It is a story that many men dream of - taking your dog and guitar and heading down the river in a canoe.

One man is living that dream, even taking basil and tomato plants named Basil and Tater.

For Jamie Bailey, a native of LaGrange and graduate of LaGrange High School, it is more than a dream - a canoe trip down the river has happened for him twice before his current trip.

The son of Jim and Carol Bailey of Gabbettville community, Bailey loaded his canoe and started his trip in north Georgia.

“I had some friends drop me off. I was about 160 miles from the Georgia/Alabama line,” he said by telephone during a break in his trip.

His goal originally was to reach the Alabama River in Mobile, but the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has changed his thoughts.

“I really don’t want to get near that oil and I don’t want to get the dog close to it. I am really not sure where we will end up - maybe near Fairhope, Ala.,” he said.

Bailey, 35, said he and Huck Finn, his Irish setter/lab mix, are having a good trip.

“We have had some rainy weather, but nothing serious, and I have not really seen any wildlife other than a raccoon,” he said.

Two years ago, Bailey took a canoe trip from Helen in north Georgia to Florida via the Chattahoochee River. Later he traveled the Flint River from Atlanta to the Gulf of Mexico. Each trip took about 430 to 450 miles.

His current trip down the Alabama Scenic River Trail will “probably double that. It will be about 820 miles.”

Bailey describes himself as a “different kind of guy - I have always enjoyed doing stuff that most people wouldn’t. I walked the Appalachian Trail.”

His canoe is packed with a month’s worth of food, a basil plant and a tomato plant. He has his guitar, a hammock, a tarp to sleep under along with “lots of canned food, dry food and snacks.”

He enjoys being outside.

“I guess I get that from my dad and grandpa. They were outdoors men. I was always outside and in the woods, growing up,” he said.

He works as a wilderness instructor at the Talisman School for autistic children in Asheville, N.C.

“We get to go on wilderness trips, and during the summers, while they are gone, I have a break,” he said.

A hiking trip led him to try canoe trips.

“In 2000, I was on a trip with Cleve Evans hiking the Appalachian Trail, and we got to talking about the river and doing a canoe trip, and the next spring, I decided to do it, and I traveled the Chattahoochee,” he said.

Bailey said he was more excited about this trip.

“I am going down the scenic trail in Alabama, and so much of what I will be seeing and have seen is a part of a vanishing part of the South. It has not been developed yet, and I just wanted to see it before is gone,” he said.

Bailey named the trip after his dog.

“It is called the Huck Finn 2010 expedition. My old dog was named Gabbett, and I named the canoe after him.

“Huck has done real well on the trip. We can be going along and if I say swim, he jumps out of the boat and goes for a swim, and goes to the land. He doesn’t stray from me.”

Laughing, Bailey said, “He is kind of like me. When he wants to get out of the boat, he does, and when he wants to get in the boat, he does.”

Bailey is single.

“All I know is if I do get married, the woman needs to be adventuresome and be OK with me doing these trips.”

“I have always been an individual and been encouraged to just be myself. So whoever I am with needs to be that type of person or accepting of me as that type of person.”

Barring problems with weather, illness or injury, Bailey expects to complete the trip in about three weeks.

“I have some friends in the area, or my parents may come pick me up,” he said.

He has had a beard the whole trip.

“I live in the mountains. You know I am going to have a beard. Before I started the trip, though, I did a total clean shave so I could start on a clean slate,” he said.

Pausing, Bailey said, “So far, it has been a great trip, and I feel really good about the ending - I think I am going to make it.”

Becky Holland may be reached at bholland@ lagrangenews.com and (706) 884-7311, Ext. 229.