Canoe the Caney

Just an awful experience with this service. The first truck wouldn’t start so they removed the trailer and hooked up to another, which made it roughly 200ft down the road. The 3^rd truck made it there, but the ride there felt like impending doom. That carelessness with a handicapped individual on board and a 3 year old child (who weren’t in my group), is unforgivable for me. Once everyone had arrived at the final destination, it took them nearly an hour to pick us up.
My advice: Bring 2 vehicles and put it in yourself or use Big Rock Market for rentals and pickup. Will never use this place again.

Saw all the bad reviews and was a little nervous, but what a great time! We had 3 boys with us (3,6 & 8) and the 6 mile was a perfect trip. Wait was a little long, but not unreasonable. We went Labor Day so a small wait seems fair. It took us about 3 Hours to do the 6 miles. We did stop several times to swim and play. Beware, even on Labor Day the water is frigid!

LISTEN TO THE OTHER REVIEWERS… Don’t waste your money here!
My wife and I decided to buy (on a whim) a Groupon/​LivingSocial deal for this place. What a joke. For starters, they run trips down the river at all times of the day, most days of the week. For us peons that ordered Groupons, however, we were all relegated the the same day/​time, which is only on Saturdays at 2pm. This means EVERYONE shows up at the same time, as most folks had done what we’d done and then the place had a rush of people all checking in and wanting to go at the same time, which of course they could not maintain.
They say to arrive an hour early, but even though we did — which means 1pm, and our booking was for 2pm, it was after 3pm before we were even on the bus headed in the direction of water, and nearly 3:45 before we were on the river.
When others say don’t waste your money, it isn’t even for the sake of the time delays, rude staff, and inability for them to make common business decisions that alleviate issues for the guests and staff, but that your actual trip… what you came to do… doesn’t last nearly as long as their website proclaims. They will want to tell you that it varies at different times of the year, and is all based on what the dam is doing at the time, but consistent review and experiences matched our own — the trip lasts LESS THAN HALF of what they claim.
Our measly 6 mile trip was supposed to last 2.5−3.5 hours. It took just over 45 mins from start to finish. We barely had to paddle, and when we did, it wasn’t for speed, it was for direction to make sure we didn’t run into a bank or a tree branch as the water was moving so quickly.
Then when the very short trip was over, most folks in our group had to wait over an hour to have a van come back and pick them up! This is just plain unacceptable! I’ve never seen such terrible preparation or management. Least effective canoe trip my wife or I have ever been on.
The only reason for the 2 stars instead of 1 is that the river is actually quite pretty, and the day we went it had rained a bit before we got in, so the whole trip had a beautiful layer of fog that have a sense of mystery and fun to our adventure. We will go canoeing again for sure, but with ANY OTHER company than Canoe the Caney.
You’ve been warned!

Don’t waste your money! I’ve always canoed the Harpeth, but my husband and I found a Living Social deal for this place and thought it’d be a nice change of scenery. I’m really glad we didn’t pay full price, but I think even the $ 35 we paid for the deal was too much.
First, if you have the voucher, you have to book a week in advance online and they only offer the 2pm time. In general, we don’t mind restrictions on using a deal. However, we arrived at 1:30 like we were instructed and found a TON of people. By only allowing the people with deals to come at 2pm, it meant a lot of people were there at 2pm.
It was around 3:15 before we were finally on the shuttle to the river. I’m glad they had a tent for us to sit under, but it was still frustrating to have sat almost 2 hours before we got to go out. They said it was because the river was running too fast due to the dam generators, but I can’t imagine that day was the first day this has happened. It was clear they are not organized, and now that I’ve read other reviews I see this is a common occurrence.
We were doing the 6 mile trip. They warned it’d only take 1.5 hours since the river was running fast. We didn’t even have to paddle, and we were done in about an hour.
The only reason I’m giving two stars instead of 1 is because the part on the river was pretty. Yay for nature!
My guess is that the majority of the time the river is running fast. It seems from other reviews that it’s common and that most people feel like they wait for ages and then are hardly on the river at all. I would not recommend anyone canoeing through this company. Even with the Living Social deal I felt like we wasted our money.

We love to canoe and usually go on the Harpeth but we wanted to try the Caney River. So I saw Canoe the Caney and booked a 9:00am trip. I referred to the website and it stated from 10:00 on was their busy time so to book the earlier trip. We arrived 30 min early, as suggested on the website. Once we got there we were greeted by a young man who stated the river was really high and running fast so the 3 hour trip would only be 1 ½ or we can go on the lake and paddle around for 4 hours. We opted for lake due to driving over an hour to canoe.
After filling out that paperwork, we went inside to register. Talk about a cluster. Ppl everywhere and very unorganized. Once we were finally registered and given boarding passes, it was 9:30. Mind you our scheduled trip was at 9:00am. We waited an extra hour before being shuttled to the lake. Once we finally were on the lake it was a great time. I made sure to call 30 min prior to being back at the dock for pick up and we still waited over an hour to be picked back up.
Over all it’s not worth the drive or the extra money.

We chose the 3 hour/​6 mile trip. The lady who I paid and the bus driver told us if we paddled the whole way we’d be finished in 1 ½ hours. We wanted a leisurely trip, so we only paddled to stay in the middle of the river. We finished in 1 hr and 15 min. For $ 24.99 per person, that is a rip off. For 8 of us, I spent over $ 200 dollars and felt like I flushed it down the crapper.

Expect a long wait. Was told to arrive at 12:30 for a 1:00 trip and then we sat until 1:40 before we actually got into the bus. At least the river was pretty.

make a reservation. don’t be in a hurry. this laid back outfit had friendly staff. the rental and shuttle fees are steep but I believe that’s the going rate for most rental companies along the caney fork. not sure why they are so proud on this river.

Currently on the steaming hot packed bus as the water rises around the wheels. Canoe the Caney was exasperating! What should have been a restful, idealic float down the Caney River was nearly ruined by Canoe the Caney transportation. Don’t bother making reservations they are meaningless! You’ll go randomly whenever they get to you. There is a symphony of criticisms from everyone on board the bus back. Everyone declares they will not use Caney again.
However, We did all agree that our driver was entertaining once we were in motion. Of course, the fact that we were finally moving improved everyone’s mood!

Find a different company! Way over priced for the experience. The way they run their transportation is a joke. We waited 45 minutes prior to our trip for them to take us to the dam and then after getting to the take out spot at the time they told us to be there, we waited for another hour. Granted it was a holiday and they were busy but they were completely unprepared and understaffed. Also, they tell you one price and it ends up being way more. They charge 30 $ per person for the shuttle ride plus the canoe. When it’s all said and done it’s 80 $ for two people and one canoe. The shuttle vans are shoddy pieces of crap. We had a blow out on the way back to the marina. The actual canoe trip itself was very enjoyable but they ruined the experience.

What a gorgeous day for a canoe trip! So I bought a Groupon for half off a six mile trip. The trip included a canoe for two people, drop off, and shuttle back. It was still $ 30 with the discount or $ 15 per person. I honestly can’t imagine paying more than that.
Anyway! Today is my wife’s birthday and she loves adventures like this, so off we went! The river was great, can’t complain. The reasons I can’t give five stars are this.
1. We weren’t offered a life jacket, it was an after-​thought as we boarded the shuttle.
2. The guy that drove the shuttle 8 miles down windy roads ate pizza the whole way there.
Both of these things made me feel just a little uneasy. Otherwise, it was a great trip. We packed a small cooler with lunch and ate right there on the river. Overall, great experience but we may choose to use another canoe company in the future, especially if we bring loved ones.

If your objective is to rent a canoe or kayak and catch a ride to and from the put-​in and take out points, these guys can probably help you out, although we had a very long wait on both ends of our trip. But I’m really here to warn you about a specific trip. They offer a «Romantic Picnic for Two» and that experience was terrible. First of all we had to wait nearly an hour after our appointed time to go to the put-​in. The picnic was supposed to be a surprise, but I guess because of the difficulties and delays they were encountering and multiple conversations with the staff, one guy was like «well I guess the cat’s out of the bag» and he tossed the picnic lunch into the bus with us. They had told my date that they would give us a ride on our own, AND the brochure promises you a «private shuttle» — but that wasn’t true. We were on a bus with a bunch of other people. They give you your picnic in a basket that is not waterproof or even water-​resistant. The lunch pictured in the brochure was a yummy-​looking vegetable-​laden wrap; the actual sandwich was cheap deli-​meat and american cheese on white bread (I was just serving sandwiches to the homeless a few days ago and the sandwiches we were served looked just like that). Oh wait — but there were tomatoes on the sandwiches. All that meant was that the white bread was completely soggy. SO gross. They forgot to pack the blanket that was supposed to be included. The «souvenir wine glasses» had no reference to the Caney Fork, the business or anything — just cheap plastic champagne glasses still in the dollar-​store packaging. We stopped by the gas station down the road and that is where we found the source of the «Romantic» picnic sandwiches. Complete BS. The manager was gone by the time we got back to our car, and the employee that remained said he could not refund part of the rate but suggested that they might offer me a free «season pass.» Not very helpful since I live 7 hours away. The cost of this trip on a weekend is $ 35 per person for the kayaks and rides, the «Romatic Picnic» is an additional $ 49.95 (total cost $ 120.00). So it was $ 50 for a dollar-​store teddy bear, a bottle of grape juice and two sandwiches from the gas station! So far they haven’t done anything to make things right for this lousy experience… they were right about one thing in the brochure, it was «an event I will remember for a lifetime.» :p