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2012-06-21 tl;dr: Tombigbee to Mobile to Tensaw to Bottle to Middle to Tensaw to Blakelley to Interstate 10 to D'Olive Bay. You know what's strange? Every day now for the last month the sun rises at 6 AM and sets at 8 PM. Every day. For me, anyway.I'm on an estuary now. Herons and egrets have been swapped out for pelicans and seagulls. I don't know why I don't take ibuprofen every day. Maybe because the label recommends against it. But when I'm sore and would otherwise wimp out this drug pushes me on. I stopped at Cliffs Landing for lunch. Because it was there, and there was a bar, and it was open. In the afternoon I was trying to decide if I should camp or press on, but the tide started flowing out, pulling me along, and there really was no good place to camp on the grassy shores. I pressed on. I separated from the main shipping channel early in the day and made my way down the delta (as it is apparently called) via various waterways with a decent tailwind. The Tombigbee River had already become the Mobile River. I branched off that onto the Tensaw River, and then onto Bottle Creek. Bottle Creek brought me back around to Middle River which somehow once again became the Tensaw River before splitting off to the Blakelley River. I turned on to Interstate 10 (yep) and exited into D'Olive Bay. To get to a motel, I would have to navigate a couple hundred yards of impenetrable jungle. Then I saw a dock. I remembered that the map showed no private houses along this stretch of coast, so I cached my kayak near the dock and followed the trail hacked through the bamboo up to a...private house. The owners were a bit dismayed, the lady waiting at the front door for me as I approached. I explained and apologized for the trouble, and they indicated that they owned guns, but I could leave my kayak until I was able to move it. |
 another alligator  more mayflies  Bottle Creek  Bartram Canoe Trail  jungle   Interstate 65  floating houses  pelicans      shortcut  paddling down Interstate 10   stash the kayak  bamboo trail |