The rainiest season in south Georgia and north Florida is the summer,
yet that’s when rivers are usually the lowest.
Here are seven years of data from the USGS Withlacoochee River Gauge at US 41 (North Valdosta Road) in Valdosta, Georgia.
Rain is pretty steady through the year (except when there’s no rain),
yet the river level varies wildly, highest in the winter, usually.
Unless there are hurricanes in the fall, as happened in
2017
and
2016.
WWALS member Elizabeth Reynolds recently discovered one of our favorite spots,
Jennings Bluff Spring,
below Jennings Bluff Cemetery on the Alapaha River Water Trail.
We’ve been there on several Dead River Sink hikes, and she also
went back and this time sent some pictures,
posted below with permission.
You don’t have to steal them:
WWALS will sell you a similar smaller metal sign.
Those will be $20 each, available by the end of May 2018, and we’ll have an online order form.
Hahira, GA, April 29, 2018 —
With the first-ever winner from Florida and a new record time,
the next two categories one each from Tift and Lowndes Counties, Georgia,
and a record number paddlers from 4 to 67 years old,
the
BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park Saturday
was a fun time and a successful fundraiser for
Friends of Reed Bingham State Park (FORB) and WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).
Lloyd Reeves drove three hours from Crescent City, Florida,
with a very fast kayak, to become the first-ever Florida winner,
and he proved himself a winner in another way with the prize.
In addition to the First Prize trophy, winner Reeves got
a hundred dollar bill from race organizer Bret Wagenhorst of WWALS.
and a matching hundred dollar bill from Dianne Walters of FORB.
Reeves then Continue reading →
Here are the signs for Lakeland Boat Ramp on GA 122
for the Alapaha River Water Trail,
put in the ground by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)
the other day, along with signs for eight other landings.
You can help pay for these signs.
Randy Patten used to say he’d never seen an alligator on the Alapaha River
in Lanier County, but he just saw a log with eyes and a tail.
He also changed his mind about something else:
I have been against the publication and the making public of our river
for people kayaking it, due to the fact that we couldn’t get people
out of the river if they got in trouble.
Well, after a couple of years of planning with the assistance of the
county commissioners, and volunteer firefighters, and everybody that would
assist, we now have signs, 24 actually, up and down the river,
from Atkinson County to Echols County.
So every few miles you’ll see a sign with a phone number.
And later on, when I get close to one I’ll go live again and show you
what they look like.
But it makes it a lot nicer to know that if we have people looking at its beauty,
which should never be kept a secret, but if something does happen,
we have the ability to come get you. Continue reading →
This morning I was on
The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols on 105.9 FM WVGA, Valdosta, Georgia,
which Steve says reaches 100,000 people.
We talked about
all the things we said we would: Troupville cleanup, water trails, paddle race, film festival,
songwriting contest, outings, and more.
Here’s
the video extracted from WVGA’s facebook live.
Suwannee Riverkeeper on Steve Nichols Drive-time Radio 2018-04-24
Video by Black Crow Media for WVGA 105.9 FM, Valdosta, GA
I don’t know why the video is mirror-flipped, but below are a few stills right-way around.
If you want to see the whole morning’s video, it’s
on the show’s website.
This interview runs about -23:40 to -1:20.
Received April 21, 2018. I’ve added some links. -jsq
Seven of us drove down from north Georgia to the Alapaha for a long
weekend paddling trip starting April 12. I had long thought of
making this trip, especially because the
Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to Georgia
rated it as one of the state’s most scenic rivers,
“A+.”
We chose the upper stretches, between Willacoochee
and Lakeland. One of our group arranged, through extended family, to
“camp” the night before putting in, at a house in Lax,
just a few miles from
the GA-135 bridge where we we started out the
next day.
We launched with four boats, three canoes and a kayak, and
found the river every bit as scenic as the guide described. We
enjoyed the forests of cypress, tupelo, pine, oaks, maples, birch
and willow. And the wildlife was equally magnificent: ibis, geese,
egrets, herons, buzzards, woodpeckers, beavers (evident through
their marks on the trees), and deer and raccoon tracks on the
beaches.
First Camp: a beach on a point
The paddling was nice and easy, making about 3 mph without breaking
a sweat. We had a few tight spots, including Continue reading →
