MBCKC Paddle Reports

Boatyard Lake and Pinelog Creek October 31, 2006
by Bruce Zimmerman

To get there from Spanish Fort, drive north on Alabama highway 225 then highway 59 north past the town of Tensaw to Montgomery Hill. Turn left on highway 80 and drive towards Ft. Mimms County Park.

The put in at Boathouse landing is a commercial ramp with both hard ramps and soft shoulder ( gravel and sand) put ins on Boatyard Lake near Ft. Mimms county park in Baldwin County. The ramp owner charges $4.00 to launch. Sanitary facilities with flush plumbing are behind the store in a separate building.

The Lake is a banana shaped body of water that starts up near Holley Creek to the north. The lake extends southward bending towards the south west and then west. Dry ground surrounds the lake with mature hardwoods all around.

Heading south on the lake, Laraway and I paddled easily listening for bird calls and boat traffic. Up ahead on the left bank we spotted a house boat tied to shore. We cut left through an opening and found ourselves in Pinelog Creek. The water quality changed abruptly from gray-green turbid water to clear deep water.

Pinelog Creek was wide near the mouth. Higher ground than we saw from the lake rises away from shore. The understory is sparse so the view into the forest was pretty good. I used a topo map, Tensaw Quadrangle, to keep track of our location in the river by turns and compass heading. The creek gradually narrowed down to 20 feet or so as it split around islands. The land looks uninhabited, but signs on the trees warn No Trespassing, no hunting, no fun. Shiny beer cans dot the bank and shoreline until you get to The Swamp.

We followed the creek until we were heading due north and the banks became less well defined. We slid to a stop in amongst some cypress knees and had lunch afloat.

After lunch we cut through the trees to the east to find the creek again. About this time we saw the only pines on Pinelog Creek and these were young, about 6 feet tall, at the crest of a ridge on the right. Laraway took the lead into The Swamp because he really likes that kind of exploring. We just followed the current into the swamp because the map was pretty useless once we left the bank of the creek. We continued upstream to the first deadfall across our path. The water was rather shallow on our side and it looked more shallow on the other side of the deadfall so we did a lot of back and fill maneuvers to turn around and try to find our way out. I'm pretty sure we did not leave The Swamp the same way we came in; what fun is that?

We left the creek behind and returned to the lake. The topo map showed some waterways entering the map, but they may have filled in with forest. Way down near the end of the lake, the map shows a significant waterway, a cut through, that heads down to Pierce Landing, but this way was blocked at the first turn with two substantial logs. The water beyond the deadfall seemed stagnant and uninviting.

We returned to the lake and paddled against a little current for a while and dodged two motorboats. The paddle back to the take out sure seemed to take a long time. As the day was getting late, we left exploring north of the landing for another day.