Tag Archives: Alapahoochee River

Summary of Statenville to Sasser Landing WWALS Outing –Bret Wagenhorst 2015-02-15

Saw: tupelo, cypress, maple, river birch, pine, live oak, titi, mayhaw, native blueberries, palmetto; only maple in bloom. Not much wildlife.

300x225 WWALS At Sasser Landing, in Sasser deanna, by Deanna Mericle, for WWALS.net, 15 February 2015 River: several small streams entered river through breaks in the bank, winding course, couple of bluffs and some exposed karst

Comments: a good level to run this section, saw 2 other canoes with a family of campers, and a fisherman in a john boat skinning a catfish, 2 rope swings, the side trip up the Alapahoochee River to the waterfall just up from the take out was worth the effort.

Pictures: see separate post by Bret Wagenhorst. And pictures by John S. Quarterman.

Ten of us met at 12 noon Sunday afternoon, February 15th 2015, continuing our exploration of the Alapaha River Water Trail, as announced.

The shuttle took Continue reading →

Valdosta spilled into Alapaha as well as Withlacoochee watersheds in February

Spilling sewage into the Withlacoochee River apparently wasn’t enough 300x388 Figure 2.2.5. Sub-basins Areas, in Section 2 Methodology, by City of Valdosta, for WWALS.net, 14 January 2011 for Valdosta: in February it also spilled three times into the Alapaha River watershed. At least once this was due to rains directly on Valdosta, for which the levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help. It’s time for Valdosta to move along with fixing its wastewater problems. More transparency from Valdosta would also help. And I, for one, would like to see that promised Corps flooding study of the entire Suwannee River Basin.

In three different reports in February, Valdosta mentioned sewage overflows into either Knights Creek or Dukes Bay Canal, without mentioning that those flow into Mud Swamp Creek, which joins with Grand Bay Creek to form the Alapahoochee River, which joins the Alapaha River, which flows into the Suwannee River. The Florida Department of Health apparently didn’t know that, since it didn’t mention the Alapaha River in its advisories for counties downstream. But Valdosta should know, according to its own SWMP Update Phase 1 Final Report, Section 2 Methodology, 2011-01-14, that about half of Valdosta is drained by Knights Creek and Dukes Bay Canal: Continue reading →

Statenville to Sasser Landing on the Alapaha River, WWALS Outing, 2015-02-15

Expert Paddle on the Alapaha River Sunday, February,15th 12:00pm. facebook event

Update 2015-03-06: Summary and pictures.

Launch site: Statenville boat ramp on HWY 94 just west of Statenville, GA, 30°42’15.3″N 83°01’57.9″W 30.704260, -83.032750.
Take out:Alapahoochee boat ramp (Sasser Landing) HWY 150 a few miles east of Jennings, FL, 30°36’02.6″N 83°04’23.7″W 30.600710, -83.073260.


Picture by Michael Rivera,
used with permission.

We will meet at launch site at noon, unload boats and shuttle vehicles to the take out (25 miles Round trip), on the water by 1:00.

This event is FREE! All we ask is that Continue reading →

Old Bridge over Alapahoochee River

Nice to look at, but not for driving. Chris Mericle reports:

300x225 River and bridge, in Old Bridge over the Alapahoochee River, by Chris Mericle, for WWALS.net, 3 January 2015 Here are some photos of an old bridge across the Alapahoochee River that Deanna and I came across while out exploring the other day.

Driving or even walking across this bridge probably shouldn’t be recommended. Continue reading →

Bill Gates in Lowndes County in the Alapaha River watershed

300x220 Lake Park, in Cottonwood Ag Management in SW Echols County, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 22 October 2014 The east side of Lake Park and east of Naylor: acreage bought by a shell of a shell of a shell of Bill Gates’ investment company in the past two years.

170.57 acres in Parcel 0224 003 just east of Lake Park, plus another 126 acres in adjoining parcels inside and outside of Lake Park, which is most of the blue acreage on this map, all in the Alapahoochee River watershed, owned by Lakeland Sands according to the Lowndes County Tax Assessors database. Continue reading →

Alapahoochee River @ GA 135/141

We were out towards Jennings Sept. 1st and stopped at the Alapahoochee River @ Hwy 135/141.

-April Huntley

Alapahoochee Watershed Area Map by SGRC

The South Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) produced this interesting map of the Alapahoochee River Watershed 300x225 Title, in Alapahoochee Watershed Area, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 15 July 2014 I saw on the counter while visiting the USDA FSA office in Valdosta about something unrelated. Curiously, it doesn’t show the actual river nor its tributaries Mud Creek and Grand Bay Creek. But it does show that this watershed includes much of Valdosta, half of Dasher, and all of Lake Park. Continue reading →

How Many Trees Does It Take to Protect a Stream?

Stroud Water Center wrote in their Upstream Newsletter, VOL. 2014, ISSUE 1, February 2014,

Scientists Set Buffer Width Minimum Standard.

A strip of forest along a stream channel, also called a riparian forest buffer, has been proposed and used for decades as a best management practice to protect streams by filtering out contaminants from agriculture and other land uses before they can enter them.Their benefits are many, but one benefit has dominated social and political conversations, and that is their role in preventing contaminants from entering streams.

20140317-140845.jpg
Stroud Center Director Bern Sweeney practicing what he preaches at a tree planting event. Photo: David Arscott

A few years ago, Stroud Water Research Center proposed that riparian forest buffers also play another important role by Continue reading →

Alapahoochee River

Proposed for the WWALS January 2014 outing: the river most people know nothing about, from the convergence of Mud Swamp Creek where Grand Bay Creek forms the border between Lowndes County and Echols County in Georgia east of Valdosta, about 14 miles through Echols County between Lake Park and Statenville, to the Alapaha River in Hamilton County, Florida east of Jennings: the Alapahoochee River.

It has a waterfall, limestone caves, and boat ramps, all pictured by South Georgia Kayak Fishing 3 September 2011 in Alapahoochee convergence at Alapaha River – Jennings, FL.

Here’s a brief day paddle description, Florida whitewater, Alapahoochee River Grand Bay Canal), by riverfacts.com:

Echols / Hamilton county, GA SR 135 to FL SR 150 on Alapaha section whitewater kayaking, rafting, and paddling information.

This stretch of Alapahoochee River Grand Bay Canal) in Echols / Hamilton County is 4.5 miles long and is according to American Whitewater a class II section of whitewater.

They include a map.

Continue reading →