Big Piney Float- Suggestions

[Al Agnew]

I really like the whole stretch from Mason Bridge to 6X, but it's exceedingly difficult to get a shuttle for any part of that stretch. The last time I floated in that section, I cajoled the folks at Boiling Spring into driving my vehicle down to Slabtown and put in at their place early in the morning and floated the whole thing from there to Slabtown...but they weren't real happy about doing it and were very worried about the insurance ramifications of driving my vehicle. It was a LONG day's float, and it didn't help that I had to sit on the bank and wait out a big thunderstorm for over an hour!

And if you could talk Rich's or Wilderness Ridge into putting you in up at Slabtown and floating from there to Ross, you could spend all morning and a good part of the afternoon above 6X, and by the time you got to 6X most of the party crowd would be far down the river. Then you could just paddle through much of the 6X to Ross section to get there before dark. However, even if either of the two canoe rental places will do it, which I doubt, I'm sure they'd charge you an exorbitant price for it.

[GloryDaze]

$50 for shuttle from Slabtown back to Rich's. That's what they charged us 3 weeks ago.

We put on mid afternoon Friday, stayed above the party crowd entire weekend. Probably saw less than 10 canoes the whole trip. Most of those were late stragglers on Saturday evening.

[Kayser]

Glory daze, was that with a rental, or just a shuttle with your own watercraft?

And I was hoping for an easy one day float with a lot of fishing.

[GloryDaze]

We used our own boats

[bikehikefish]

Al, that is curious that Boiling Springs did not want to shuttle your vehicle. I used them this summer for a two day float from Boiling Springs to Slabtown, and they shuttled my vehicle to the takeout on the second day, so as not to leave it unattended for too long. Instead of the access, we arranged to leave it a the bridge about 1/4 mile past the access. They said they use the bridge because the FS wanted to charge them when they shuttle vehicles to the access. Whatever.

[joeD]

Earlier this summer.I used Boiling Springs to shuttle me to Dogs Bluff, where I floated to my vehicle at the Mineral Springs access, 6 long miles downstream. No problem. I wouldn't stress too much on where you go. Upstream will be more work and less people, downstream will be more people and more water but less work. Fishing will be fishing wherever you go, no place better than another in my opinion. Fish will hit or they won't.

[Flysmallie]

Al, that is curious that Boiling Springs did not want to shuttle your vehicle. I used them this summer for a two day float from Boiling Springs to Slabtown, and they shuttled my vehicle to the takeout on the second day, so as not to leave it unattended for too long. Instead of the access, we arranged to leave it a the bridge about 1/4 mile past the access. They said they use the bridge because the FS wanted to charge them when they shuttle vehicles to the access. Whatever.

We've used them in the past to shuttle our own vehicles and a friend uses them all the time. He just calls them and lets them know where he's going to put in and where he will take out. Hides a key and leaves the money in the truck and it's always where it needs to be when he is done.

[Al Agnew]

Nice to know about the Boiling Spring people...I think when I floated with them last, they had just had a big run-in with their insurance people who had temporarily put a burr under their saddle. They've always seemed like nice, accommodating people when I've used them in the past.

I'm surprised that Rich's was that cheap on the shuttle to Slabtown. Last time I called them for a shuttle, they wanted something like $45 just to shuttle me up to 6X.

[TroutRinger]

Richs told me yesterday it would be $50 to Slabtown but didn't think we could get a 4 kayaks in one truck so they wanted us to drop our stuff off, drive all the way there, and then have them drive us all the way back which kind of defeats the purpose.

Wilderness wanted $60 PER PERSON. The guy was a jerk on the phone too.

I'm still looking for a good two day float with good fishing and a decent shuttle. Any suggestions?

[Greasy B]

You might try Andy at Route 66 canoe rental. He'll ride with you up to Spring Creek or East Gate, help you unload than take your car back to his place, the logistics are a breeze. East gate is a little more than I like for an overnighter, Spring Creek will allow more for more fishing. This portion of BP is a mixed bag of poor habitat and poor treatment by locals but I have had some decent success.