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| Header image is a photo of barge rope and small crabs. |
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| A major 3-4 foot water main crosses Chickasaw Creek and it is leaking. |
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| Chickasaw Creek southwest of Hwy 43 goes through an industrial area. One of the businesses is metal recycling. There is plenty of rusted metal spilling into Chickasaw Creek. No need to take iron supplements if you are drinking local water. |
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| Industrial sized storage. Companies running such facilities fall under intense scrutiny and have to abide by a ton of laws to protect the environment. |
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| Other companies don't care what they put in the water and ADEM is asleep at the wheelhouse. Lots of tires and barge rope in Chickasaw Creek. |
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| The 5 miles of shoreline between Hwy 43 and Mobile River along Chickasaw Creek is littered with rope from barge activity. |
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| Rope is classified as marine debris and why waterway authorities have allowed this creek to get so full of rope is an indication that there is no waterway authority. Tugboat companies do what they want and no one is holding them accountable for the pollution they are doing to the environment. |
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| The difference between the public's plastic bottle pollution and this industry's rope pollution is this rope isn't going downsteam any time soon. |
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| Many of the trees that once stabilized the shoreline along Chickasaw Creek have been squeezed to death. |
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| So, just how nerdy am I? Counting rope was the objective of this paddle. How many ropes were laying on the shoreline along the 5 mile stretch of Chickasaw Creek? 403 and that is a conservative number. 26,400 feet (5 miles) of shoreline divided by 403 ropes means there was an abandoned rope on average every 65 feet. So my new name for Chickasaw Creek east of Hwy 43 is Rope Creek. |
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| Black Bayou seems to be a place to dump abandoned boats. The shoreline has been stabilized using industrial sized trash. |
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| What is in your water? Your industrial trash. Enjoy your Alabama Seafood. |
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| Header image is a photo of the shoreline covered with Saint John's Wort. |
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| Yellow Pond lilies in Chickasaw Creek. This species has elongated leaves instead of the regular round variety. |
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| St. John's Wort adorning the shoreline. |
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| A little over a week ago I found boom in 14 locations on Chickasaw Creek, sent out some emails, and found out who was responsible for the boom. Six days ago a representative with ALDOT emailed me to say a contractor had removed 14 sections of boom. Being the pessimist I am, today I again paddled up Chickasaw Creek to see if the boom had been removed. I hadn't gone far and guess what I saw? Yup, boom. I guess there was a communication error. There is a difference between 14 sections of boom and 14 locations of boom. They missed 4 locations. I had given them all the gps locations. |
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| How could the contractor have gone downstream and missed seeing this very visible boom? Oh well. The good news is thanks to ALDOT, the contractor did spend 3 days removing the majority of the escapee boom from Chickasaw Creek and the creek looks much better. Not many boaters go upstream in Chickasaw Creek so it is up to kayakers and canoeists to be the eyes and caretakers of this precious waterway. If you see things that don't belong in creeks, report it! |
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| We've had a lot of rain recently and the mushrooms are sure liking it. |
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| Swamp azalea blooming in the middle of summer. Not sure of the species. |
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| I had planned to paddle up to Kali Oka Road today to see if I could find any launch sites between there and Chickasabogue Park. Current was strong due to yesterday's rain so the upstream progress was slow. |
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| By about 10-11 am, it started raining hard. Upper Chickasaw Creek is subject to flash flooding and in heavy rains the creek level can rise as much as 15 feet above normal. When the lightning started flashing nearby, I turned around. Based on today's GPS track, I was 3 miles short of reaching Kali Oka Road. It rained the whole way back so it was a good decision to turn around. The umbrella kept most of the rain off me but I still ended up getting soaked. |
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| Header image is a photo of a water snake. |
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| Sunrise at Delta Landing at Chickasabogue Creek aka Chickasaw Creek. |
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| Waiting out a brief rainstorm under the US-43 bridge as the sun was about to rise. |
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| Soon as the rain passed the wind stopped and it got so humid my glasses stayed fogged up. |
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| Muddy water coming from Eight-Mile Creek. |
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| There were many wasp nests (and banana spiders) to keep an eye out for when passing under low limbs. You disturb a nest like this and you may regret it. |
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| Saw quite a few harmless water snakes. |
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| A few of the flowers in bloom. |
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| Also seen today were meadow beauties (Rhexia ssp), rhododendrons, swamp lilies, and cardinal flowers. |
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| Why does this not surprise me? Can't blame the City of Mobile on this garbage tho. Welcome to Mobile County Parks. |
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| The scary thing about this is people don't behave rationally when drunk and there appears to be some serious drinkers along this new Chickasabogue Water Trail. |
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| Upstream of Chickasabogue Park very little garbage is seen except at a few log jams. Note the package of Super Nova Herbal Incense. It is also known as legal marijuana. |
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| Chickasabogue Creek is one of the most beautiful creeks in Mobile County. This creek is perfect for one-way kayaking but unfortunately, there is not much access further upstream and there are no outfitters to take you upstream and drop you off. |
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| I saw 14 different booms hung up in the creek along a 4 mile stretch. |
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| I'm assuming based on circumstantial evidence that the escapee booms came from this roadway construction project at Hwy 158. It is ironic that booms put out to protect the waterway are ending up polluting it. If this is an ALDOT road project, ALDOT should withhold final payment until the contractor removes the 14 booms polluting Chickasabogue Creek downstream of this bridge. |
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| Header Image |
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| 1) Every year I like to kayak in foggy conditions. That way I won't get freaked out should a fog bank ever descend unexpectedly. On this trip, the first hour paddling in fog was in pre-dawn darkness. Both sound and smell was amplified. Was attempting to get a photo of tugboat lights in this shot but the camera focused on the kayak making the fog droplets look larger than life. |
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| 2) In Mobile River, visibility was about 1/4 mile. Could not see the other side of the river. |
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| 3) Brown Pelicans were sure numerous. |
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| 4) This is a strange photo of boat wake erosion eh? |
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| 5) Never can time the photo right to get the shot of an otter when it sticks its body about 2 feet out of the water. Also caught my first sighting this year of some alligators. |
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| 6) Ducks adapting to the industrial revolution. |
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| 7) I love the textures of lichen. |
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| 8) Big fish like to hang out near the treated sewage outflow (green water). What kind of food has the fish on your plate been eating? |
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| 9) During the last 20 minutes of the paddle, it went from cloudy to almost clear. |
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| 10) Creepy Photo - the reflection of this duck has 3 eyes. |
