Bartram Canoe Trail

Troop 632 | Gulf Coast Council | Pensacola, Florida

Where:  Stockton, Alabama

Dates:  04 - 06 August 2006

From Pensacola:  Take Baldwin County 112 to Alabama 31 and Bay Minette, Alabama.  Take Alabama 59 north of Bay Minette to Stockton.  Take County Road 21 in Stockton to Rice Creek Road.  As of this writing, the road is unmarked but across from (west of) Richardson Cemetery, a fairly identifiable landmark.  There are excellent camping facilities at Hubbard Landing, north of Stockton.  Take State 59 north to County Road 96.

On the Web:  http://www.outdooralabama.com/outdoor-adventures/bartram.cfm

Philadelphia explorer and naturalist William Bartram canoed the Mobile-Tensaw Delta around 1776.  He recorded his observations in his book, Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791):

Next morning I arose early, continuing my voyage; passing by, on each hand, high forests and rich swamps, and frequently ruins of French plantations; the Canes and Cypress trees of an astonishing magnitude, as were the trees of other tribes, indicating excellent soil. Came to at noon, and advancing forward from the river, and penetrating the awful shades, passed between the stately columns of the Magnolia grandiflora, and came to the ascents supporting the high forests and expansive plains above - What a sylvan scene is here! the pompous Magnolia reigns sovereign of the forests; how sweet the aromatic Illicium groves!

Boasting 200 miles of trails, the Bartram offers a glimpse of those "sylvan" scenes today.  It is certainly unique among the canoeing venues in the area.  Routes allow you to explore old river channels as well as bayous and swamp backwaters.  And you might just see a gator or two.

The crew chose overnight route #1 for its August 2006 canoe trek.  The Alabama Department of Conservation logs the trip in at 14.1miles; however, GPS tracking logged 18 miles.

Day 1

We got an early start (5:00 a.m.), traveling from the campground at Hubbard Landing to Rice Creek.  Fortified with Pop-Tarts, the crew was able to get on the water by 6:30 a.m.  Rice Creek flows west through a Cypress swamp until it joins Briar Lake. Turning our canoes to the north, we followed Richardson Island on our left to Tensaw Lake and on to Bayou Tallapoosa.  The open water runs roughly 3 miles before Tallapoosa Bayou on the east shore of Robinson Island or the west bank of the lake. 

Ducking into the canopy of Robinson Island, Bayou Tallapoosa meanders to the northwest for +/- 3 miles.   The pace slowed as the canoes manuevered around downed trees or through low-hanging vines filled with scuppernongs.  Two alligators were spied, but quickly submerged into the murky water.  But there was no doubt that this is their domain; gator slides were in evidence up and down the banks.

Photos from August 2006 trek.  Click on thumbnail to enlarge.  Click here to see all photos in album format.

After breaking camp and attending to Sunday worship, we were again on the water.  The north bank of the Tensaw provided some relief from the rising sun as we slipped through waters now calm as glass. Our destination was Bottle Creek on the Tensaw's south bank and a side-hike into Mound Island.

After bending back to the west,  Bottle Creek takes a sudden southern track.  On the grassy, west bank of the turn is the trail that leads to the largest indian mound complex on the central Gulf Coast.  Inhabited from about 1200 to 1700 C.E., Bottle Creek was a chiefdom and regional center of Mississippian culture, similar to that of Moundville in Northwest Alabama.  This seems a strange place for a major town until one realizes that the waters here are arriving from all over the southeast (i.e., the Tallapoosa, Coosa, Alabama, Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers). The Mobile - Tensaw Delta is the forth largest watershed in the United States.