Canoeing Hatchett Creek

Day One Lightning flashed as we tied our canoes on top of Steve's Blazer. The weather forecast called for rain all night with clearing skies by morning. The next day the water level was full and slightly stained, and the sky was clear and blue, a perfect day to begin our first three-day canoe/camping trip. George drove Steve and me to the upper bridge at Brownsville where we were attempting, for the first time, to go to Kelly's Crossroad below Rockford, Al. It should take us about three days to get there. We packed clothes and food into zip-lock bags and stuffed them into backpacks that were lashed into the front of our canoes. I was paddling my red Coleman canoe I had purchased used from John Burkhalter. (I had help peal this same canoe off a rock a few years ago after this fellow and his girlfriend pinned it broadside in the Hiawassee River.) Steve was paddling his brand-new green Coleman canoe he had purchased at EDCO in Alexander City, Al. Steve and I had wanted to m...

By John B. Scott Jr. The headwaters of Hatchett Creek rise in the Talladega mountains and the creek officially begins where its east and west forks come together near Bull’s Gap in Clay County. Steadily gaining strength from innumerable springs and branches, the creek then flows southwesterly for approximately forty miles through Clay and Coosa Counties before emptying into the backwaters of Lake Mitchell. During its course, Hatchett falls over 400 feet in elevation and is laced with numerous stretches of white water as it flows over rocky shoals and ledges of granite. For much of the way the creek is hemmed in with steep hills, heavily forested with second growth hardwood and pine. For long stretches, the roar of rapids and the unbroken walls of green, give to Hatchett a wilderness character unique among Alabama’s waterways. Hatchett has not always been so detached from man’s ordinary, workday endeavors. When the earliest settlers moved into the area in the 1830’s they i...