Thanks to landowner Byron Herder for inviting us to go see the Alapaha River Rise from his surrounding property after we hiked from the Dead River Sink to the Dry Alapaha River. About half a dozen of us took him up on that, include WWALS Board member Bret Wagenhorst.

The Rise is just upstream of the CR 249 or CR 751 Bridge, aka Nobles Ferry Bridge, which is just upstream of Gibson County Park and the Alapaha River Confluence with the Suwannee River. That’s about eighteen river miles downstream from the Dead River.

Alapaha River Rise Hike. Thanks, Landowner Byron Herder. Where Dead River Sink water Rises, 2025-11-01

As Byron pointed out, the Alapaha River Rise is not just a first magnitude spring, at a daily flow of 383.9 million gallons per day (mgd), it dwarfs all the others in the Suwannee River Basin. (There are five with more flow, on Crystal River and Rainbow River.)

Second most flow in the Suwannee River Basin is Holton Creek Rise at 157 mgd, a bit upstream on the Suwannee River. That’s also the other place dye came back up from the Dead River Sink in the 2016 Alapaha Swallets Dye Trace Project.

Both Rises have more flow than can be accounted for by the Dead River Sink alone, even adding in the other sinks in the Alapaha River slightly upstream of the Dead River. Continue reading →