Canoe Trip Through Alabama's Mobile-Tensaw Delta
10-minute read
The Mobile-Tensaw Delta in the southwest corner of Alabama is home to the Bartram Canoe Trail—170 miles of both intimate and vast waterways leading to the ocean.
Ed Vater (in the red canoe) and his group approach the floating platform called a ‘chickee’ to camp for the night
Ed Vater, former owner and president of Bending Branches, traveled through the Delta by canoe with three other men along the Bartram Trail over four days one winter. This unique environment provided several highlights for him, including a few first-time paddling experiences.
If you love venturing into new canoeing territory yourself, you’ll want to read about Ed’s trip and why you may want to head to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and paddle it yourself.
Why Canoe or Kayak the Mobile-Tensaw Delta?
According to Alabama State Lands, this Delta—the second largest in America—comprises bottomland hardwood, cypress-tupelo swamp and estuarine marsh ecosystems. Its 250,000 acres are home to about 300 species of birds and more than 50 rare and endangered animals and plants. It’s a lush, thriving environment of natural beauty and variety.
Camping along the Bertram Canoe Trail is a novel experience for most as the options include both land-based campsites and floating platforms called chickees. Alabama’s State Lands Division oversees six day-use and six overnight water trails in the Delta ecosystem.
One of the primary reasons it draws canoeists and kayakers is that these waterways are off-limits to motorboats. While there are signs of human activity here and there, the Trail provides a quiet, natural surrounding that feels remote. If paddlers opt for a multi-day trip, the campsites and chickees are available and are limited to use by canoeists and kayakers only.
Now, let’s hear from Ed about his experience in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta:
BENDING BRANCHES: What was your overall experience canoeing the Mobile-Tensaw Delta?
ED: We picked the long route, often called the Bartram Canoe Trail, from Boatyard Landing all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico [as it was officially called then]. The whole area is many, many miles wide and it’s braided out with a lot of very small streams as well as bigger channels. As you go further south the water gets bigger.
Each man in Ed’s group paddled a solo canoe or kayak for this trip
When you’re up on top it’s much more intimate. Much smaller waterways, narrower, more of a paddling-through-the forest kind of feel. Then it opens up to a very big river with really tall grasses along the shore (my brother called it elephant grass). It’s neat to experience that. You’re in the midst of cypress and all of that down at the Delta.
Paddling through 10-foot tall grasses on either side
What you experience is very different in the different sections of the river. It could almost be divided into three zones. If you asked my brother if he’d do it again, he would do a loop up higher and not go all the way down.
You could stay above the I-65 bridge (what the locals call the Dolly Parton bridge), explore all the chickees—that’s definitely more intimate. As long as you aren’t in the main channel, you could probably paddle readily either direction, up or down. You can see deer, feral pigs, water snakes and a occasional alligator in those smaller waterways.
Ed’s Trip Journal Entry:
“A few trees were blocking Little Bear Creek; at one point we got backed up and I was the first across. As a result, I was out in front, paddling alone and quiet and came around a point and spooked a big gator.
“He was sunning himself and given the narrowness of the creek, I had him cornered on a small curved sandbar so he had to lunge right towards me to get into the water. My heart stopped for a couple beats until I realized he just wanted to submerge himself.”
For me personally, it was really neat to paddle down a river and out into the sea. I had never done that before. The tide isn’t much of an issue, but you can see it. When you get close to the Gulf the water is brackish—a mixture of fresh and salt water.
We purposely chose a winter trip (end of January/early February) when there are few bugs and it’s not hot. That place in the summertime is sweltering with 100-degree temperatures and 100% humidity. You’d be in a swamp swatting mosquitoes. A fall or winter trip is ideal. Anybody from Wisconsin would say it’s just flannel shirt weather.
We never dealt with any crushing wind like you can get in the BWCA, but we did have two days where we faced a mild headwind.
One of the land campsites, surrounded by palmetto plants
BRANCHES: What were the water levels like for your trip?
ED: The river gauge measured 24 feet at Clayborn Lock & Dam near where we put in. It was down to 16.5 feet by the time we reached the takeout. Alabama had a large rainstorm prior to our arrival so the river was considered about 20 feet above flood stage a day or two before we put in.
Paying attention to flow is worthwhile. My son and his college buddy paddled it on a different trip and went there when it was high. It was more difficult to navigate because it was basically 10-mile wide water flowing through the woods. You don’t even know where the channel is necessarily.
You’re not going to get lost big time, but this is the kind of place where it’s nice to have a map and know how to read it. Generally speaking, taking the smaller waterways is nicer if you have that option. If you wanted to go faster you’d run down one of the big channels, but you’d see a lot less.
Having a good map really helps with navigating all the waterways in the area
BRANCHES: Did you feel like you were in wilderness?
ED: So it’s not like being in the Northwest Territories, but the upper reaches of the river feels very wild when you’re in it. You put in and go 400 yards and you see almost nothing. There’s very little development.
I did see where someone had trot lines out—basically a baited fish hook on a line that’s on a float. In Wisconsin, trot lines are illegal, but they’re permissible down there. People just leave them out all day and come back and check them at night to see what they got.
As you get down by the I-65 bridge you’ll see more of what they call fish camps, which is their version of a cabin or hunting shack. They’re often on stilts and are neat to look at. As you go downstream you see more of that, yet it’s a vast place so it’s not like you’re paddling through a town. We saw hardly any people.
BRANCHES: Tell us about your camping experience there in the Delta.
ED: There are relatively few places to camp, but we didn’t see anybody else really, so it wasn’t a problem. The land camps all looked pretty easy, although they would maybe be available or not depending on river levels.
You reserve the chickees ahead of time. That’s a really unique situation. They’re hooked to a tree on the shore and they can float up and down huge distances with the flow. That’s a hurricane zone and hurricanes can dump 24 inches of rain so the water goes up an incredible amount.
Camp set up on a chickee
Chickees are a one-party place and they’re not big. But they’re really nice because they have a roof over them. You don’t get any dew on your tents so you can pack up right away in the morning and go. You don’t have to wait for your stuff to dry out.
Ed’s Trip Journal Entry:
“Tough paddling conditions over long distances seem much less bad once you are in camp and making supper.”
These chickees are intentionally in the most remote places. One of them at what’s called Jug Lake is probably at least a mile back in a dead end. We had to do this giant loop around and go way back in there—and we were tired.
But when you’re there it was just absolutely beautiful. At that time of the year there was some kind of green pollen on the water. Then it would be foggy over the water giving it the most magical feel in the world. It’s the coolest, quietest, most peaceful kind of experience.
It’s a totally different experience for anyone from the north or who’s used to tent camping. Totally cool.
Cooking and gear set-up on a chickee
BRANCHES: You noted some historical sites and other trip highlights that you liked from the area. Tell us about them.
ED: One of them was visiting Blakely State Park, the location of the last important battle of the Civil War. The battlefield at Blakeley was pretty fascinating—and extra fascinating to me because one of my grandfathers fought in that battle. It made the whole trip more rich and diverse for me.
Ed’s Trip Journal Entry:
“Leaving Jug Lake was a high point of the entire trip for me. We cut west on Bayou Jessamine past a photogenic snake, made our way through some trees across the bayou and wound our way over to Bottle Creek.
“We went downstream on Bottle Creek a little bit and then tied up so we could hike the half-mile trail to the Indian mounds. Along the way I was glad to have my knee boots, as a couple fords through little creeks and big puddles were required.
“Experts say that the Indians moved 4 million cubic feet of soil in baskets to build the larger mound (Mississippian culture; 1250 to 1550). Given that the delta is largely flat as a pancake, a 45’ tall knob is impressive.
“This area is remarkable for its rich history including its Native American culture, coming under European control in 1682 (owned by France, England and Spain), the war of 1812, the US Civil War, and more. For sure, this region is a culturally fascinating place to visit.”
Another highlight was eating Cajun oysters and meat pies (natchitoches, said as nack-a-dish) at the restaurant on the causeway near our takeout. The restaurant is up on stilts and the food there was remarkably good.
BRANCHES: Would you go back?
ED: Oh yeah. If you’re not from the Deep South, paddling in a cypress swamp is just the coolest possible thing. Towards the Gulf we paddled down these thin waterways behind islands of elephant grass, but occasionally there would be a big cypress tree on the shore hanging with Spanish moss. Super picturesque.
Jack didn’t have a photo of them canoeing through the cypress, so we asked ChapGPT to help us out with an AI image of what it can be like
A big thanks to Ed Vater for sharing about his trip with us, and to Ed’s brother Jack Vater for the use of his photos.
To learn more about the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the Bartram Canoe Trails, see AlabamaCanoeTrails.com. From there you can download a brochure with a map and see in interactive map with launches, campsites and other notable locations.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or [email protected]
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