There are houses along some of the canals that make you want to stop and take a photo like this one. Just four colored chairs turns ordinary into eye pleasing. My compliments go to the owner of this house. (12) Above right: Can’t afford a house near the water? Get a mobile home. This mobile home setup looks seriously flawed in terms of being top heavy, but maybe they are not done setting it up yet.


(13)(14) Above left and right: Here is another example of taking ordinary and turning it into extraordinary. A partially blown over tree was turned into a beautiful work of art. There is a wide variety of things to see in the Alligator Bayou area and the open water of Mobile Bay is only a mile away from the mouth of Alligator Bayou.


(15) Above left: A Dog River sunset. (16) Above right: Sunset at Hoppes Launch. Two thumbs up on this paddle and a boo-hiss to the caretakers of McNally’s Park Launch.