Gravine Island
Saturday, August 27, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Our group of four kayakers met at Bruno's in Spanish Fort, AL at Hwy 31 & Hwy 225 at 7:45 AM. We drove north on 225 for nine miles to the turn left to the Byrnes Lake boat launch. The morning was beautiful, with a light breeze, 85 degrees, lower humidity and partly cloudy skies. When we arrived at the boat launch, there were several boat trailers already taking advantage of the great weather conditions. The water level was at high tide, as we paddled easily out Byrnes Lake toward the Tensaw River. We saw kingfisher and snowy egret, who led us around the several s-turns until we reached the Tensaw.
The river was relatively calm and with little current we easily made our way across diagonally to the north end of Gravine Island. Around the turn and just after the large sand dune, we decided to try a small tributary to see where it would take us. It was narrow, scenic, well shaded and appeared to open up at the end, but finally ran out of water and we were forced to turn around. After exiting, we continued around the west side of the island until we reached the next finger of water back into the island. This one was much wider and extended back about a half mile all of the way to the backside of the sand dune. It was a picturesque setting we all remarked would be someplace we wanted to return to.
There was a boathouse moored up at the end near a long-vacated house with water tower, hidden back in the trees and undergrowth. We got out to investigate, stretch our legs and try to locate a passage to another parallel finger of water, which was supposed to be close by. I could not find the mystery water, so we loaded up and headed back out to the Tensaw to continue our loop around it.
Continuing south along the island shoreline, we came upon large patches of lotus. There were no blooms left, but many leaf pads and dried seed pods were a reminder of another great place to visit next June. After passing under the high electric lines, we continued for another mile until reaching the next narrow finger of water leading back northeast about two miles into the island. The consensus was to only go for about ten minutes and turn around, but we did manage to scare up a few coot, and a snowy egret and blue heron. I definately want to come back and explore this tributary all of the way back, maybe in a different season.
We exited and continued south, before finally making the turn around the southern tip of the island. The group stopped for a moment before making what appeared to be a difficult last leg of the trip. The assumtion was it would be a hard, slow slog, as we headed upriver against a falling tide and northerly breeze. We cut diagonally across to the east bank and hugged the bank the rest of the way back to Byrnes Lake. It turned out to be easier than we expected, although much warmer as the sun rose directly overhead. We made pretty good time and before we knew it, were turning back into Byrnes and home free. The trip was about twelve miles and took us four hours to complete.
Our group of four kayakers met at Bruno's in Spanish Fort, AL at Hwy 31 & Hwy 225 at 7:45 AM. We drove north on 225 for nine miles to the turn left to the Byrnes Lake boat launch. The morning was beautiful, with a light breeze, 85 degrees, lower humidity and partly cloudy skies. When we arrived at the boat launch, there were several boat trailers already taking advantage of the great weather conditions. The water level was at high tide, as we paddled easily out Byrnes Lake toward the Tensaw River. We saw kingfisher and snowy egret, who led us around the several s-turns until we reached the Tensaw.
The river was relatively calm and with little current we easily made our way across diagonally to the north end of Gravine Island. Around the turn and just after the large sand dune, we decided to try a small tributary to see where it would take us. It was narrow, scenic, well shaded and appeared to open up at the end, but finally ran out of water and we were forced to turn around. After exiting, we continued around the west side of the island until we reached the next finger of water back into the island. This one was much wider and extended back about a half mile all of the way to the backside of the sand dune. It was a picturesque setting we all remarked would be someplace we wanted to return to.
There was a boathouse moored up at the end near a long-vacated house with water tower, hidden back in the trees and undergrowth. We got out to investigate, stretch our legs and try to locate a passage to another parallel finger of water, which was supposed to be close by. I could not find the mystery water, so we loaded up and headed back out to the Tensaw to continue our loop around it.
Continuing south along the island shoreline, we came upon large patches of lotus. There were no blooms left, but many leaf pads and dried seed pods were a reminder of another great place to visit next June. After passing under the high electric lines, we continued for another mile until reaching the next narrow finger of water leading back northeast about two miles into the island. The consensus was to only go for about ten minutes and turn around, but we did manage to scare up a few coot, and a snowy egret and blue heron. I definately want to come back and explore this tributary all of the way back, maybe in a different season.
We exited and continued south, before finally making the turn around the southern tip of the island. The group stopped for a moment before making what appeared to be a difficult last leg of the trip. The assumtion was it would be a hard, slow slog, as we headed upriver against a falling tide and northerly breeze. We cut diagonally across to the east bank and hugged the bank the rest of the way back to Byrnes Lake. It turned out to be easier than we expected, although much warmer as the sun rose directly overhead. We made pretty good time and before we knew it, were turning back into Byrnes and home free. The trip was about twelve miles and took us four hours to complete.
posted by brint @ 9:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home