Category Archives: Blueway

WWALS Boomerang, Withlacoochee River, Langdale Park, 2018-11-03

Update 2018-10-28: Now at State Line Ramp! Yes, we’ve moved downstream, to plenty of water, no deadfalls, plus shoals, in two states (Georgia and Florida) and four counties (Lowndes, Brooks, Madison, and Hamilton).

Update 2018-10-25: See new blog post with PDF flyers including new sponsors the YMCA and Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia, plus food by Under Construction BBQ, and at the turnaround walk up to The Salty Snapper, with aerial drone photography by The Georgia Photography Fanatic.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Update 2018-10-08: Early-bird $20 ticket deadline extended through October 13th!

Downstream and up again: it’s the WWALS Boomerang, from Langdale Park Boat Ramp to Sugar Creek Landing on the Withlacoochee River. Join us for a fun filled day of kayak and canoe racing and leisurely paddling.

WWALS Boomerang, Logo New WWALS board member Bobby McKenzie, whose son Zavier was the youngest finisher at our spring BIG Little River Paddle Race, has volunteered to organize a fall race, with the enthusiastic support of the board and the Outings Committee.

We would also like to thank George Page, Executive Director of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA), for his and VLPRA’s support. VLPRA renovated Langdale Park last year, so let’s go boat from there.

When: 11:00 AM, November 3, 2018

Put In: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602. This is just outside the Valdosta City limits in Lowndes County, off of North Valdosta Road (US 41 North). Only 5.5 miles from downtown and only 4 miles from Valdosta State University.

GPS: 30.88727, -83.32395

Tickets: $20 per boat through extended October 13, then $30.
We also recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

The very picture of a lazy river
Withlacoochee River, 2016-03-20.

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Alapaha Quest, Naylor Boat Ramp @ US 84, 2018-09-15

Update 2019-09-14: We’ve moved downstream, to put in at Naylor Boat Ramp and take out at Mayday Landing. This section does have some rough rocky spots with rapids for a short distance. The takeout at Mayday is a little difficult due to soft sand to climb up to the parking area. Bring plenty of water to drink and food for the day. Bring a PFD to wear. Plan to arrive early enough to unload gear and begin the shuttle to the take out.

Experience the wilderness of the Alapaha River Water Trail. The water is barely above our recommended low, so bring a rope in case we have to drag boats.

When: 8 AM, September 15, 2018

Put In: Naylor Boat Ramp @ GA 84, 6955 US 84 E, Naylor, GA 31641. Lowndes County hasn’t actually built the boat ramp yet, but they have bought the park and we can put in there, just west of the Alapaha River off of the north side of US 84.

GPS: 30.92507, -83.03867

Take Out: Mayday Landing @ Howell Road, 749 Howell Road, Stockton, GA 31649, in Echols County. We will all help each other drag boats up the steep sand slope.

Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

With trash can Gretchen asked for, 2018:05:16 11:10:37,, Beach
Naylor Boat Ramp beach with trash can Gretchen asked for, 2018-06-16.

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Updates from Trails Committee Meeting 2018-08-19

Here’s an update on the draft brochures for both WWALS Water Trails, after the recent meeting of the WWALS Water Trails Committee. We could still use more pictures.

Please email pictures to wwalswatershed@gmail.com. Please say who took each picture, when, where, and of what. High resolution, please.

ARWT Mapside, ARWT

If you want to join the WWALS Trails Committee to help continue organizing this work, actually editing the documents shown below, you must be a WWALS member and apply.

What

The Trails Committee is working on brochures for Continue reading →

Alapaha Quest, TBA on Alapaha River, 2018-10-06

Update 2018-10-03: Due to low water in the Alapaha River, this outing is cancelled. Also, this is the same weekend as the Hahira Honeybee Festival, which takes a lot of WWALS resources; please come join us there.

Plus we’re doing a Cleanup at Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River, Saturday, October 13, and the WWALS Boomerang on the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park down to Sugar Creek and back, Saturday, November 3, and a paddle in the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday, December 8, 2018. Plus numerous festivals.

Next year the BIG Little River Paddle Race will be Saturday, April 27, 2019 at Reed Bingham State Park, and Paddle Georgia is starting at Troupville Boat Ramp for five days down the Withlaoochee and Suwannee Rivers in June 2019.

For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Experience the wilderness of the Alapaha River Water Trail as we continue the Alapaha Quest. Location for this outing will be determined dependent on water levels.

When: 8 AM, Saturday, October 6, 2018

Put In: To be announced (TBA).

Take Out: TBA

Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

Movie: Birds singing (3.4M),
Birds were singing, 2017-02-11.

Continue reading →

Brochures: Trails Committee Meeting 2018-08-19

After only four years, we’re almost finished with both WWALS Water Trails! You can help get them done.

The new Chair of the WWALS Trails Committee, Dan Phillips, has called a meeting to work on one of the final steps: designing printed brochures. Anyone can attend, and anyone can send in pictures or suggestions.

Please email pictures to wwalswatershed@gmail.com. Please say who took each picture, when, where, and of what. High resolution, please.

When: 2:30-5PM, Sunday, 19 August 2018

Where: Community Hall 2,
South Georgia Regional Library,
2906 Julia Dr, Valdosta, GA 31602

By phone: Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676

Event: facebook, meetup

WLRWT Mapside, WLRWT

If you want to join the WWALS Trails Committee to help continue organizing this work, actually editing the documents shown below, you must be Continue reading →

Alapaha Quest, Rowetown to Willacoochee, Alapaha River, 2018-08-11

Bring a rope in case we need to drag the boats across deadfalls, and expect low-hanging branches, as we experience the wilderness from Rowetown Church Landing to Willacoochee Landing, on the Alapaha River Water Trail, continuing Alapaha Quest.

When: 8 AM, Saturday, August 11, 2018

Put In: Rowetown Church Landing, 1291 Rowetown Church Road, Alapaha, GA 31622, River bank on private road back of cemetery, we have permission.

Take Out: Willacoochee Landing, GA 135, Atkinson County side, 2.8 miles south of Willacoochee, GA, Atkinson County.

Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit, and don’t forget the rope. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

600x450 Movie: Under branches (1.0M), in Alapaha deadfalls, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 17 January 2015
Movie: Under branches (1.0M), in Alapaha deadfalls, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 17 January 2015.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: Continue reading →

BMAP petition letters including from a Florida state springs expert

Unlike FDEP’s BMAP plans, “When a new building code is final in Florida, [Rusty] Payton [CEO, Florida Home Builders Association] said, “there’s always six months between the final rule and the date the rule takes effect.” Because of his organization’s petition for more time to file a protest, none of Florida’s new Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) have gone into effect yet, which gives spring and river advocates (and FDEP) more time to try to fix them.

Dinah Voyles Pulver, Daily Commercial, 30 July 2018, Groups protest new Florida springs action plans,

A sweeping effort to adopt action plans to improve water quality in 13 springs systems across the state is on hold after a dozen groups and individuals asked to intervene with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, including one of the department’s own springs experts.

Thomas Greenhalgh, a hydrogeologist with the department’s Florida Geological Survey, is one of two people who asked for an administrative hearing on one of the 13 “basin management action plans” signed by Noah Valenstein in late June.

Suiting up, Thomas Greenhalgh
Thomas Greenhalgh suiting up before releasing dye into the Dead River of the Alapaha River to go into the Dead River Sink, 2016-06-22, Picture by John S. Quarterman for WWALS.

“There are many claims and statements in the BMAP that I believe are inaccurate and unsubstantiated,” wrote Greenhalgh in seeking a state hearing on the plan for the Suwannee River, where he owns property.

He’s not alone.

In addition Continue reading →

Banks Lake Sunset Paddle 2018-07-27

Venus gleamed through the fires of sunset as the full moon and Mars hid behind clouds.

Sunset, On the water

The sound of frogs brought out swoops of bats, as a dozen or two paddlers braved the placid flat waters of Banks Lake Friday evening in the least strenuous yet one of the most enjoyable of all WWALS outings. As one new participant remarked, it’s one thing to see it from the road, but out on the water the size, the lucidity, and the sunset are startling while calming.

Bret Wagenhorst, who brought a crew of new people from Tifton and paddled out with them first, reports: “Got to see: ospreys and nest, eastern kingbirds, egrets, ibises, bats, gators and hear Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River near Troupville 2018-07-21

Got some deadfalls in the Withlacoochee River at Troupville, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT), found once again by intrepid WWALS explorer Aaron Sirmons. Here are some pictures and a Google map.

[Log in tree, 2018:07:14 10:02:25, 30.8495694, -83.3402911]
Log in tree, 2018:07:14 10:02:25, 30.8495694, -83.3402911

Troupville, the old county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, was mostly west of the Withlacoochee River over to the Little River and down to its confluence, although as you can see in this map Troupville Cemetery was to the east of the Withlacoochee River.

[Withlacoochee River at GA 133 in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)]
Withlacoochee River at GA 133 in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)
This is a still image from the interactive Google map.

WWALS did a cleanup recently down to the Confluence, by permissionon private land that is for sale. All about the history of Troupville. You could start at Troupville Boat Ramp and paddle a week downstream on the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, even in June.

[Beavers?, 2018:07:14 10:02:45, 30.8491566, -83.3404211]
Beavers?, 2018:07:14 10:02:45, 30.8491566, -83.3404211

Trash, River
Trash, River

Start of cutoff, Oxbow cutoff
Start of cutoff, Oxbow cutoff

Narrow, Oxbow cutoff
Narrow, Oxbow cutoff

Deer stand, Oxbow cutoff

[Deer stand, 2018:07:14 10:11:39, 30.8472271, -83.3428214]
Deer stand, 2018:07:14 10:11:39, 30.8472271, -83.3428214

Reflections, Oxbow cutoff
Reflections, Oxbow cutoff

Wider, Oxbow cutoff
Wider, Oxbow cutoff

Deadfall ready to block entire river, Oxbow cutoff
Deadfall ready to block entire river, Oxbow cutoff

[Side deadfall, 2018:07:14 10:17:13, 30.8461670, -83.3430003]
Side deadfall, 2018:07:14 10:17:13, 30.8461670, -83.3430003

[End of cutoff, 2018:07:14 10:18:11, 30.8467601, -83.3425382]
End of cutoff, 2018:07:14 10:18:11, 30.8467601, -83.3425382

Trees, Downstream

[Trees, 2018:07:14 10:41:51, 30.8479584, -83.3408428]
Trees, 2018:07:14 10:41:51, 30.8479584, -83.3408428

[Power line, 2018:07:14 10:52:08, 30.8499246, -83.3400640]
Power line, 2018:07:14 10:52:08, 30.8499246, -83.3400640

[Submerged deadfall, 2018:07:14 11:14:34, 30.8519610, -83.3391584]
Submerged deadfall, 2018:07:14 11:14:34, 30.8519610, -83.3391584

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Google Map

Follow this link for the interactive google map, or it’s also embedded below. This map also includes the deadfall upstream from I-75 of Aaron’s other report.

Deadfall, Withlacoochee River, upstream of I-75, 2018-07-21

Update 2018-07-24: Deadfalls and an oxbow cutoff downstream by Troupville, with a map including the deadfall in this post.

Yet another deadfall in the Withlacoochee River, this one just upstream from the I-75 bridge, discovered by intrepid WWALS explorer Aaron Sirmons.

Deadfall middle, Deadfall
Deadfall

Finding out what’s in the rivers is part of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).

More pictures: Continue reading →