I (SuzAnne) took The Champion Cypress Kayak Adventure with Wild Native Tours on the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta with some friends and our youngest daughter, Èva. We paddled for about an hour and a half on Rice Creek, the Tensaw River, and Jessamine Bayou back to the tree and then hiked through water that sometimes came up to our shorts and in muck that tried its best to pull off our shoes.
While kayaking, we saw 2 large alligators, 16 species of birds, 3 species of snakes, and several turtles. Hiking to the Champion tree, we saw two large cottonmouths, several interesting insects, very large spiders, snails, and were serenaded by a symphony of birds. Wildflowers that can handle such a wet habitat were in bloom.
The Champion Cypress has a 27 foot base and is Alabama’s largest. It is only accessible via boat.
The trip was amazing from start to finish. It was great to be with great friends but the best part… was experiencing this with our youngest daughter. We worked together as guides for Marine Science Adventures in Gulf Shores for 5.5 years (since Èva was 13). We have been on many adventures together but then she grew up! It was so great being in the water and woods with her again.
Unfortunately, I trashed the LifeProof case to my iPhone 11 so I had to use my backup phone which is an iPhone 7. And…I forgot about the GoPro until it was too late. So the quality of this video isn’t the best and it’s pretty wobbly at times; especially when we were hiking through the water and muck back to the tree. It was too great of an experience to not share, though, no matter what the quality of the footage.
The guides at Wild Native Tours are fantastic. Mike was super patient with our group who wanted to stop and explore everything. This wasn’t our first trip with them and definitely won’t be our last!
What an amazing day!!