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.
If returned, no questions asked.
Don’t wait for the Sheriff to find them.
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.
Born, April 25, 2018.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival WWALS is holding 7PM Thursday, May 31, 2018 at Mathis Auditorium in Valdosta, GA is about:
Celebrating fifty years of Wild and Scenic River designations by Congress, this film festival showcases frontline issues and activism with stunning cinematography. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that individuals propel the groundswell of the environmental movement. Collectively, we CAN make a difference!
There aren’t any Wild & Scenic rivers in the Suwannee River Basin, although maybe after seeing this film festival, people will be motivated to fix that.
We have river gems unknown even to most of the people who live here: the Alapaha, the Little, the Withlacoochee, and the Suwannee River.
Some Atlantans paddled the Alapaha River Water Trail last month, and confirmed its A+ rating for scenery. Even portaging around a deadfall didn’t dampen their spirits.
Consensus: we love the Alapaha!
Photo: Robert Marshall of
First Camp: a beach on a point
When retired outfitter Continue reading
Paddle scenic Banks Lake on a Friday night as the setting sun enhances its beauty and the full moon sheds a bit of light on its night time mysteries.
When: 7 PM, Friday, July 27, 2018
Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County.
GPS: 31.03492, -83.09619
Take Out: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, which is on the Alapaha River Water Trail.
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. And for this moonlight paddle: a light.
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!
Full moon cypress, Banks Lake, 2017-07-08
Looks like plenty of water at Pafford’s Landing to do another leg of the 2018 Alapaha Quest.
The Statenville Gauge showed Continue reading
WWALS would like to thank the Berrien County Board of Commissioners and staff for years of cooperation about the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT) and the many landings on it in Berrien County, as well as the one landing in Berrien County on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
Here is a letter from September 2016 granting WWALS permission to put signs on county property at all the water trail landings it names, and a Commission vote to change two access points from having Landing in their name to be called instead Sheboggy Boat Ramp and Berrien Beach Boat Ramp.
Thanks to Continue reading
Thanks, GDOT, for planting the ARWT road signs!
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.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Troupville cleanup, Interview
Hi, Helen, Interview
Tires and a boat, Interview
Metal signs, Interview
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, Interview
BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham SP, 2018-04-28, Interview
Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Cedar Key, 2018-06-23, Interview
Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Valdosta, 2018-05-31, Interview
Newsletter: Tannin Times, Interview
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