Pinewood Canoe & Camp LLC — Hotel in Centerville

I agree with Scott below... Please be very cautious if you have no experience. We did this route and rented from this company a month ago. My husband and I have 3 kids and we had prior experience mostly in kayaks. We rented one canoe and two kayaks. We were in the area for a group retreat. We went with a few other families. All had canoes. Some had prior experience and some didn't. The river doesn't look dangerous and we all thought it would be a nice, relaxing float. That is not what happened at all. With no warnings or instructional information from the staff, they dropped us off at the launch point. He did help some of us take our boats in the water. We had to mostly walk our boats to the river from a side creek, it was so shallow. Then we all got in the flow but were spread apart and not really worried about eachother. No one seemed to want any advice. So we all just casually floated on. Long story short... We ended up with 2 canoes capsizing on the fast moving corners, 1 capsized kayak, many rescues from canoes getting stuck in debris from inexperienced canoers. Thank goodness we had two strong men who could rescue our friends. And thank goodness all the kids had life jackets on!!! It was very adrenaline pumping and dangerous at one point. We had some bruises and kids not wanting to ever do it again. It was crazy! By the end we preservered and learned how to work together and take care of eachother. But with no help from the company and when we got back no one was there to tell all this too. It would have been nice to have some information and instruction for the inexperienced. The second group that we were friends with did the same route an hour later and they had similar stories of harrowing rescues and one boy was pinned by his canoe and ended up with stitches in his leg. Several canoes flipped with them as well. I do not recommend floating this area with a canoe. I was fine on my kayak and I have previous experience. So take all this info into account when making a decision. Do not do this route alone you might need rescuing. You are surrounded by private property so you have to make it to a bridge to...

Do.Not.Recommend. For the elderly, kids, toddlers, babies, or uneducated folks!

If you want a grass field with power that sometimes works or no power then this is your place! If it rains be prepared to flood I do not recommend it for children. Esp canoeing! Do not even try! We had a big group and everyone flipped their boats. I've been canoeing a lot and have never flipped. This is great for adults who know what they're doing the water has several spots where it's "white waters" It's great tbh and even better swimming area but the water does pull so be careful and always use a life jacket but again do not recommend it for first-timers, uneducated or young children. They did not show anyone how to use paddles we had several first-timers and we were concerned that they didn't have anyone show us how to operate the canoe. In most places they do. So red flags. But we went anyway. You have to put your canoe /yak in yourself. They have a "ramp" but to be honest it's wonky and awkward.

The place has potential I wish they had running water and better layouts for camping spaced-out campsites instead of all on top of each other. And the driveway to the office was hella bumpy lots of big dips and prob not the easiest for cars. The staff was very nice and all but I'm a bougie...

Prices are slightly higher than an outfitter in a nearby area we've used before, and there's nothing special about this outfitter to warrant the higher prices. Staff not especially friendly or helpful. Water levels were way down resulting in dragging bottom many times and having to get out of our kayaks/canoes to get back on track. It would have been helpful to have been warned of low water levels. You have to pull your own kayak/canoe from the put-in site down to the water and you have to walk up a steep incline at the end of the trip to put away your paddles and life jackets. I'm stating this as a warning to others who haven't used this outfitter before. The Piney River, while beautiful and crystal clear, was full of old tires washed up on the banks (I counted as least a dozen), trash here and there, and parts of what appeared to be aluminum pieces of siding(?) or who knows what stuck in the trees along the banks. No fault of Pinewood Canoe but perhaps the good people in the Hickman County area might join together occasionally to keep the Piney River clear of...