Adel, Georgia, April 21, 2022 — It’s 8AM, Saturday, April 30, 2022, at Red Roberts Landing in Reed Bingham State Park, between Adel and Moultrie, Georgia. Join us for a three-mile paddle down the idyllic blackwater Little River into Reed Bingham State Park. Tickets are $30 per boat online only at wwals.net. See https://wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-30–blrpr/
A previous press release had an erroneous date. Please ignore that and come on down Saturday, April 30, 2022.
You could win in any of a dozen categories, including $100 First Prize. But you are not required to race: it’s a nice spring paddle anyway! There will be lunch and a kayak raffle. You can just paddle along this scenic three-mile stretch of tea-colored river on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail among cypress trees, turtles, birds, and yes, alligators. (Don’t pet the alligators and they aren’t likely to bother you.) This race also has fierce competitors, with one past winner finishing in barely more than half an hour.
Nobody beat the previous year’s winning time, so this year if somebody does, they will get an additional $200 prize. Winners in other categories each get a special gift.
Photo: Bret Wagenhorst, of Wayne Hale and Terry Donahue winning the BIG Little River Paddle Race.
They won in the male tandem canoe category in 2018, and they won overall in 2019.
The race will start at Red Roberts Landing, on Rountree Bridge Road, off of I-75 Exit 41 (Sparks). You can rent boats from Reed Bingham State Park for an additional fee to the park (reservations must be arranged in advance when you buy your BLRPR ticket), and there is a park entrance fee of $5.00 per vehicle. The race finishes at the Colquitt County boat ramp on the west side of the lake. Participants must arrange their own shuttle back to the start (or paddle back upstream after the race). Distancing and masks may be required at start and finish, depending on Covid levels and park policies at the time of the event, and life jackets are required on the water. The event may get delayed or canceled for hazardous conditions. No refunds in case of cancellation.
It can take two hours for everybody to paddle down to Reed Bingham State Park Boat Ramp (West), after which we will have lunch, followed by the awards. There is a cash prize of $100 and a trophy for First Place, plus another $200 if you beat the record time, and prizes for all the other winners. Plus you can get stickers, buttons, and pictures taken by Gretchen Quarterman on many of our rivers and lakes and swamps in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin.
BLRPR is a fundraiser for WWALS.
WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity. WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the surface waters and groundwater of the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary, in south Georgia and north Florida, among them the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River watersheds, through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities. Founded in June 2012, WWALS has board members from multiple counties in south Georgia and north Florida, and members from all over the Suwannee River Basin and from farther away. Since December 2016, John S. Quarterman is the Suwannee Riverkeeper®, which is a staff position and a project of WWALS as the member of Waterkeeper® Alliance for the Suwannee River Basin, including the Little River.
For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.
Contact:
John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper®
WWALS Watershed Coalition
www.wwals.net
contact@suwanneeriverkeeper.org
850-290-2350
229-242-0102
PO Box 88, Hahira, GA 31632
===
Short Link: