Category: Paddling

Carters Lake – Doll Mountain to Coosawattee River

~ steve houghton ~ Leave a comment

Summary
Distance: 12.2 miles round trip
Put in: Paved lot, parking fee credit card only (map)
AllTrails map: (here)

I’ve wanted to paddle on Carters Lake for quite a while and finally made time to go. We had beautiful fall weather that made a perfect day on the water. Anne paddled her NDK Sportive, a 16 foot boat, and I paddled a 17 foot Necky Chatham. The wind kicked up late in the day so we were happy to have longer boats to handle the waves. We were pleasantly surprised at how few boats were on the lake, and all the boats we did see were fairly small fishing boats that did not have large wakes.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect as we hadn’t done this trip before; our goal was to paddle to where the Coosawattee flows into the lake. The scenery was absolutely beautiful with the hills displaying fall colors. There were quite a few small beaches on the lake shore. We found a small waterfall that was one of the highlights of the day. It’s located on “river right” just before we got to the flowing water.

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Etowah River mile 72 to 86.5

~ steve houghton ~ Leave a comment

Summary
Distance: 14.5 miles
Put in: Dirt lot, (carefully) passenger car accessible. (map)
Take out: Paved lot (map)
Gauge level: 5.2 feet
Relevant gauge: (here)
AllTrails map: (here)

This was the first time we’ve been on a river when the water level was way higher than normal. I was watching the gauge the day before we did our paddle, and the water level was above the 75th percentile for the date using 12 years of history. I’ll admit that I was nervous given that we didn’t have experience in those conditions. But, I decided to face my fear and head up for a paddle.

We took a look at the river when we dropped off the car at the take out site, and the water was high, muddy, and fast. We were both concerned now. I was wondering if there would be big waves at the fish weirs, Anne was concerned about fallen trees causing problems, and we both were thinking about high e-coli levels. But, I really wanted to overcome my concerns, and convinced Anne that we’d be fine.

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Ocmulgee River Pope’s Ferry to Amerson Park

~ steve houghton ~ Leave a comment

Summary
Distance: 11.9 miles
Put in: Gravel parking lot. (map)
Take out: Paved parking lot. (map)
Gauge level: 3.7 feet
Relevant gauge: (here)
AllTrails map: (here)
Guide book: (here)

This was our first paddle on the Ocmulgee River as we make our way to the Atlantic Ocean. The whole trip will be close to 350 miles.

Today’s section was a lot of fun. There were shoals in the first half of the day that provided very interesting navigation challenges. It was possible to make it through the rocks, but you might have to zig zag your way from one side of the river to the other to find a way through the rocks. Below the shoals, when the river smoothed out, you could see the mostly sandy bottom clearly.

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Ocmulgee River to the Atlantic

~ steve houghton ~ 2 Comments

I recently learned that it is possible to paddle from just above Macon, Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean, a trip of almost 350 miles. The paddle will start on the Ocmulgee River and continue onto the Altamaha River. The most amazing thing is that you can do the trip without encountering a lake.

We’re planning to start our adventure from Pope’s Ferry Landing at mile 215 of the Ocmulgee. The Ocmulgee River ends at the confluence with the Oconee River a few miles south of Lumber City. From that point, it is another 130 or so miles on the Altamaha River that ends at the Atlantic near Darien, Georgia.

Our current plan is to divide the trip into three efforts:

  • Ocmulgee mile 215 to mile 100 (115 miles)
  • Ocmulgee mile 100 to Altamaha mile 132 (102 miles)
  • Altamaha mile 132 to the Atlantic (132 miles)

This is a map of our first effort from Pope’s Ferry Landing to Ochise Landing. It will take 8 days of paddling to cover the distance, and each of the days will be a separate trip, no camping for this part of the river.

Etowah River – Euharlee to Neels Landing

~ steve houghton ~ 2 Comments

Summary
Distance: 9.2 miles
Put in: Paved parking with boat ramp. (map)
Take out: Paved parking with boat ramp. (map)
Guage level: 3.83 feet
Relevant guage: (here)
AllTrails map: (here)

Today was our first time back on our paddle boards in months, so we decided to run a section of river that we’ve done before and has a comfortable distance. The Etowah here is Class 1 with small, easy rapids. Most of the rapids are caused by Native American fish weirs. The weirs are rocks piled into a v-shaped funnel that would concentrate fish in the narrow, downstream end. At the water level today, I was able to run all the rapids without catching my fin on any rocks. I have a single 2.5 inch whitewater fin on my NRS board. Anne caught her fin a few times, but her fin is a little larger than mine. This section is often only a few feet deep in places and it’s great fun on a paddle board to be able to see the bottom. There are often large numbers of fish too. I saw a gar today that was at least three feet long, so big that it startled me a bit. The fish seem to congregate in the rapids and I sometimes find myself distracted from picking my way through the rocks because I’m watching the fish. Today was really special because of a few interesting wildlife sightings that I’ll describe later.

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