Day 26: Touring Fort Toulouse

Richard began his day on Wednesday morning at 6:05 AM. It was very foggy out on the river and he planned to take some pictures of the fog once he was done writing in his journal. However, when he was done journaling he looked outside only to discover that the fog had completely dissipated.

A few minutes later, he saw a boat coming up river and the gentleman in the boat also noticed Richard’s tent set up along the riverbank. He brought his boat over to the bank and introduced himself - his name was Calvin Smitherman and he is fisherman on the river who specializes in catching catfish. Calvin spotted Richard’s tent and came over to see what he was up to - he also told Richard that he was camping on Federal property, where camping was not allowed. As many of us know, these “details” rarely get in the way of Richard living his life. He was about to break camp anyway, so he wasn’t alarmed. He had canned peaches and coffee for breakfast and finally began paddling on the river around 10:00 AM. All of his gear was still damp, so he planned to paddle to Fort Toulouse and lay out his sleeping bag and tent in the sun to dry while he walked around the grounds of the old fort.

After seeing the area in the daylight hours, Richard realized how close he was to the fort on Tuesday night when he was paddling around looking for it - he was only about 100 yards from the boat ramp on the property of the fort. What a disappointment - he gave up when he was so close! He also didn’t realize that the fort has a full service campground with a shower house and sites with water and electricity. Just for fun, he decided to count the number of paddle strokes from where he’d turned around the night before when he was looking for the fort, to the boat ramp on the property of the fort. He soon found out that he was a mere 187 paddle strokes from the boat ramp when he turned around the night before. What a bummer!

Once he arrived at the fort, he unpacked his tent and spread it out along the rocks near the boat ramp to dry out. He did the same with his sleeping bag. Then he walked the 1/2 mile from the boat ramp to the fort. At the fort, he met the park’s director, Jim Parker as well as Larry Gregory - another employee at the fort. Richard was amazed at the knowledge that Jim has of the area and of the fort. Richard told me that someone needs to take all of the information Jim’s his brain and write a book about all of the stuff he is storing in there. After visiting with Jim and Larry, Richard walked around the old fort and took some pictures. Then he visited the campground and used their shower facilities to clean up. He washed out his shirt - it was starting to stink. He also washed out his “funky” (his description) socks. He told me that his tennis shoes are starting to smell like river shoes (and that is NOT a pleasant odor - trust me!) - I personally think he may have to burn them after the trip is over to get rid of the smell!

After cleaning up and showering, he had lunch - a foot long slim jim, some saltines and a gatorade - and got back onto the river at 1:46PM. A short while after getting back on the river, he spotted a large carp (over 1.5 feet long) swimming near the bank in some shallow, clear water. He paddled down to a ferry landing and stopped to take some pictures. There was a modern barge there that has a ramp that allows a vehicle to be driven onto the barge. The property along the old ferry landing appears to be well taken care of - someone keeps up the grounds: mowing the grass and planting trees. He spotted an old tower along the bank that he thinks may have been used to pull the ferries across the river. After exploring the area near the old ferry landing, it was time to get back into his boat and continue paddling down river.

Soon after getting back on the river, he met another gentleman - James Gardner. James is from Millbrook, AL and he has an 1860 G3 Bass boat - a real “monster” according to Richard. James stood on one of the gunnels on one side of the boat and it hardly moved! James was out on the river putting out trout lines - Richard took a picture of him holding up one of the catfish that he had caught on the river that day. After saying good-bye to James, he began scouting for a campsite for the night. He stopped in a wooded area along the river. There is a homemade bridge nearby that he explored and took pictures of - there’s also a boat dock nearby with a Bayliner boat tied up to the dock. He set up camp near the bridge and dock - he paddled 10 miles for the day and his total mileage for the trip so far is 464 miles.

He is at 125 feet above sea level - his trip began on the Etowah near Dahlongea at 1800 feet above sea level.

For dinner, he had another MRE - he is trying to eat up the MRE’s so that he can have more storage space in his dry storage compartment. The MRE was cajun style rice with beans and beef sausage. He ate the applesauce, gatorade and a bag of M&M’s from the MRE as well. He thinks that he is about 10-15 miles from Montgomery and plans on making it to Montgomery on Thursday. He has an interview scheduled with a local TV station there for Thursday afternoon.

During our conversation, Richard told me a bit of history about the confluence of the Tallpoosa and Coosa rivers. Back in 1951, there was a flood in the area which the area in which the two rivers meet. During the flood, the Tallapoosa cut over land to meet up with the Coosa upstream from where they originally met and in the process, there was a portion of the old Tallapoosa River that was cut off from the river. This portion of the river is now referred to as the “Dead River”.