Sunday February 11, 2007
I launched my kayak on the north side of Battleship Parkway into Chacaloochee Bay, a northeastern extension of Mobile Bay, along with 6 members of the Fairhope Canoe/Kayak Club, 5 singles and one tandem. The group was lead by Bob Andrews an experienced kayaker and resident delta expert. This location is just east of Mobile AL, off I-10 and a mile east of the USS Alabama Museum. It was sunny and 59 degrees and would cool down after 3 pm.
We were going to go to Little Bateau Bay and make a loop back down Conway Creek. We are in the delta of the Mobile and Tensaw Rivers the second largest river delta area in the United States. The delta is a vast area of bays, independent rivers, creeks, and drainage like ditches or canals that change depth with the Gulf Tide.
The first leg was 2 miles across Chacaloochee Bay into Big Bateau Bay. On the way we saw a variety of coastal and delta birds. As we neared the upper portion of Big Bateau Bay the waters became very shallow. The couple in the tandem kayak turned back for home as they could not float the shallow water and generally were having difficulty keeping pace. Although this bay covers an expansive area, there can be a number of very shallow sections. The lead kayaks moved back and forth to find a deeper area or channel, with no success. So we headed back to the Southwest, back into Chacaloochee Bay, around a point and entered the mouth of Conway Creek. As we rounded the point we found a dead pelican that had become snared in a fishing line, attached to a wood piling.
Conway Creek flows from the Tensaw River and has several branches. Along the way up, we passed by a small ditch like canal with called Savage Ditch (like a Michigan creek with varying depths) that was planned to use on the return. Once on Conway Creek we could no longer see any landmarks as the bank and/or tall grasses blocked the view in almost all directions. New bright green grass and Iris about 8 inches tall along the shoreline were hints of the Alabama Spring. We took two right hand branches before entering Little Bateau Bay. By now, I was pretty well turned around as everything looked the same. I had marked our launch point with my GPS so I may have found my way back if I had to. There were only a couple of places along Conway Creek where any current was encountered, the wind seemed to be more of a paddling factor. On the return down the Creek we took a break at the Savage Ditch we were going to use as a shortcut back to Chacaloochee Bay. Here we chatted and ate stale peanuts supplied by one of the paddlers. My food source, a box of trail bars purchased especially for this paddle, was back at the Condo. Bob commented that he hoped the ditch was deep enough the whole way or we would have to turn back and continue on Conway Creek. With hopes for deep water we headed single file down Savage. Fortunately it was, and we would soon see Chacaloochee Bay. At the mouth of Savage Ditch we saw an unrecognizable steel frame, two miles from the nearest road that Bob said was a tractor trailer frame deposited there by hurricane Camille in 1969. The full aluminum body was intact until most recently, when scrap aluminum prices went up and the scavengers harvested it for scrap metal.
When entering the top of the Bay we could see the tall buildings of Mobile to the right, tree covered hills to the far left, and a vague dark windowed stripe across the horizon connecting the two. We now had the wind in our faces with light chop on the Bay. It was only after paddling for a half hour that I could see little dots moving back and forth on the vague dark windowed stripe, and realized that they were cars on the I-10 causeway. With the head wind and distance I thought I would move up close to Bob's stern so as to make it a little easier to paddle. Well that didn't happen, and I can only describe the last 2 miles back to the launch site as "one long ass paddle". The birds today were Great Blue Huron, Great Egret, Cormorant, Sandpipers, Long-billed Curlew, American Coot, Myrtle Warbler, Pelican, Red Tailed Hawk, and White Ibis. The GPS trip data: distance, 11.5 miles, max Sp. 5.8 mph, moving avg. 3.5 mph and time moving 3hrs. & 16 minutes.
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