Guided Canoe Trip: Cahaba Lily Tour IV
Cahaba National Widlife Refuge River Trace, West Blocton, AL, United StatesAverage water levels for this time of year allow us to paddle a little more than a mile down to the top of Hargrove Shoals, the largest known shoals of lilies left in the world, and back upstream. The special geology that provides the lilies their habitat actually helps us in this case. The riverbed changes between limestone and sandstone, remnants of ancient rising and falling sea levels. Where the riverbed is limestone you will see the shallow shoals that the lilies call home. Where the riverbed is sandstone, there are deep pools where water slows. It is these deep pools of slow moving water that allow us to paddle back upstream and to take out at the same place we put it. We advertise this as one of our more physically demanding trips because at each shoal “step” we have to drag our boats to the next pool. The shoals create obstacles on our way back to the boat launch. Boats will become stuck on rocks across the shoals both headed downstream and back up. Be careful as you step out of your boats to pull across the shoals: the rocks are slippery! The walks across the shoals are why we wear close-toed shoes.
