Nineteen paddlers in fifteen boats braved the early morning deluge, which quit just in time to start paddling the Alapaha River from Statenville Boat Ramp to Sasser Landing, past many waterfalls, quite a few shoals, one real rapid, and an incoming river too fast to paddle up. Even a couple of unexpected boat ramps, one of them concrete.
![[Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-06--statenville-sasser-pictures/20190706_135002.jpg)
Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667
Around every corner, a waterfall. Continue reading
Last night at Paddle Georgia, #PaddleGA2019, Gwyneth Moody explained Georgia Water Trails, Edwin McCook explained the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail and its River Camps, and Katie Conrad explained the Suwannee Headwaters Project, which is about arranging camping betweent the Okefenokee Swamp and White Springs, in Georgia and Florida. Here are videos of what Edwin and Katie said.
![[Georgia Water Trails --Gwyneth Moody]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-06-17--river-camps/20190617_193738.jpg)
Georgia Water Trails –Gwyneth Moody
Yes, Edwin left copies of the SRWT Pamphlets, which we will have at the Suwannee Riverkeeper table at Camp Suwannee tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday.
See also the WCTV report of that same day, River Camp between the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers? 2019-06-17.
Update 2023-04-19: Videos: US 84 to Mayday, Alapaha River 2016-05-07
Waterfalls on the Alapaha River?
![[Movie: Waterfall (786K), 30.87078, -83.02267]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2016-05-07--us84-to-mayday-alapaha-river/KVID4839.jpg)
Movie: Waterfall (786K), 30.8707800, -83.0226700
Two weeks after the WWALS outing from US 84 to Mayday, some of us who didn’t make that one paddled the same stretch. The earlier crew had smooth sailing. We had rapids and waterfalls, because the Alapaha River was feet lower on the Statenville USGS Gauge. Continue reading
Here is most of a year’s river water quality testing data from the city of Valdosta, on a Water Reporter map:
Click on any of the colored diamonds for graphs. Scroll right to see more graphs. Click on any graph to see every datapoint. Clearly fecal coliform (FCOLI) and E. coli (ECOLI) have significant spikes way beyond the Georgia state limit of 200 cfu/100 ml.
However, as we already saw on the spill followup data map, often, even usually, FCOLI and ECOLI are just as bad or worse upstream Continue reading
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
Update 2019-11-08: Donate through GA Gives, including if you wish for Brochures.
Update 2019-04-26: Price of metal signs at the water at boat ramps and landings.
Update 2018-04-27: Pictures of Lakeland Boat Ramp signs in the ground.
Update 2018-03-15: People want to know how much the signs cost:
Any amount of donation helps put up the road signs that let people know the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT) exists and directs them to the landings, as well as the kiosks that inform people about what to expect nearby, so we get more people paddling the Alapaha River who will take care of the river.
The pair of metal signs at the water also work for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT). Here is an example pair of metal signs at the water for Troupville Boat Ramp:
The
Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT)
is a reality. We are ordering have bought the road signs from
the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) which has planted them on roads leading to landings, and we need to pay for them.
We have a small amount of money from Continue reading
Cold and foggy to warm and bright, a fine spring morning on the Suwannee River from Florida to Georgia. Plus Canadians!
Here are pictures by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman and a Google map.
Ninety-nine pictures are on the WWALS website.
Under the US 441 bridge.
8AM Friday morning WWALS will be on Chris Beckham’s drive-time radio show.
WWALS president John S. Quarterman will be talking about
Saturday morning’s Suwannee River paddle outing
and other outings upcoming on the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers,
along with other developments on the
Alapaha River Water Trail and the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail,
along with
many other things WWALS does.
Plus what you can do about
the FERC rubberstamp of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline
drilling under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.
When: 8:00 7:30AM Friday September 2nd 2016
Where: Continue reading
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.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
See the beautiful blackwater Alapaha River while it’s high,
in the middle of the Alapaha River Water Trail,
from Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County to Mayday in Echols County.
When: 8AM Saturday 23 April 2016
Put in: Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County, 30.93669, -83.0406
Take out: Mayday in Echols County, 30.82827, -83.017179
Distance: 12.7 miles
Duration: about 6 hours
Directions: Continue reading
![[Side by Side]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-25--troupville-metal-signs/side-by-side.jpg)