Hoover man on quest to be the first to paddle the Alabama Scenic River Trail

From the article “Hoover man aims to be first person to paddle down, up Alabama Scenic River Trail” by Thomas Spencer in The Birmingham News:

Somewhere on the Coosa River near Gadsden, Warren Johnson is pushing his 16-foot, bright yellow sea kayak against the swollen river, creeping along methodically against the current. If all goes according to plan, by next weekend, the 59-year-old will become the first person to complete the 631-mile Alabama Scenic River Trail forward and backward, paddling down the Coosa from the Alabama-Georgia line to the Gulf Coast, then turning around and going back upstream. This is only the latest in a series of incredible journeys Johnson, a computer support technician, has made since he was laid off from a job with EDS in Hoover in September 2007. After spending the winter in Oak Mountain State Park, Johnson set off from the southern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail in March 2008 and hiked from central Alabama to the Appalachian Trail’s northern terminus in Maine. From there, he bicycled back to Birmingham. That’s 2,530 miles hiked to Maine, 1,750 miles biked from Maine. After another winter at Oak Mountain and a 1,000-mile circuitous bicycle jaunt to Virginia and back this spring, the ex-Marine decided to try the river trail. Despite having no experience as a paddler, he set off July 15. Speaking at a stop in Pell City on Thursday, Johnson explained his motivation: “As far as what makes me tick: I enjoy the challenge.” In nearly eight years in the Marines, he learned that when assigned a task: “You never come back and say, ‘I can’t do that.’”

Steve DeBoalt is one of many friends who’ve been monitoring Johnson’s progress via updates Johnson posts on Facebook. It provides a vicarious thrill for those bound by the regular responsibilities of jobs and family, DeBoalt said. Before the trip, he bought the kayak for $450, picked a paddle and a spare and a life preserver and maps, and consulted with the organizers of the Alabama Scenic River Trail. The first day on the water he made only four miles and said he thought to himself: “This is a bad idea.” But he gained strength and confidence as he went. In July and August, he’d start at 7 a.m. and quit by 2 p.m., exhausted by the heat. Most days, the most challenging task was finding a place to take out his kayak and camp. He descended the river in 46 days, portaging around the six dams, five by himself, one with the aid of an outfitter.

The most precarious moments came crossing the open water of Mobile Bay, cutting over from the Eastern Shore to the Fort Morgan peninsula. At midpoint, he couldn’t see land, just the tops of condos. Waves were getting high and he was happy he’d invested in a spray skirt to keep the water out. “The waves, the wind and the tide made things interesting,” Johnson said. In more peaceful moments, he’s paddled with a pod of dolphins. He’s watched diving pelicans in the bay and soaring raptors over the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. South of Selma, the river is home to alligators, which did him no harm apart from scaring him as they scrambled out of the underbrush and belly-flopped in the water. Camping on floating platforms on the Bartran Canoe Trail in the delta, he went to sleep under the watchful glare of their red-glinting eyes. He encountered wild pigs and beaver and otter, but Johnson isn’t one to go on poetically about the glories of nature. “Once you’ve seen the sunrise a few hundred times from outdoors, you’ve seen it all,” he said. He depends on his waterproof Garmin 60csx GPS and cell phone with Internet access that he charges using a battery and solar cell. Other indispensable equipment includes a portable radio on which he listens to Rick & Bubba for entertainment and weather reports. A 50-foot rope has come in handy for dragging the boat up impassable rapids. He doesn’t intend to write a book, but if he did, he’d call it “Life at 2 Miles Per Hour,” the approximate pace of both his hiking and paddling.

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