Tag Archives: Alapaha River

Suwannee River Outing tomorrow, plus Withlacoochee and Alapaha coming up

Don’t forget, 8AM tomorrow August 13th 2016, its a WWALS paddle outing from Roline to Cypress Creek on the iconic Suwannee River.

The water level is looking good.

Follow this link for directions, facebook event, meetup, etc.

If you can’t paddle tomorrow, WWALS holds monthly paddle outings, with the occasional on-land cleanup like next month:

4PM Saturday September 10th 2016, Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch (GA 168)
10AM Sunday October 9th 2016, State line to Sullivan Launch, Withlacoochee River

For more outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar.

-jsq

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

Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch, Alapaha River 2016-09-10

No boat needed! This Rivers-Alive Cleanup is on land, at GA 168, the launch for Berrien Beach on the Alapaha River. Bring gloves. Trash bags will be supplied.

When: 4PM Saturday September 10th 2016

Where: Berrien Beach Launch, at GA 168, 31.159076, -83.045554

Directions: 12.9 miles east of Nashville, GA on GA 168; launch access road is on left (north) side of highway west of the river.

Duration: about 1.5 hours.

Events: facebook, meetup.

Responsible party: Bret Wagenhorst

This outing is Free! But we encourage you to join WWALS today Continue reading →

Where to look for dye from Alapaha Dye test

Update 2023-05-01: Alapaha Swallets Dye Trace Project 2016-10-01.

Tom Greenhalgh started putting the dye in the Dead River Swallet about 11:06 this morning, with Harley Means observing in this picture, plus a drone also taking pictures. See below for where to look for the dye coming back up in the next few days. If you see it, please take a water sample for SRWMD. Continue reading →

Dye test in Dead River Sink on Alapaha River

Update 2016-06-22: Dye test into the Dead River Sink: it came back up several days later and eighteen river miles south, in the Alapaha River Rise and Holton Bluff Spring, both on the Suwannee River.

The Alapaha River disappears underground in dry seasons, and nobody has ever known where it comes back up. Soon, we will know.

Green Publishing, 16 June 2016, Dye test held for river basins,

The Florida Geological Survey will be conducing a dye test for the Suwannee River Water Management District in the Upper Suwannee/Alapaha River basins later this month. They will introduce dye into the Dead River Swallet (swallets are sinkholes that capture flow) and a swallet that is located on privately owned land. They will also have sampling devices setup at Continue reading →

Valdosta force main and new WWTP are online and working

The recent rains caused little wastewater overflow, according to Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll, who forwarded cryptic Valdosta press release yesterday and then explained on the telephone what it meant: the two biggest pieces of Valdosta’s wastewater and sewer fixes are operational already.

The press release referred to “the new force main” as if it were already in operation, yet nothing on Valdosta’s website says it is. So I called Tim Carroll and he confirmed that yes, the force main is online. Not only that, but 5 million gallons less water than usual for such rains entered the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

Wait, does that mean the new, uphill, out-of-the-floodplain WWTP is also online? Yes, confirmed Carroll. And the less inflow was due to less INI.

What’s INI, I asked, ignorantly? Continue reading →

We have a right to expect waterways and groundwater to be clean –Dennis J. Price

Another letter against Sabal Trail and for the rivers and the aquifer in the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th 2016.

In response to Jason Bashaw’s, Chairman of the Suwannee County Commission, article in the Suwannee Valley Times, I have this to say. Why is it that if people are concerned about the environment they live in, they are automatically placed into this environmental left category? Like many, many people in our surrounding counties, I hunt, fish, hike and paddle our local rivers. I use the environment as do we all.

So, for working and paying taxes all my life — as a Vietnam Veteran, as a person who chose to live in this rural part of Florida and raise his kid, as a person who is not now nor ever will be wealthy — I count our public lands, our woods and rivers as a reward for doing the right thing. I do not mind my tax dollars going towards public lands. Mr. Bashaw uses the environmental left in a derogatory manner as a means of denigrating them, and he is including me in it and I resent it. I resent it for my friend’s in WWALS and others who show concern for the pipeline route. I have not met an environmental lefty among them.

WWALS is, Continue reading →

Drowning at Pafford’s Landing on the Alapaha River 2016-05-07

One version of the Saturday drowning on the Alapaha River near Lakeland is being carried all over the country, from Richmond to Texas, and there is another version.

Terry Richards, valdosta Daily Times, 9 May 2016, UPDATE: Father dies saving Lanier child from drowning,

A small child wandered away from a group of adults and into the Alapaha River at Pafford’s Landing, he said. When the father noticed what had happened he jumped in, swam to his daughter who was struggling to keep her head above water and held her up until someone took her from him, Norton said. The father never resurfaced.

Pafford’s Landing is at Continue reading →

Alapaha River Boat Ramp

These are the maps Lowndes County Engineer Mike Fletcher presented at the Naylor Town Hall 2016-04-14. Bret Huntley asked him to send them, and he did.

These have more detail than Continue reading →

Map of American Rivers by Nelson Minar

Here’s a map of all rivers in the U.S. by Nelson Minar. It actually covers the lower 48 states and is pretty impressive at that scale. Plus you can zoom in.

Gulf and south Atlantic

Here you can see rivers running to the Gulf start all the way up Continue reading →

A wonderful Paddle on the Alapaha 2016-04-23

HWY 84 to Mayday.

What a great day for a paddle! The current was moving us along nicely, about 12 miles in just under 4 hours. It is a very beautiful stretch of river, very wild, many birds could be heard in the forest canopy.

cjm

This was the Hotchkiss Road to Mayday Outing.

More from Chris’s details in the Outings spreadsheet:

Hotchkiss road was washed out, put in at Naylor park property. Cut about .5 mile off of the trip.
Water level 85 on the Statenville gage. Was in the banks and moving quick. Would not recommend paddling at levels much higher than this.
Features: canopy over much of the river.
Flora: Tupelo, birch, oaks, pine, wild azalea. No invasive species seen.
Fauna: wood ducks, great egrets, kingfisher, heard- barred owls, hooded warblers, and many other birds.
Assessment: Very nice paddle. Very beautiful stretch of river

And a bit more from Chris:

Water level was high, much higher would not be recommended. Looking at the water level in comparison with the Safe Water Level criteria, Item 3 stood out. It became very apparent why it is important that you should be able to paddle against the current for a short distance. One of our paddlers needed a rescue and the only way to reach her was to paddle upstream.