Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Pictures: Troupville upstream Withlacoochee chainsaw cleanup 2025-02-08

Update 2025-04-01: Clean Franks Creek 2025-02-26 and Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-02-27.

Yesterday from Troupville Boat Ramp around the Little River Confluence and up the Withlacoochee River, we were stopped by the same CiHiG Deadfall that stopped us back on November 23, 2024.

[Troupville upstream Withlacoochee River chainsaw cleanup, Saturday, February 8, 2025]
Troupville upstream Withlacoochee River chainsaw cleanup, Saturday, February 8, 2025

The lower log was partly exposed yesterday, but not enough to get two cuts out of it.

The water level was 119.88 feet NAVD88 on the Valdosdta Gauge.

We also went up the Little River a few miles and back. More on that later.

Meanwhile, today you can join us for Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09.

Yesterday, TJ Johnson, leading this expedition, got one good cut in with wedges to keep it from jamming the saw. Continue reading →

Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09

Update 2025-02-12: Pictures: Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09.

Kayaks and canoes and jon boats are invited to join the WWALS jon boat with 9.9hp outboard seeking deadfalls to chainsaw and trash to collect.

We will go downstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp as far as we can get, and then back up. We’ll be lucky if we get as far as Sugar Creek.

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for leading this one.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 2 PM, Sunday, February 9, 2025

Put In: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602, in Lowndes County.

GPS: 30.88747, -83.32395

[Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup, Sunday, February 9, 2025]
Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup, Sunday, February 9, 2025

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Cancelled: Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River upstream from Troupville 2025-02-15

Update 2025-04-01: Try again: Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River upstream from Troupville 2025-03-04.

Update 2025-02-14: Outing cancelled due to high water and Sugar Creek contamination. Join us instead for Withlacoochee River Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-23.
https://wwals.net/?p=66972

Join us between the Little River Confluence and Sugar Creek on the Withlacoochee River seeking deadfalls to chainsaw and trash to collect.

Thanks to TJ Johnson for coming up from Live Oak, Florida, to lead this one.

If we’re lucky and we’ve finished this stretch in previous chainsaw cleanups, we’ll switch to Langdale Park downstream.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 2 PM, Saturday, February 15, 2025

Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602. I-75 exit 18, west on GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) away from the Valdosta Mall, at the traffic light for Val Tech Road, turn left down to the boat ramp, in Lowndes County.

GPS: 30.851842, -83.346536

[Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, upstream from Troupville, Saturday, February 15, 2025]
Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, upstream from Troupville, Saturday, February 15, 2025

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Clean New Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers; Sugar Creek finally OK 2025-01-29

Update 2025-02-08: Withlacoochee River and New River clean, Sugar Creek Dirty 2025-02-06.

Finally! Valdosta Utilities got OK water quality results for Sugar Creek at Gornto Road, for the first time since the November 6-7, 2024, flash flood. Apparently the bypass is working.

WWALS got OK results for the New Little River south of Tifton and the Alapaha River at US 82, GA 122, and US 84.

Valdosta Utilities got OK results for the Withlacoochee River at US 41, good at GA 133, and OK at US 84.

However, Valdosta Utilities got too-high results at Knights Creek at Inner Perimeter Road. I wonder if there is a Sewage Spill warning sign there?

No new sewage spills have been reported in the last week in Georgia or Florida.

No rain is predicted for the next nine days, with balmy weather this weekend.

So happy fishing, swimming, paddling, and boating this weekend!

Or join us next weekend for a chainsaw cleanup on Saturday, January 8.
https://wwals.net/?p=66873

Or another one on Sunday, January 9.
https://wwals.net/?p=66892

[Clean New, Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers 2025-01-30, Sugar Creek finally OK 2025-01-28]
Clean New, Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers 2025-01-30, Sugar Creek finally OK 2025-01-28

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Withlacoochee River upstream from Troupville Chainsaw Cleanup, 2025-02-09

Update 2025-02-09: Rerouted to Langdale Park Downstream Withlacoochee Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09.

Join us between the Little River Confluence and GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River seeking deadfalls to chainsaw and trash to collect.

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for leading this one.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 2 PM, Sunday, February 9, 2025

Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602. I-75 exit 18, west on GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) away from the Valdosta Mall, at the traffic light for Val Tech Road, turn left down to the boat ramp, in Lowndes County.

[Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09, upstream from Troupville, Thanks Phil Hubbard]
Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-09, upstream from Troupville, Thanks Phil Hubbard

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Withlacoochee River upstream from Troupville Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-08

Update 2025-02-08: Pictures: Troupville upstream Withlacoochee chainsaw cleanup 2025-02-08.

Join us between the Little River Confluence and GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River seeking deadfalls to chainsaw and trash to collect.

You can collect trash, take pictures, or just paddle along.

If you do have a chainsaw and know how to use it, bring it along. Or a sawzall or a handsaw: especially good for underwater small limbs.

We will be using the WWALS jon boat with 9.9hp outboard, bought with a generous grant from Wild Green Future.

Kayaks and canoes are welcome. You can also participate by walking along the riverbank. If you have a jon boat and outboard, you can bring that.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 2 PM, Saturday, February 8, 2025

Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602. I-75 exit 18, west on GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) away from the Valdosta Mall, at the traffic light for Val Tech Road, turn left down to the boat ramp, in Lowndes County.

GPS: 30.851842, -83.346536

[Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-08, Troupville Boat Ramp, You do not have to saw]
Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup 2025-02-08, Troupville Boat Ramp, You do not have to saw

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Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-01-17; Clean Withlacoochee River and Franks Creek 2025-01-19; Clean New River 2025-01-20

Update 2025-01-26: Cleaner but still dirty Sugar Creek 2025-01-24.

Due to the ice storm, nobody sampled this week since Monday: not WWALS and not Valdosta.

So here is what data we do have from Friday about Sugar Creek (filthy), Sunday about Franks Creek and the Withlacoochee River (good), and Monday about the New River in Tifton (good).

Valdosta Utilities drew samples today from Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, and their results should be up tomorrow on their 2025 Sugar Creek Spill Testing web page. More about Sugar Creek below.

Most of the river gauges we follow couldn’t handle the sleet, snow, or rain Wednesday, so we don’t know how much preciptation fell. From the few that did register, probably up to an inch or more.

Which means more contamination probably washed into the waterways.

Since the weather prediction is freezing at night and cold during the day this weekend, I wouldn’t be paddling. If you must go out in a power boat while the rivers are up a bit, best not to get the water on you.

Or join us tomorrow for an on-land cleanup on One Mile Branch at Wainwright Driver in Valdosta, on the Azalea City Trail.
https://wwals.net/?p=66659

[Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-01-17, Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-01-19, Clean Franks Creek 2025-01-19, Clean New River 2025-01-20]
Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-01-17, Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-01-19, Clean Franks Creek 2025-01-19, Clean New River 2025-01-20

Sugar Creek

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Little River upstream 2014-06-28

Thanks to Chris Graham for leading this one, and to Edwin Brunot for the pictures.

[Little River Upstream 2014-06-28, Troupville Boat Ramp, GA 133]
Little River Upstream 2014-06-28, Troupville Boat Ramp, GA 133

We got maybe a mile and a half upstream from Troupville Boat Ramp, on GA 133, St. Augustine Road, west of I-75 Exit 18, at Val Tech Road.

We saw shoals, an island, high banks, narrow, and wide, sandy bottom, and of course the prison, just upstream from Troup Bridge.

Troupville Boat Ramp was then known as Little River Boat Ramp, before we got Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) to rename it.

It is still often known as the Prison Boat Ramp, due to Valdosta State Prison just upstream. Continue reading →

Pictures: WWALS at Hahira Pride 2024-06-01

Thanks to Rindy and Jo for organizing the WWALS booth at South Georgia Pride, art of Music and Art on Main, in Hahira, Georgia.

[WWALS Booth, Pride Festival, Hahira, Georgia, June 1, 2024]
WWALS Booth, Pride Festival, Hahira, Georgia, June 1, 2024

Thanks to Margaret Stewart for helping.

This is on the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail. Hahira is about in the middle between Folsom Bridge on the Little River to the west and Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River to the east, around 8 miles either way.

For more WWALS outings and events, see:
https://wwals.net/outings Continue reading →

Alapaha River clean, Sugar Creek worse 2025-01-16

Update 2025-01-24: Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-01-17; Clean Withlacoochee River and Franks Creek 2025-01-19; Clean New River 2025-01-20.

Thursday WWALS water quality samples showed the Alapaha River clean at Lakeland and Naylor.

But Valdosta Thursday samples showed Sugar Creek worse again at Gornto Road.

As noted yesterday, the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers also seem clean, although I’d avoid the Withlacoochee near Sugar Creek, and Sugar Creek itself.

We hear there is a Sugar Creek bypass, but that creek is still filthy from the sewer line break upstream of Gornto Road on down to the Withlacoochee River.

If you like rain (Saturday) or cold (Sunday), this weekend may be good to paddle, motor, swim, or fish, elsewhere, such as the Little, Alapaha, Santa Fe, Ichetucknee, or Suwannee Rivers.

[Alapaha River clean, Sugar Creek worse 2025-01-16, Rain coming Saturday, Cold all next week]
Alapaha River clean, Sugar Creek worse 2025-01-16, Rain coming Saturday, Cold all next week

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner for Thursday got zero (0) E. coli at Lakeland Boat Ramp. Can’t get cleaner than that. Continue reading →