In eight minutes she talked about the BIG Little River Paddle Race, the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, on the air with Charlie Walker, KIX 99.5 Country Radio, plus Paddle Georgia, and all the other events and outings.
“That’s our signature event,” said WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman, about the Seventh Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race.
It’s our seventh year. It’s at Reed Bingham [State Park]. We paddle from Continue reading
Update 2019-06-08: Reroute due to lack of rain.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, February 13, 2019 — From next to the largest Suwannee River Basin city, Valdosta, to between some of the smallest, Mayo and Luraville, Paddle Georgia brings 300 people this summer to venture for the first time across the state line from Georgia to Florida, on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers, June 15 through 21, 2019.
WWALS Withlacoochee River outing 2017-06-24
“Five years ago I suggested our Withlacoochee River to Joe Cook for Paddle Georgia, and he went one better, adding the Suwannee River, past two of the few second-magnitude springs in Georgia, McIntyre and Arnold, and two of the famous first-magnitude Florida Springs: Madison Blue and Lafayette,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. “Plus Spook Bridge and the orphaned railroad trestle near Madison, with many shoals and rapids at the GA-FL line! Special thanks to The Langdale Company for permission to take out just below Spook Bridge. Personally, I like that this paddle starts at my birthplace in Valdosta, Georgia and ends at my grandmother’s birthplace at the ferry site for Luraville, Florida.”
This event is organized by Paddle Georgia, with catered dinners and buses to and from the rivers. WWALS is assisting, for example by organizing the Spook Bridge takeout, and by pointing out many sites that non-locals might miss, ranging from springs, and Withlacoochee River agates, and the halberd-leaf rosemallow, whose blooms last only one day, to perpetual bothers such as Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Continue reading
It rained, and the river rose a bit, so we will paddle Sunday morning instead, unless it rains again or rises too much. Still on the Little River from Troupville Boat Ramp, then the Withlacoochee River to Spook Bridge. That’s right, Spook Bridge, thanks to The Langdale Company, which has arranged for us to take out just below the bridge.
River swirling by access 30.7898100, -83.4517500
This is not public access. Langdale is making it available to WWALS for this February outing and for Paddle Georgia in June 2019. This takeout, while still up a steep riverbank, is much easier than climbing up those loose highway abutment rocks between the US 84 highway bridges. So I hope everyone will thank The Langdale Company.
See previous post for outing details. Continue reading
Update 2019-02-02: Delayed a day until Sunday morning.
Water levels look good, so unless it rains, looks like Saturday morning we will paddle Little River from Troupville Boat Ramp, then the Withlacoochee River to Spook Bridge. We will probably encounter deadfalls and shoals, so bring a rope and be prepared.
That’s right, Spook Bridge, thanks to The Langdale Company, which has arranged for us to take out just below the bridge.
![[Access and river, 14:47:36, 30.78981, -83.45175]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-01-14--blue-springs-road-spook-bridge/20190114_144737.jpg)
Access and river, 14:47:36, 30.7898100, -83.4517500
This is not public access. Langdale is making it available to WWALS for this February outing and for Paddle Georgia in June 2019. This takeout, while still up a steep riverbank, is much easier than climbing up those loose highway abutment rocks between the US 84 highway bridges. So I hope everyone will thank The Langdale Company.
See previous post for outing details. Continue reading
Update 2019-02-02: Delayed a day until Sunday morning.
Update 2019-01-31: We’re paddling unless it rains or the river rises, and thanks to The Langdale Company for a better takeout.
A long and rarely-paddled stretch with a confluence, some creeks, some wastewater treatment plants we won’t see and we hope we don’t smell, some shoals, and a challenging takeout. Bonus old bridge if we want to paddle down a bit farther and back.
When: Gather 9:30 AM, launch 10:30 AM, Saturday, February 2, 2019
Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602. On GA 133 off I-75 exit 18. The entrance off GA 133 is directly across from Val Tech Road.
Take Out: Just downstream from Spook Bridge on the Lowndes County riverbank, thanks to The Langdale Company.
US 84 Landing, 5092 US 84 W, Valdosta, GA 31601.
Between the twin highway bridges on the Lowndes County side. Problematical access from busy highway right of way. Also known as Quitman Landing.
Bring: a rope, in case we need to drag boats over shoals. Clippers for deadfall branches would also be useful. Plus 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!
Photo: John S. Quarterman, of
US 84 bridge downstream from above middle of river, 2017-05-21.
Received April 6, 2018, posted with permission. -jsq
When I called the Canoe Outpost on the Suwannee River in Florida to ask if they would give me a shuttle up to the Little River at Reed Bingham State Park, in Georgia, the woman on the other end said, “You want to start up there?” I told her my plan was to canoe the Little River from where it left Reed Bingham down to its confluence with the Withlacoochee, then follow the Withlacoochee to the Suwannee. “I’ve worked here 27 years,” she exclaimed, “and this might be the first!”
Photo: Kathy Hubbard of Burt Kornegay arriving at Troupville Boat Ramp, March 24, 2018.It turns out that, although many paddlers ply the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee with their blades, the adjective “little” in the name Little River means, in part, little paddled.
I’d had this trip in mind for years, and one reason lies in that Continue reading
Update 2018-04-10: Canoeing from the Little to the Chee by Burt Kornegay 2018-03-24.
![[Phil Hubbard interviews Burt Kornegay]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/sddefault.jpg)
Very experienced retired outfitter Burt Kornegay from western north Carolina paddled
the Little River from just below its one dam to the Withlacoochee and
on to the Suwannee a week ago, and liked it a lot.
If you want a really good four-day canoe trip, put in right near Reed Bingham State Park at the highway 37 bridge. There’s an excellent put in right there. And spend four days canoeing down this river. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
That’s from somebody who has led expeditions all over the U.S., from the Grand Canyon to the Smokey Mountains, interviewed Saturday a week ago at Troupville Boat Ramp.
We made it to Spook Bridge from US 84! It was a small group, four of us, on a cold November afternoon. And we saw the sad remains of Wade Spring.
Paddling upstream was not practicable, Continue reading
After the One Mile Branch Cleanup at VSU, let’s head west on US 84 to the Withlacoochee River and paddle (or hike) downstream to Spook Bridge: if you’ve seen the locally-made movie, come see the bridge! In between we may see the river part of Wade Spring, and we will see the railroad bridge and the old, closed, Blue Springs road bridge, aka Spook Bridge. Then we will paddle (or hike) upstream to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing, also less than a quarter mile. If you don’t want to do either, we will tell you how to get to Spook Bridge by land to greet us when we get there.
When: 1PM, Saturday, November 11, 2017
Put In:
US 84, park between the bridges on the Lowndes County side.
We will climb down the steep rocky embankment between the bridges,
seen from the Brooks County side in this picture:
Photo: John S. Quarterman,
From Brooks County to Lowndes County, under the US 84 bridge, 85.2 on the Quitman Gauge, May 22, 2017.
Anyone in reasonable shape can climb it.
Bring: mud boots, plus 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! And we recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
The ghostly remains of the spring pool in what was once a famous resort. Aaron Sirmons says the owner told him when her father bought the place in the 1960s, the spring was already destroyed. The Brooks County Manager told me somebody tried to enlarge it and destroyed it. It looks like maybe they used dynamite.
Wade Spring is actually easily visible from Blue Springs Road in Brooks County, Georgia, if you know just where to peer through the bushes. That’s at Continue reading
![[A happy paddler]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/20180324_141501.jpg)