Tag Archives: ARWT

Updates from Trails Committee Meeting 2018-08-19

Here’s an update on the draft brochures for both WWALS Water Trails, after the recent meeting of the WWALS Water Trails Committee. We could still use more pictures.

Please email pictures to wwalswatershed@gmail.com. Please say who took each picture, when, where, and of what. High resolution, please.

ARWT Mapside, ARWT

If you want to join the WWALS Trails Committee to help continue organizing this work, actually editing the documents shown below, you must be a WWALS member and apply.

What

The Trails Committee is working on brochures for Continue reading →

Alapaha Quest, TBA on Alapaha River, 2018-10-06

Update 2018-10-03: Due to low water in the Alapaha River, this outing is cancelled. Also, this is the same weekend as the Hahira Honeybee Festival, which takes a lot of WWALS resources; please come join us there.

Plus we’re doing a Cleanup at Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River, Saturday, October 13, and the WWALS Boomerang on the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park down to Sugar Creek and back, Saturday, November 3, and a paddle in the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday, December 8, 2018. Plus numerous festivals.

Next year the BIG Little River Paddle Race will be Saturday, April 27, 2019 at Reed Bingham State Park, and Paddle Georgia is starting at Troupville Boat Ramp for five days down the Withlaoochee and Suwannee Rivers in June 2019.

For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Experience the wilderness of the Alapaha River Water Trail as we continue the Alapaha Quest. Location for this outing will be determined dependent on water levels.

When: 8 AM, Saturday, October 6, 2018

Put In: To be announced (TBA).

Take Out: TBA

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.

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!

Event: facebook, meetup

Movie: Birds singing (3.4M),
Birds were singing, 2017-02-11.

Continue reading →

Brochures: Trails Committee Meeting 2018-08-19

After only four years, we’re almost finished with both WWALS Water Trails! You can help get them done.

The new Chair of the WWALS Trails Committee, Dan Phillips, has called a meeting to work on one of the final steps: designing printed brochures. Anyone can attend, and anyone can send in pictures or suggestions.

Please email pictures to wwalswatershed@gmail.com. Please say who took each picture, when, where, and of what. High resolution, please.

When: 2:30-5PM, Sunday, 19 August 2018

Where: Community Hall 2,
South Georgia Regional Library,
2906 Julia Dr, Valdosta, GA 31602

By phone: Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676

Event: facebook, meetup

WLRWT Mapside, WLRWT

If you want to join the WWALS Trails Committee to help continue organizing this work, actually editing the documents shown below, you must be Continue reading →

Alapaha Quest, Rowetown to Willacoochee, Alapaha River, 2018-08-11

Bring a rope in case we need to drag the boats across deadfalls, and expect low-hanging branches, as we experience the wilderness from Rowetown Church Landing to Willacoochee Landing, on the Alapaha River Water Trail, continuing Alapaha Quest.

When: 8 AM, Saturday, August 11, 2018

Put In: Rowetown Church Landing, 1291 Rowetown Church Road, Alapaha, GA 31622, River bank on private road back of cemetery, we have permission.

Take Out: Willacoochee Landing, GA 135, Atkinson County side, 2.8 miles south of Willacoochee, GA, Atkinson County.

Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit, and don’t forget the rope. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

600x450 Movie: Under branches (1.0M), in Alapaha deadfalls, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 17 January 2015
Movie: Under branches (1.0M), in Alapaha deadfalls, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 17 January 2015.

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!

Event: Continue reading →

Banks Lake Sunset Paddle 2018-07-27

Venus gleamed through the fires of sunset as the full moon and Mars hid behind clouds.

Sunset, On the water

The sound of frogs brought out swoops of bats, as a dozen or two paddlers braved the placid flat waters of Banks Lake Friday evening in the least strenuous yet one of the most enjoyable of all WWALS outings. As one new participant remarked, it’s one thing to see it from the road, but out on the water the size, the lucidity, and the sunset are startling while calming.

Bret Wagenhorst, who brought a crew of new people from Tifton and paddled out with them first, reports: “Got to see: ospreys and nest, eastern kingbirds, egrets, ibises, bats, gators and hear Continue reading →

Cleanup at Sheboggy plus upstream paddle Alapaha River 2018-09-09

The traditional annual WWALS Sheboggy Georgia Adopt-A-Stream cleanup at Sheboggy, plus an upstream paddle, from this most upstream of the access points on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). Oh, and we still want those Sheboggy road signs back.

When: 1 PM, Sunday, September 9, 2018

Put In: Sheboggy Boat Ramp, 11004 US Highway 82, Alapaha, GA 31622, a few miles east of Alapaha, Georgia, in Berrien County.

GPS: 31.386279, -83.191609

Take Out: Sheboggy Boat Ramp

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.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members for the paddle (the cleanup is free to everyone). We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

Sign, Last Seen
Sheboggy road signs last seen, April 27, 2018. Photo: Jack Hickox; we still want them back.

Continue reading →

Videos: Songwriting Contest on Scott James Radio 2018-06-22

Come hear good music this afternoon, new songs about the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and other rivers, said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman on the radio yesterday morning with Scott James. The M.C. for today’s finals of the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman, explained the raffles (kayak, swag, and silent auction), and we mentioned the buffet and cash bar at the at the Salty Snapper, 1405 Gornto Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602.

You can even paddle 9AM this morning down the Withlacoochee River into Valdosta to get to the Salty Snapper.

Scott James Talk 92.1 drive-time radio show

We listed the finalists in the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, and described the format: speeches (especially by Will Eason of the Salty Snapper), finalists play new songs about the rivers, judges score on music, lyrics, history, etc., and finally the results of the raffles, and the prizes. We showed off the First Prize plaque, just handed to us by WWALS Board Member Phil Hubbard, who made it.

Here’s a LAKE WWALS video playlist:


Videos: Songwriting Contest on Scott James Radio 2018-06-22
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS),

Once festival season is over today, we noted we’ll get on with the programs WWALS fundraising pays for. Such as water quality testing: Continue reading →

Alapaha Quest TBA, Alapaha River, 2018-08-11

Locations announced! Follow this link.

Experience the wilderness via the Alapaha River Water Trail as we continue the Alapaha Quest. Due to river level variations, the location will be determined as we get closer to the date. Could be anything from rapids to flood to a dry river hike, depending on rainfall.

Skinny-plot Skinny levels, USGS Gauges Irwinville, Alapaha, Statenville

When: 8 AM, Saturday, August 11, 2018

Put In: To Be Announced (TBA)

Take Out: TBA

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.

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!

Event: facebook, meetup

Landings, ARWT
Alapaha River Water Trail

Continue reading →

Naylor Boat Ramp 2018-05-16

The actual boat ramp hasn’t been built yet. Lowndes County Engineering says they’re waiting for the Alapaha River level to go down again.

Location, 2018:05:16 11:14:55,, Boat Ramp Entrance

Right now it’s a straight drop.

Straight to the drop, 2018:05:16 11:20:49,, Boat Ramp Entrance 30.9257700, -83.0394900
Straight to the drop, 2018:05:16 11:20:49,, Boat Ramp Entrance 30.9257700, -83.0394900

Once the county finishes this project, they will hand over to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority (VLPRA), which has said it will probably build a kiosk there. Lowndes County Public Works will make and plant road signs on US 84 pointing at the Naylor Boat Ramp. Then it will be good to go on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). You can still help to pay for the rest of the ARWT road signs.

Meanwhile, you can drive or walk in to see Continue reading →

Jennings Bluff Spring 2018-05-14

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.

Pipe, Spring

Pipe, Spring

Continue reading →