Terrapin Creek in Alabama

Trip Overview

I took a day trip to Terrapin Outdoor Center in Piedmont. One of my wife's clients had told them what a good time they had and since we hadn't done any paddling all year we thought we give it a go. Well we got lost going and coming (we are getting a GPS next week) It wasn't that at was hard to get to just there are no good road signs that we saw. This all could have been our own fault, but we're blaming Gadsden.

After we got to TOC around 1 pm, we rented a kayak to let our son see if he liked it and had them drop the Dagger. They were some really nice people who had lots of advice about what to watch for and really wanted to buy my boat (not a chance). The river was fun for the most part - they had a little rain about two days before, but there was still a lot of scraping goin' on. Even where the water was a little more deeper it seemed we'd still hit some good size rocks just under the surface.

It was a beautiful place none the less. With the exception of a couple of one-tooth campers (paddle faster honey I hear Banjo music) and the folk that dropped with us, we saw no one. We also didn't see the pick-up point; there were no signs and no one there, so we traveled about two past to a drop spot on Hwy 9. Luckily help was there for us some paddlers who were still sittin around playin' the day away went back to TOC and caught the guy as he was leaving. That's right, I said it - LEAVING and not to go pick us up either. I think he forgot we were out there. When he arrived I told him I missed their sign and waited for his reply of "we don't have one." I never got the satisfaction though.

Yeah, I had a pretty good time and saw some pretty cool sites and a day with my fam on the river is always better than a day at the office, so despite the wayward adventuring, I would recommend to another with some words of advice: Take a GPS, call ahead and check the water level, check out the drop point and see what it looks like from the water so you don't miss it. Get there early because there are some really good spots to sit and chill if you're not rushing to get back before they close; after all it's about a 4 1/2 hr paddle it'll be more if you don't hit it hard.

Accommodations:

everything you'd need except a sign on the river that says stop here!

Fees:

they are posted on the TOC website

Directions:

As I stated I got lost so don't take it from me. Check out the TOC website

Resources:

No, a map might have helped. My wife just wrote down some directions from the web site.