Multiple outdoor activities are available to help make a slow summer more exciting, said Lance Haynie, the Outdoor Recreation Center’s program coordinator.
Facilitated through Outdoor Rec, a white water rafting trip on the Ocoee River is being offered in late June, Haynie said, and a whitewater canoeing trip on Bear Creek will be available in late July.
“In the summer, I mostly stick to the water-based stuff to keep cool,” he said.
Additionally, the Student Recreation Center itself offers residents and students entertainment options for the summer.
“Our climbing wall is open all summer,” Haynie said. “Our rental center is open all summer specializing in … paddling, camping and biking gear needs.”
Natalie Jensen, a senior in New College and an employee at Outdoor Rec, said Tuscaloosa has a vast outdoor activity community and that the area has many great spots for kayaking, canoeing, hiking, camping, mountain biking, road biking and bouldering.
“Really if there is something you want to do outdoors, we have the natural resources right here if you don’t feel like driving an hour away,” she said.
Daniel Nikles, a junior majoring in construction engineering, said one of the best places in the area for outdoor activities is in Hoover.
“I’m a big fan of Boulder Field, because it’s a pretty place to enjoy the outdoors,” he said. “It’s a great place to go climbing or hiking.”
Hurricane Creek is the closest and best place to climb in Tuscaloosa, Nikles said, but Boulder Field has better climbing and bigger rocks.
When he doesn’t climb in Hoover, Nikles said he likes to float on a tube down the Cahaba River.
Limestone Parks Canoes and Tube Rentals, located in Centreville, rents canoes and inner tubes to anyone who can find their way down the dirt road and past the private property sign to the property.
“When you get there you think you’re in Deliverance,” Nikles said. “But don’t be scared. It’s a great way to unwind with good friends on a hot summer day.”
For $10, he said, a person can grab a tube and float down a section of the Cahaba River for an afternoon, and the river features a rope swing as well as cliff diving at the beach at the end of the run.
“It takes a good … two and a half hours to float the river, unless you stop to bust your butt on the rope swing,” Nikles said.
Despite a person’s preferred outdoor activity, Jensen said, there is always something to do.
“The outdoor Rec community in Tuscaloosa is definitely out there with open arms,” she said.
Haynie agreed, saying the local outdoor recreation community is willing to help anyone get into the outdoors through friendly advice or through Rec Center trips.
“I simply enjoy the fact that it enables me to get away from my normal daily routine,” Haynie said. “I would assume that most people feel a larger connectedness with things and experience clarity of thought when they are out of their normal environments.”
