MBCKC Paddle Reports

Paddle Report: The Double Bayou Tour, Sept. 9, 2001

Let me say it first off, I love the area around the Grand Bay Wildlife Refuge, Bayou La Batre, Coden and Fowl River for sea kayaking. While most of the Alabama Coastline is a maze of concrete condos and oversized homes for the well to do, there is a little bit of sea kayak heaven in the Grand Bay area. Imagine an area with some of the best salt marshes along the Gulf Coast , extremely little powerboat traffic (and no jetski gnats), and a stark beauty and sense of isolation that many of us crave from time to time.

Our trip began at 7:30 AM at the landing at the end of Bayou Heron in the Grand Bay wildlife refuge. Only two other paddlers showed up: Jeff Breit and Mark Vance. We locked our kayaks up to a tree. We then made the 20 mile shuttle from route 90 East to Route 188 East to Lightning Park at the mouth of Bayou La Batre. This is a real nice mellow drive. We took all three cars where we met my lovely and gracious wife who, although too lazy to paddle , drove our van and shuttled us back to the landing (thanks Ruth, we really did appreciate it!!!!!).

About 9:45 AM we finally got going. Mark gave us an impromptu demonstration at getting in a kayak and how to use a bilge pump! It took only about an hour to travel to the mouth of the Bayou (2.3 statute miles) and then to the white oyster shell beach of Barton Island. This is one of my favorite islands, nice beach and interesting walk. Every time I come here I notice significantly more erosion. Many plants were wiped out on the beach where only last year or two there were many.

Iva frutescens (shrub in the daisy family) was getting ready to bloom, just in time for the upcoming Monarch butterfly migrations. Sea purslane as usual is always there to provide succulent green ground hugging foliage and beautiful purple flowers. The Spartina alterniflora flowers are real pretty when fresh.

The ubiquitous Uca fiddler crabs were there to greet us. We saw at least two species, U. panacea and U. longisignalis. The first is a very small species, the cute one, that likes burrowing in sand. The much larger longisignalis likes more muddy areas amongst the Spartina. These are cool animals, kind of like cute little animated robots.

We then proceeded down the fascinating labyrinth of salt marsh channels in Bayou La Fourche Bay, but changed our minds due to technical difficulties and we made the 4 mile crossing to Point Aux Pins. This is a big spit extending south into Mississippi Sound that has a cluster of very large slash pines that are visible for over 4-5 miles . It is a great landmark in a beautiful sea of uniformity. After stopping at two nice beaches on Pt. Aux Pins, we made the 2 mile crossing to Bayou La Batre, the Alabama Shrimp Boat capital.

This approximately 9.5 mile trip is a great one to build up your confidence for sea kayaking. You are never far from land, but yet there is the opportunity to test yourself on crossings of 1 to 2 and 4 miles. My feeling is if you can easily make a brisk 4 mile crossing, especially with some decent waves, then you are probably safely capable of some more adventurous trips .

Gene