Sullivan Slough is the real name of what we’ve been calling
Chervil Drive Distributary, and Blue Sink is what local people call Chervil Drive Sinkhole.
Traditionally, this has been a popular local swimming spot.
However, the land containing the sink sold recently, so status is unclear now.
We do have an offer from somebody with land nearby to tour the area.
Another Withlacoochee River distributary to a sinkhole!
This one revealed by WWALS member and archaeologist Tom Baird.
I’m calling it Chervil Drive Distributary
because we don’t know any more traditional or official name for it.
It’s downstream from the Chitty Bend East Distributary and on the other side of the river.
Another interesting feature is further down river on the right bank
about a mile above Madison Blue Springs. At flood, water pours
through a gap in the limestone bank and floods a large channel that
goes back to a deep sink. The weight of water in the past broke
through the ceiling of a cavern and created a beautiful, clear,
good-sized swimming hole. It was evidently a popular swimming and
picnic spot in the past. Don’t know the correct name of the feature;
my wife and I call it “Thanksgiving Spring”, because we
found it while hiking around one Thanksgiving Day. However, it’s not
a spring (no water comes from it), but an opening to the water
table. Nice and cool on a hot day. J
Saturday is rain all day and cold,
so we’re going for 2PM this Sunday, November 7, 2021,
when it should be 60 degrees with zero percent chance of rain.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year.
We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is:
there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
This is a hike: no boat is needed.
(Also, SRWMD has made a road right to the Sink, if you don’t want to hike.)
Also, time permitting, on the way out we will park at Jennings Bluff Cemetery
and look at the nearby Jennings Bluff Spring.
When:
Gather 2:00 PM, launch 2:15 PM, end 5:15 PM, Sunday, November 7, 2021
Put In:
Jennings Bluff Launch.
From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope,
rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year.
We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is:
there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
When:
Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, November 6, 2021
Put In:
Jennings Bluff Launch.
From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
Bring: drinking water, snacks, 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.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
Update 2021-08-11:
New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope, rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.
The Alapaha River is still too high to see the geological marvels
that Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price wants to show us.
So we’re rescheduling again, this time to October.
The first available date is Saturday, October 2, 2021,
but please check back, because there’s no way of knowing
what the water levels or the hurricane situation will be in October.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year.
We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is:
there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
When:
Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, October 2 [TBD], 2021
Put In:
Jennings Bluff Launch.
From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
Bring: drinking water, snacks, 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.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
Our most recent songwriter wrote his song yesterday and sent it in.
Come on, songwriters, make the competition fierce for that $300 cash First Prize,
with $300 equivalent in studio time!
And for the $50 prize for best song from within the Suwannee River Basin,
and $50 for best song from without.
And for the plaques for best in each song genre.
Everybody else, tickets will be on sale soon, to listen to our two headliners, Scott Perkins and his band Little Perks in Paradise from Atlanta, and Valdosta’s own Dirty Bird and the Flu. Each of the three judges will also play, even before we get to the finalists and the judging.
With food by Hibachi Hwy and drinks by The Pour House.
Scott Perkins singing Hoochie Coochie for the Withlacoochee, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting 2020
Videos by Phillip Plumlee and John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS),
Turner Center Art Park, Valdosta, Georgia, August 22, 2020.
Rescheduled, to this new date of the last Saturday in July!
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year.
We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is:
there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
When:
Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, July 10, 2021
Put In:
Jennings Bluff Launch.
From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
Bring: drinking water, snacks, 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.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year.
We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is:
there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
When:
Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, July 10, 2021
Put In:
Jennings Bluff Launch.
From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
Bring: drinking water, snacks, 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.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
Lowndes County, Georgia, already has much river, lake, and swamp access.
More people need to know about that.
Plus there is substantial room for improvement, in access
and in water quality, health, and safety.
To: David Barth
Barth Associates
david@barthassoc.com
Cc: George Page, Executive Director
Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Rec. Authority
gpage@vlpra.com
Re: WWALS vision for Lowndes County waterways
Dear Dr. Barth and Director Page,
Thank you for the invitation to provide suggestions for resource protection and recreational access for the Rivers and other waterways of Lowndes County, including access, water quality, land acquisition, etc.
Please see below a list of such suggested improvements.
For the rivers and the aquifer,
John S. Quarterman
Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
/s
WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
First, remember the fourth Within These WWALS contest is still in progress, and you can answer here by midnight May 2, 2020:
https://forms.gle/SSPeLzniUxgQbqFL9
Meanwhile, the winner of the first contest, which ended April 11, 2020, is….
![[Blue Sink and Sullivan Slough]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-01-18--sullivan-slough/many.jpg)
![[Chervil Distributary, Withlacoochee River, Madison County, FL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-01-13--chervil-distributary/chervil-distributary.jpg)
![[Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-10--hike-dead-river-sink/many.jpg)
![[Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-01-27--hike-dead-river-sink/20180127_114218.jpg)
![[Letter, Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-12-02--wwals-to-vlpra-master-plan/many.jpg)
