Harpeth River - Hwy. 100 Canoe Accessto Hidden Lake State Natural Area

Estimated Length: 11.5
Discharge Day of Paddle: 337 cfs
Date: May 23, 2015
Weather: Sunny and in the low 80's
Time on the River: 5 1/2 hours
Put-In: Hwy. 100 Canoe Access
Take-Out: Hidden Lake State Natural Area
Outfitters: None

Steps leading to river at Hwy. 100 access point

I wish all access points could be like the one at Hwy. 100. Nice easy steps to the river's edge, lots of parking for cars, and a good map of the river posted on the kiosk. If the state put in restrooms it would be perfect. After we finished our last paddle here on Tues. Lex and I decided this would be a good starting point for our next trip. We packed up the cooler, got out the Old Town and made it on the river by 11 am.

The sent of Honeysuckle was with us the whole trip, which made Lex's allergies act up but I loved it. Honeysuckle smells so much better than river water.  There were a few large groups of paddlers that we shared the river with, but on the whole not that many people were out and about. There were long stretches of the the river where it was just Lex and I. We did see a first, a family using nets to catch fish. Another paddler told us they were fishing for bait?

Walking Trail in Bellview

There has not been much rain leading up to this paddle, so the river was a bit low. Even with that being said we did not have to get out and drag the canoe. What we did experience was long slow sections of river, which gave us a work out! Knowing how slow some pieces of the river became, I would  have cut back on the length of our trip and taken out at Newsom's Mill. Still all in all it was a great day to be on the river.

Harpeth River - Moran Rd. to Hwy 100

Estimated Length: 6.2 Miles            

Discharge Day Of Paddle: 68 cfs
Weather: Sunny and High 70's
Time On the River: 2 1/2 hours
Put-In: Moran Road
Take-Out: Hwy. 100

Canoe or kayaks.... which do we take? That was the question of the day, we finally decided on the kayaks. For this paddle the Old Town Canoe would have been fine on the water but getting it down the steep incline at the Put-In would have been hard. Both Lex and I had to work the up coming week-end, so river time was going to have to happen mid-week. Neither of us had done this section of the Harpeth before, so it was new territory.

Gosling

The paddle was nice, with lots of river vegetation  I had expected more homes along the banks, so I was pleasantly surprised that we viewed more woodlands then homeowners back yards. The only traffic we encountered was a solo fisherman. The first 2/3 of the trip the river was moving fairly swiftly but at the end we had to put some muscle into our strokes to get to the take-out.

Wildlife Along the Harpeth

For an in-town paddle this was a nice section of river. The Put-In can be a bit hazardous since it is not an "official" location. There is no designated parking lot so you have to leave your car along the side of the road. The Take-Out is part of the Harpeth River Access System and it's an easy location with gently descending steps to the river. Also its hard to miss the big green bridge that marks the Take-Out for Hwy 100.

Harpeth River - Kingston Springs to Hwy 70

Estimated Length: 4.6 Miles

Discharge day of Paddle: 375cfs
Date: May 10, 2015
Weather: Sunny and in the low 80's
Time on the River: 3 Hours
Put-In: Kingston Spring City Park
Take-Out: Hwy70
Outfitters: Adventures on the Harpeth
                 Tip-A-Canoe
                 Foggy Bottom Canoe
                 Canoe Music City

Xander in the kayak with Dad

Mother's Day was spent on the river!!! Our son and his family joined us for a paddle down the
Harpeth. We met at the Kingston Springs City Park (LL Burns Park) at 9 am and after unloading and shuttling cars we got on the river 45 minutes later. Since we had our 20 month old Grandson (Xander) with us we wanted to keep the trip short and easy, so we only went to Hwy 70. This stretch of river was perfect.

Xander loves the river, almost as much as Nana and Granddad. He had so much fun.

Xander and Granddad playing in the water

Xander"paddled" in the kayak with his Dad, he played in the water and he could have spent all day throwing rocks into to the river. My son did admit that he thought his son would have been crying for the entire paddle but knowing what a good time Xander had the family is ready for another river excursion.


This section of river has some great bluffs and easy Class I riffles. It is used by the local outfitters so there is a lot of traffic but we got on the river early so it was not to bad. The put-in and take-out are well established, easy, and have lots of parking. There are more then enough gravel bars along the route to stop and play. In all it was a great Mothers's Day.

Beautiful Bluffs

Harpeth River - East Flank Park to Williamson County Rec Center

Estimated Length: 4.7 Miles

Discharge Day of Paddle: 86 cfs
Date: May 7, 2015
Weather: Sunny and in the low 80's
Time on the River: 2 1/2 hours
Put-In: East Flank Park Canoe Access
Take-Out: Williamson County Rec Center

Our Kayaks

Lex and I bought our second kayak this week and of course we had to try it out. Lex had never been in a kayak before and it was only my third time, so both of us had some learning to do. Our new kayak is an 10 foot Pelican that we got at Academy Sports for $150, what a deal. The Dagger which is the nicer of the two was given to us for free, even a better deal!

We decided on taking a paddle for a couple of reasons; first both of us had to work in the morning so drive time had to be at a minimum. Second we wanted a short trip since we did not really know how to handle the kayaks. Lastly, I have always wanted to try the Harpeth through downtown Franklin but was not sure our 16 foot Old Town Canoe would "fit" on this stretch of river. The kayaks were the perfect choice. 

For two "mature" paddlers and I mean age not experience, the trip was great. The getting in and out of the kayaks was a challenge. Everyone I have even seen makes it look so easy but we kinda plopped ourselves into the boats and then rolled ourselves out. There was some getting use to sitting that low in the water. Being able to "read" the river was more difficult but we were able to respond a lot quicker. Our Old Town Canoe would have been dragging the bottom, so our choice of kayaks was smart.

The river was cleaner then anticipated. The water had good visibility but there are still some tires in the river bed. The river banks had some debris, some of which looked new but a lot of it has been there for a long time. I was encouraged by how many people where on the river banks either fishing or playing in the water.

Great water visibility!

 With all the access points the State and Local Government is planning and the continuous effort to clean up the river, the Harpeth is a wonderful recreation destination. For those of us the that live and work in the area what a great resource and we need to help take care of it.

Duck River - Mill Town To River Rats

Estimated Length: 5 Miles
Discharge Day of Paddle: 382cfs
Date: May 3, 2015
Weather: sunny and in the mid 70's
Time on the River: 2 and 1/2 hours
Close by: Chapel Hill/ Columbia/ Henry Horton State Park
Put-In: Milltown Road
Take-Out: River Rats Outfitters

Just need the paddlers

For the first trip of 2015 Lex and I chose the Duck River. We wanted easy in and out access and the helpful and friendly staff of River Rats gave us what we wanted. For $15 they shuttled us to the put-in and we floated back to our car, perfect. We started our paddle around 9 am so we beat the crowds that River Rats was expecting.

They were really loud

It was a beautiful day to be on the river. We saw an otter and of course the camera was in the dry bag at the time. But we did get some pictures of  two Canadian geese that looked like they might have been protecting a nest.





With it being early in the season the tributaries to the Duck still had lots of water in them which made for some nice scenery.

Caney Creek 

        Lex and I did not get on the river as much as we would have liked in 2014. We were busy with work, checking up on elderly parents and having fun with grandchildren. So, our canoe trips took a back seat. But this year we promised ourselves more time on Tennessee Rivers and paddle excursions.

Xander is ready!

Xander and Granddad

We did take 4 trips last year; 2 on the Harpeth, one on the Duck and another on the Piney. The trip on the Duck was a quick one, between Hopkins Bridge and Henry Horton State Park, this was our Grandson’s first canoe trip. We decided he might need another year before we take him on another paddle. Xander’s biggest complaint was the life jacket but we managed to keep it on him the entire trip, not an easy feat!!!

Lunch on the river.

Crowds on the Piney

The trip on the Piney was in June and it was crowded. We managed to get away from the people for some of the paddle but it seemed the river was on overload.  The folks at Pinewood Canoe and Camp let us use their river accesses (for a small fee) for put-in and take-out which made it easy. Maybe next time we need to go during the week.

On to 2015 and more river time!!!!

Nice bluff on the Piney