MBCKC Paddle Reports

PADDLING CLEAR CREEK & SMITH LAKE, JASPER, AL
October 31, 2004
by Frank Laraway

Having occasion to attend the annual retreat of the Alabama Sierra Club, held at The Episcopal Church's Camp McDowell, I took along my small Neckie kayak on top of my wagon to take advantage of the opportunities to paddle in the rocky white water of northern Alabama.

The area where our conference was to be held is on the SW edge of the Bankhead National Forest, several miles above Jasper. The camp itself is bounded by Clear Creek on its eastern edge. This creek, and its scenic rocky cliffs, are part of the feature of the camp's religious retreat program. Our Sierra meetings occurred on the northern side of the camp, independent of the church's other activities occurring at the same time. The camp and church sponsor a very intense program of environmental education for families and children, as part of their retreat programs.

Because free time at this weekend conference was at a premium, I arrived early in the afternoon and put my kayak in alone, well before formal activities of the retreat were to occur. Access to the creek by boat is difficult, due to the high cliffs that border it. I was able to get my car and boat to within sixty feet of the river at the south end of the camp, but was forced to make a difficult steep entry down a very rocky bank. The put-in was just below the camp impoundment dam, occurring several hundred feet up river.

Cold Creek is, for the most part, shallow except for behind artificial impoundment dams. Below the dam, it was mostly no more than twelve to twenty-four inches deep, due to the abundance of rocks and hard rock bottom. I paddled down river only about a mile, since the sun was beginning to hide behind the high cliffs on the west. The river area is very consistently scenic with high cliffs on both sides.

Beavers are apparently abundant, but not seen. The usual river bird characters kept ahead of my boat and consisted of mostly kingfishers, herons and wood ducks. The trees that occur above and below the canyon are mainly maples, beeches, big leaf magnolias and a variety of oaks. It was not easy getting back up stream before dark, because the river was so shallow, preventing digging in with the paddle.

Getting the boat and equipment back up the steep, rocky bank and on top of a car rack was a challenge also because of being alone. I was forced to resort to the "Julie System" of getting the boat back on the rack. This consists of putting pads on top the car itself, to temporarily rest the boat on, as one gets it up on the rack. Due to the forward location of my back rack, it is impossible for one person to get the bow of the boat directly on the rack at first. The car was on a hill so the boat even slid off once before getting it on the cushioned mounting pads of the racks.

We had a good two day conference, with very good speakers, giving us lectures on local historical geology, flora and fauna and concerning progress in protecting wild and scenic areas of the state. Other lectures, discussions and concerns were of environmental politics, protection against destruction of habitat, clean water and air.

One of the constant efforts of Sierrans is to protect the state against concentrated animal feeding industries, which produce large amounts of animal waste, that pollute the water and air.

Through the efforts of Sierra and other environmental groups, Alabama now offers the option to buy Forever Wild car license plates, the money going to purchase scenic wild land areas, in order to protect them from development. This income is supplemented with income from the state petroleum gas tax well fund, and has made it possible to acquire much scenic land, especially down here in the delta of south Alabama.

After the conference was over on Sunday, I had planned to drive north into the Bankhead Forest and paddle one leg of the Sipsie. Lacking time, I elected to drive a few miles south of the camp instead, to paddle Smith Lake as I headed for south Alabama.

The park at this western edge of Smith Lake, has good facilities, including a long and steep boat ramp for putting in boats. Smith is located at the south end of the same Clear Creek, and is water that is impounded by Alabama Power Company to generate power. It is, in some places, 300' deep indicating that the river worked for many years, removing rock grain by grain, as it traveled to the Gulf basin. During the Ice Age of over 10,000 years ago, the ocean was at least 40-60 feet lower than it is today.

The lake is bordered all around by the same sandstone cliffs seen further up Clear Creek. Wherever rain creeks fall over these cliffs, with time, the water and ice erode the rock away to form extensive overhanging roofs of rock, creating cliff caves. Some of these caves can be quite extensive and have been shelters for native Americans back through hundreds of years. At each one of these spill-overs and caves, a small bay or creek cut-in is formed in the banks, due to this erosive action, having occurred for thousands of years. These rocky cliffs and woods are so scenic, that it pays to get out of the boat from time to time to hike the borders of the lake.

My planned schedule, forced me to get back to my car at about 11:00 AM to drive south the almost 300 miles, in order to attemd a 6:00 PM Halloween party.

The shortest route to the Mobile Bay area from here, is first to take highway 195 to Jasper, then 69 to Tuscaloosa and its western toll by-pass, to the 20-59 expressway and highway 43 to Mobile. It is four-lane from Thomasville to I-65 and 195 into the city.

Northern Alabama above Montgomery offers interesting options for paddling and camping. However, it is time consuming to drive that far and difficult to find good landings for stream boating. Due to the rock floor of the area, the streams are more rocky, challenging and scenic, so it is worth the trouble.