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.