Big Canoe Creek becoming a top draw for paddle enthusiasts
Story by Loyd McIntosh
Submitted Photos
We’re standing on the bank looking out onto the Big Canoe Creek checking out the water levels. It’s Saturday, shortly after noon, right around the time the morning Yak Tha Creek tour of Big Canoe Creek would be ending for the day.
Today, however, they had to cancel due to the water levels being too low, an issue the small Ashville-based company has faced all summer long. Today is one of those days. The water at its lowest point is only a foot and a half, too low to safely get the kayaks in the water.
“We don’t like to run under two feet,” explains Madison Vann, the daughter of Yak The Creek’s owner and founder, Randall Vann. She instituted that rule recently after eight of Yak Tha Creek’s Perception sit-on-top kayaks were damaged one weekend after putting in water below two feet in depth. It’s a shame because this five-mile stretch of Big Canoe Creek is spectacular in its scenic beauty, is home to some amazing wildlife best experienced on a kayak. In total, Big Canoe Creek is a 246-mile watershed spanning the northern edge of St. Clair County. Originating in northeast Jefferson County near Zamora Park Lake, Big Canoe Creek flows into the Coosa River in southwest Etowah County ending its run in Neely Henry Lake.
According to the website, The Friends Of The Big Canoe Creek (bigcanoecreek.org), Big Canoe Creek is home to more than 50 species of fish, including the trispot darter, a species that was found in the waters near Springville in 2008.
Prior to its rediscovery, the trispot darter was thought to have disappeared from Alabama waterways as early as the 1950s. It’s surprises like these that kayakers are treated to barely a stone’s throw away from the busyness of the area’s highways and interstates.
“There’s all different kinds of fish. We even got some alligator gar out there. If you kayak real slow, they’ll rise to the top. It’s so cool,” Vann says. “We’ve got groundhogs, raccoons and lots of lots of turtles. Oh, my goodness, we have an insane amount of turtles. And there’s a ton of mussels.”
In fact, there are eight federally listed freshwater mussel species known to be living in Big Canoe Creek. Additionally, a section of the creek stretching for 18 miles was designated “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act in 2004 and a new species, known as the Canoe Creek clubshell, was recently identified living in one of the Big Canoe Creek watershed tributaries.
Yak Tha Creek
For the past seven years, Yak Tha Creek has been taking people on kayak tours on a five-mile portion of Big Canoe Creek. Originally launched by Randall Vann, the director of Maintenance at Spartan Invest in Birmingham, the business has been turned over to the next generation of Vanns. “It’s me, my dad, and my brother Mason. Dad kind of lets me and Mason run a lot of it since we’ve been doing it so long,” says Madison Vann. “Every once in a while, we’ll hire some high school kids to help out because hauling those kayaks can be kind of rough.”
Yak Tha Creek uses nine-and-a-half foot, sit-on-top kayaks, which Vann says don’t hold water like the more traditional sit-inside kayaks. It has other benefits, too. One doesn’t typically find wildlife hiding on sit-on-top kayaks. “I’d rather not stick my leg in there and find a snake in there,” Vann says before erupting into laughter. “Someone the other day told me he had left a fish in there all summer long; I don’t know what I would have done. Probably thrown the kayak away!”
Yak Tha Creek operates weekends, typically between Memorial Day to Labor Day but may extend the season depending on demand. They put in on Doss Lane just off Pinedale Road with the exit point five miles away on state property in the shadow of the U.S. Highway 231 bridge less than a mile from downtown Ashville.
Each Friday, the Vanns work their stretch of the creek, clearing trees and other debris. The route typically takes three to four hours to complete and is suitable for the beginner learning the ropes and the expert looking for a more relaxing, low-key day on the water.
“It’s a good, easy beginner’s creek, though. There’s nothing rough about it unless the water is high,” Vann adds. “It’s a super easy kayak for beginners. I have seven year olds come out here and do it.”
Even though she says maintaining the creek is hard work, she never grows tired of kayaking Big Canoe. “There’s so much stuff out there to find. I’m a treasure hunter. There’s crazy stuff out there,” Vann says.
Among the items she’s uncovered over the years include cellphones, teacups, and a complete set of Mason jars buried in the dirt, most likely holding some forgotten-about moonshine from an old still hidden in the bank along the stretch of the creek. “There was a guy out here one day sifting for gold up the stream a little farther,” Vann says. “I don’t know if he ever found any.”
Big Canoe Creek Outfitters
Approximately 30 minutes southwest in Springville is another family-owned kayak business – Big Canoe Creek Outfitters. Owned and operated by the Shaffers, a family originally from Mountain Brook with a short stop in Trussville in between, they bought the property earlier this spring, accidentally becoming business owners in the process.
“The kayak business came with the purchase of the house,” says Robert Shaffer, the patriarch of the family. “Honestly, we didn’t know there was this kayak business when we first looked at the property in April.”
Much like Yak Tha Creek, the Shaffers turned the business over to their teenage sons, Thomas and Lyons. Essentially a summer job for the Shaffer brothers, Big Canoe Creek Outfitters opened for the 2022 season on Memorial Day weekend.
Lyons, a student at Auburn University, says the previous owners left the kayaks and other equipment in good shape, so all that was necessary was some cleaning and general maintenance – as well as learning how to run the business. “We were learning as we were going in the beginning because we did not know a lot,” says Lyons.
For example, Lyons says he was surprised at the biodiversity of Big Canoe Creek. “I did not realize how much wildlife there would actually be in just a simple creek, but there are so many different types of fish,” he notes. According to the Big Canoe Creek website, the 3.85-mile section on which the Shaffers offer tours is home to many interesting species of birds, including great egrets, barred owls and bald eagles.
With the first summer under their belts, Lyons says he believes they can expand Big Canoe Creek Outfitters’ offerings in the summers to come. “We definitely would like to expand and get some boats so we can accommodate bigger parties,” Lyons says. “We just needed to learn what we were doing first so now we can actually grow.”
Meanwhile, back in Ashville
As the conversation with Madison Vann started to wind down, a pair of kayakers row to the exit point having just completed a long morning on Big Canoe Creek. Van Lyvers, a resident of Pinson, and Bart Albritton, from Odenville, are friends who have kayaked many waterways throughout Alabama but had never kayaked Big Canoe Creek until today.
They’re all smiles as they pull their boats onto the bank and load them into the bed of Albritton’s pickup truck. The guys say they enjoyed the creek even if the water was quite low in some places. “We’ve seen worse, but it was kind of low,” says Livers. “If it had just a little more water it would have made all the difference in the world.”
“What you see is what it is. There are no rapids, and it’s just leisurely and fun,” says Albritton. “We saw some high-legged woodpeckers, some kingfishers, but unfortunately no snakes.
“I highly recommend it,” adds Albritton. “It was beautiful, scenic and just awesome.”
