Every Saturday from spring through early fall, someone standing in the parking lot behind The Chimes hands over a card to rent a kayak they didn't need to rent. A short paddle up the same river, the water is sitting there for free, with its own boat launch, its own parking, and nobody checking IDs. Both spots put you on the same river. Only one of them charges for it.
This isn't a secret exactly. It's just the kind of thing that only shows up when you look at how the neighborhood actually organizes itself around the water, rather than how it looks from the road.
One River, Two Launches, and a Cleanup That Proves It
The clearest evidence of the split shows up every fall, when Keep Covington Beautiful runs its Bogue Falaya River Sweep in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the City of Covington, and Canoe and Trail Adventures. The instructions for that event spell out the whole arrangement without meaning to. Paddlers who own their own canoe or kayak are told to meet at the Bogue Falaya Park boat launch. Paddlers who need to borrow a boat are told to meet at the dock behind The Chimes instead.
That's the entire local system, stated plainly for one Saturday morning: the park launch is the free, bring-your-own-gear option, and the Chimes dock is the rental counter. Locals who've lived here a season or two tend to know this without thinking about it. Newer residents often don't, and end up paying for a rental not far from a free ramp.
The Free Option Most People Don't Use
Bogue Falaya Wayside Park sits on thirteen acres along the river and has been open to the public since July 1, 1909. The original pavilion went up in 1907, was destroyed by a storm in 1915, and was rebuilt that same year. It's still there today: a single-story wood structure with five steps up to an inset doorway, and a wide room lined with benches inside, used for everything from town fairs to talent shows.
The boat launch sits within the same grounds, and admission to both the park and the launch is free. Summer here means kayaks and canoes launching off that ramp, tubers drifting past on the current, and the occasional rope swing tied off in a tree along the bank for anyone willing to climb up and let go. It's also the same lawn that hosts Sparks in the Park on the Fourth of July and the Bluesberry Music and Art Festival each fall, so the grounds do double duty as both a launch point and a gathering place depending on the week.
What Renting Actually Buys You
None of this makes the rental option pointless. Canoe and Trail Adventures is a family-owned outfit based in St. Tammany Parish, and the appeal isn't just convenience, it's gear you don't have to store or haul. Owner Chad Almquist has said the point of the business is simple: "our favorite thing to do is get kids outdoors." For a family without a canoe rack on the car, or a visiting cousin who's never paddled before, the dock behind The Chimes is the easier on-ramp, and you're welcome to bring your own boat there too if the closer parking is worth more to you than the free launch a few minutes up the road.
Lunch at the End of the Paddle
The Chimes itself sits on a stretch of riverbank that includes a small, restored River Road-style building and the original Covington City Hall, both worked into the property when the restaurant opened in 2011. Inside, the bar runs more than seventy beer taps, and the kitchen leans into charbroiled oysters, fried catfish, and a crab and brie soup. Out back, kids can feed goats and chickens while the adults finish a plate, which is part of why the place reads as a family stop as much as a bar. If you didn't paddle in, the parking lot is large enough that arriving by car doesn't feel like an afterthought.
The Market Still Runs on Two Different Clocks
The river isn't the only thing on a schedule that rewards knowing both options. The Covington Farmers Market runs twice a week, and the two versions serve different purposes. Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon, the market sets up beside the Covington Police Department at 609 N. Columbia Street, under a small gazebo, with live music drifting over tables of blueberries, blackberries, satsumas, and heirloom tomatoes depending on the season. Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., it moves to the Trailhead at 434 N. New Hampshire Street instead.
That second day matters more than it sounds like it should. If your Saturday morning is already spoken for by a paddle down to The Chimes, the Wednesday market is the one that keeps you from missing a week of produce entirely. Residents who only know the Saturday version end up choosing between the river and the tomatoes. Residents who know both just split the difference across the week.
Where Dinner Reservations Are Going Now
Downtown's dinner options have shifted enough this year that the old defaults are worth updating. Four names now anchor most weekend reservations:
- Feliciana Bistrôt opened on the ground floor of a new building at 405 E. Gibson Street, built after the old Star Theater on the site was found too deteriorated to save and was demolished. The menu runs French bistro in style, and the design nods to novelist Walker Percy, who made Covington his home for much of his adult life.
- Paradise Cocktail Lounge sits upstairs from Feliciana, an open-air and covered rooftop built for cocktails and wine above the Covington roofline.
- Tavi, the earlier concept from the same restaurant group, sits next door on Gibson Street, built around a wood-fired pita oven and a menu of hummus plates and slow-roasted meats.
- The Hampshire, from Chef Ryan Gall, rounds out the wave with a seasonal, wine-forward dining room a few blocks over.
Local food coverage has singled out the Feliciana and Paradise openings as a marker of how far northshore dining has come, which is a fair way to describe what four new additions in one small downtown can do to a Saturday night's options.
The Cleanup That's Coming, and the Loop That Keeps Going
The next chance to see the two-launch system in person arrives on Saturday, September 26, 2026, when the River Sweep returns for its annual cleanup. Volunteers with their own canoes and kayaks meet at the Bogue Falaya Park launch. Anyone borrowing a boat meets at the Chimes dock. Litter grabbers, gloves, and trash bags are provided either way, and there are snacks and prizes waiting back at the park once the paddling's done.
It's a small, practical event, but it's also the clearest annual reminder of how this stretch of river actually works: one free door in, one paid door in, both leading to the same water, and a market schedule and a dinner scene that have both grown enough this year to fill out whichever version of the day you choose.
If any of this is starting to shape how you think about the riverfront itself, not just how to spend a Saturday on it, Puddy Robinson is always glad to talk through what's happening along the Bogue Falaya in more detail. Let's connect.
