Pictures: Chainsaw cleanup from Troupville up to Sugar Creek and back 2024-02-25

It’s a good thing we sent to see: yesterday we found a huge new deadfall completely across the Withlacoochee River, on the route of the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, coming up Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Big new deadfall, chainsaw, trolling motor, outboard 2024-02-25

Here’s a WWALS video:
https://youtu.be/3-143xjW1pI?si=puDKyoATFhg6oqkq

The water level was back down to much more reasonable than at last week’s boat motor tryouts.

We trimmed more on quite a few deadfalls from last chainsaw cleanup two weeks ago and from previous ones.

Now kayaks should not have much trouble from Sugar Creek to the Little River Confluence. There they will find Phil Hubbard’s directional signs on a tree in the river. Go up the Little River to Troupville Boat Ramp to take out.

If you really can’t paddle up that last third of a mile, we can either haul with the Suwannee Riverkeeper jon boat and outboard, or you can go downstream another two miles to Paul Deloach’s private boat ramp.

Meanwhile yesterday, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, with Michael Smith of Valdosta United Way and others, paddled from Langdale Park Boat Ramp to Sugar Creek. They did not find any major deadfalls until Sugar Creek, where we still need to get that one before Saturday.

Phil and I did get up as far as just above Sugar Creek yesterday, where we cleared the brush sticking out into the river that I always run into, and which would have capsized some paddlers Friday. Then it was getting dark, so we motored back around to Troupville Boat Ramp.

We also demonstrated the usefulness of several items paid for by a grant from Wild Green Future:

A 9.9hp Mercury 4-stroke outboard motor: yes, it will go upstream plenty fast for our purposes, it’s quiet, it uses little gas, and it is astonishingly resilient on hitting numerous underwater obstacles and getting choked down at least three times.
A prop guard: that thing paid for itself in the first half hour.
An 85lb-thrust Goplus trolling motor: it will pull the jon boat upstream, and it was very useful for holding the jon boat steady while I was tilting the outboard back down after the latest snag bumped it up.
A pair of Power Queen LiFePO4 12.8V 100Ah batteries: both of them weigh less than one lead-acid marine battery, and each holds more charge.
A Husqvarna 460 Rancher 24-inch chainsaw: the only thing that can handle some of the bigger deadfalls.

And of course the 14-foot jon boat donated by Flint Riverkeeper.

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for doing most of the sawing, and for being patient with the amature boat driver.

I did saw some deadfalls, but Phil didn’t bring his phone and there was nobody else to take pictures, so you can believe it or not.

There are more pictures below.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

Short Link:

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.

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