I made reservations to take a canoe and 3 tubes down the upper 10 mile stretch of Shoal Creek. They provide transportation, paddles, vests and they allow a surprising amount of leeway-pets are fine, BBQ grills, camping along the creek...
There are several trips to choose from. The upper 10 miles is called Busby to Iron City, there is a second drop-point at Factory that makes the upper stretch only 8 miles. Iron City is where the canoe place is located and you simply canoe down until you get to the only bridge on the route, pull over at the stop sign and they load your canoes and gear up and you walk up to your car and leave. There is another option for getting in at the store and going downstream another 10 mile stretch and that's called Iron City to Goose Shoals.
In that situation, they pick you up at the end-you can call them or they will just set a time. You can combine the drop/pick up places to be dropped at Factory or even Busby to make an 18 or 20 mile run, there is an option to keep the canoe up to 4 days and just paddle and camp all along the route. There were many places to camp on sand bars in the first 10 miles and at least 2 established campgrounds. They offer kayaks, canoes and tubes.
We stopped en route to pick up river sandals for Matt and the kids. I swear, if they don't stop growing soon I am just going to dip their feet in that stuff you use to rubberize tool handles and call it done. Matt is done growing, but his old sandals had flopped their last flip.
While they shoe shopped, I picked up cheese sticks, some nutty bread, bananas, blackberries and raspberries and some flavored water with electrolytes. We had breakfast before we left, but I figured a good snack would start us off on a better day. We had opted not to bring a full lunch on the canoe and just had a variety of snacks to stave off munchies.
We got up there around 10 and were in the creek before 11, we started off with Matt and me in the canoe and the kids floating along in the tubes. We pulled off to swim and snack, reapply sunscreen and to look around a few times. Matt had the GPS tracking the route and as the day progressed, we were going through the hours much more quickly than the miles. We had left our keys in the office, so we had to be back by 7!
We got up there around 10 and were in the creek before 11, we started off with Matt and me in the canoe and the kids floating along in the tubes. We pulled off to swim and snack, reapply sunscreen and to look around a few times. Matt had the GPS tracking the route and as the day progressed, we were going through the hours much more quickly than the miles. We had left our keys in the office, so we had to be back by 7!
We tied the kids on to a rope to haul them, as the water flow was quite slow. Hauling via canoe is work and during the day, Jake and Chan both took a turn while Matt and I enjoyed being towed. There were some fast-flow spots where we could take a small rest, but overall, we paddled about 9 miles while pulling the tubes. Next time, 2 canoes-no tubes. Or more like a canoe and 2 kayaks.
Getting in at Busby, you literally step off the rocky cliff and into the canoe. They carried it down for us, which was nice! The van that hauled us up there was made to fit 12, but we got at least 16 in there! It had seen better days, possibly even better decades, but the doors stayed shut and the brakes worked.
I heard there were more cliffs along the lower run, but we had fun jumping off these and swimming at this spot.
She is SOOOO cute! I love that dog. Everyone we passed asked to keep her.
She liked the boat, she would stand up and bark at people fishing along the banks and she napped on an extra life jacket, laying under a towel we set up for shade. She liked all the stops, but did not like having to be picked up to get back in the boat, I have never seen a dog have to mentally prepare itself to be picked up like she does. I have to wonder if someone threw her at some point in her life.
First she gets really still when you tell her you have to pick her up now, then sometimes she needs to run away and then come back, then she sort of braces herself and goes totally stiff, then you set her down and she always blinks and looks around-I imagine because any time she can't jump there herself, it's a totally new landscape. I bet she'd be able to get in and out of the boat by herself within a day or so if we canoed more.
a little side-stream, it had high canyon walls and I wanted to get out and explore! We will next time. I did not get a shot down into the stream with the walls because I was trying to get the kids to look at it.
One of about 50 rope swings along the way. Some had platforms, some were in water that was barely over your ankles!
Chan and I swapped out with Matt and Jake and we paddled a while. Our canoe had been repaired at some point and there were 2 holes drilled in the bottom for a plate to fit on and they had not been filled back in, so Matt was sure it would sink if I sat in the back. Chan was in the back, which meant I was hauling everyone and doing all of the paddling from the front, which was a workout and a half. We made it about an hour before I had to swap around again.
I got in the back for the rest of the trip and was able to help Matt get some miles behind us. By the last mile, I was ready to give up and let the bears eat me. We were SO tired and done for. I know it was hauling the tubes, when they were not attached, we skimmed along like pond skaters.
There was a nice long stretch both in full shade and with rapid flow, so we unhooked the kids and they bobbed along, looking at the huge alligator gar and tons of other fish. We saw 2 snakes as well, both harmless water snakes. They never skeeved me until I saw one dive UNDER the surface and head for the bottom of the creek. I did not know they could do that...
It is a pretty creek, the whole way we hardly saw anyone else, just a few little cabins and a few people camping and fishing. It would be a really nice fall or late spring trip when the water is up a bit more-we did scrape a few times and had to get out and pull the canoe a few times, too. Any lower and it would have been miserable. It's full sun nearly the whole route, even in the afternoon, the creek turned and headed due west, so the sun beamed on us. There were only a few shady spots, I am surprised we did not cook.
The water willow bloomed all along the edge of the creek.
Matt, in the process of thinking through our marriage vows and wondering why on earth I thought tubes would be so much fun to haul. This was the last half mile or so of the run and we were both so tired of paddling that I thought hard about just swimming the rest of the way and waiting for the boat to float down on its own.
We put Ben in the canoe to lessen some of the drag and to shade him more. He is so fair and I shaved his head-I was worried he would burn. He held Zep while she napped and talked non-stop.
The bridge at the end. We would have cheered if we could have mustered the energy.
We were all a little burned despite the frequent sunscreen stops. Our faces/heads and shoulders fared well, everyone had red legs, my back burned a little and the sun went further down my top than my sunscreen, so I have red stripes. Ben's legs and ankles are red, Jake's nose is a little red, Matt's knees burned...my thighs are red. I think I got the worst of it because I was so focused on getting everyone else covered and making the kids stay out of the water for 15 minutes for it to work that I did not think about getting myself covered. None of us burned enough that it will peel, by this morning, we are all turning tanned except for a couple streaks here and there where clothes usually cover or where the sunscreen rubbed off sooner. Burnt around the edges.
It was a fun trip, despite my complaints about the heat and the work hauling the tubes. The heat is just part of life here in summer and the tubes were just a bad idea. I wish they had said something when I made the reservations about how slow the water flow was-if we all had been in tubes, there would be no way we could have drifted down 10 miles in 7 hours. In the deeper spots, when we drifted the GPS read us as going .10 MPH. So, 10 hours to go a single mile in that-and there were a LOT of miles of deep water with no current. The website says the upper run is Class 1 with a good flow and the lower run is slower with more paddling required. That sounds like kids on tubes would have a great time. I am just glad we had the rope!
We stopped at Taco Bell in Florence for dinner and snagged some doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. I am SOOOO glad there is not one of those closer than an hour from here. I do not need access to Hot Now more than twice a year. : )
