That Would Be Capitol

A dismal day in the city can be a beautiful day in the country. I went up towards Dawsonville and Dahlonega today to check out the proposed plan for the Etowah canoeing trip. I mainly wanted to see the at the take out and launch locations were safe and accessible and that they were easy to find with the coordinates I had come up with from Google Maps and around the web.

I went to the take out location first. Its along GA 9 about an hour and 10 minutes from Atlanta. It was nicer than I expected with a graded parking lot, some picnic tables, and even a port-a-john.

There’s a boat ramp for easy access. The water is high and fast moving because we’ve had rain the last two days.

Using my original coordinates put the put-in location somewhere inaccessible by road. That drives the gps crazy so I ended up getting lost on some great backroads having passed right over the bridge I was supposed to stop at.

The upside is I found some great motorcycling roads.

Backtracking I found the bridge which is also on GA 9. This is where we will put in.

There’s easy gravel road access and plenty of parking under the bridge. Even the Sloth would fit under there.

There is no boat ramp and the bank of the river is steep. This will be a challenge to get the gear down as its muddy and rocky.

Next I went to the Castleberry Bridge that divides our section of the Etowah in two. Downstream from this bridge is the tunnel. Upstream is where we’ll start from.

You can see some of the shoals and the bank here is solid rock. This part might be exciting when the water is lower.

Some more foothills scenery. From what I saw today it all adds up. We’ve picked good start and end points for the trip. Now to just do it.

Went out kayaking today with avid kayakista Jay M today. We left the Azalea boat ramp for what began as my normal tour upriver to the rocks and back again, a 6 mile loop. But today was different. Today the river wanted pants.

These were my favorite pants. Now they belong to the river. Shown here (with the help of a pasty-legged thigh model I hired to enhance the skin-to-pant contrast) are what the river left me.

This happened in the raging class 1 “rapids” at the rocks. We were paddling upstream, taunting the river. Towards the upriver edge of these “rapids” I first tried and failed to make a final push to calm waters. Jay took his turn… and the river took Jay….’s hat. The raging waters fought back, Jay’s kayak went perpendicular to the current, then perpendicular to the horizon. He disappeared for a second, then reappeared. Hatless. River: 1 Us: 0. Meanwhile in a waiting pool a few rocks over my kayak slipped out into another set of “rapids”, lurched sideways against the current, took a big gulp of water, then swung back the opposite way. The water cast me off down river towards the bank. I followed Jay, and his kayak, downriver a short ways but was sucked into the brush along the bank. The strainer. The water forced my vessel up on the brush and branches twisting me downwards towards the cold abyss. Water rushed into the cockpit as I rushed out. Our chances looked bleak. The rushing water perhaps three feet deep where we stood, perhaps five feet from the shore. Our only weapon against this monster river was the knowledge Jay had absorbed, that he soaked up like a sponge, at a kayaking class. First, assess the situation. Ok, my pants are ripped and I’m shoeless. Jay’s hat is gone. My God, Jay’s hate is GONE! Curse this river! In defiance we heave my kayak on the shore and empty about a 1/3 of the water then place its nose atop Jay’s kayak and finish the job. We struggled back into the boats where we discovered the river’s last insult. Jay’s water bottle was gone! Oh the humanity! We paddled back to Azalea. Loaded up the trucks. I went to get pizza. Great day out on the river! Thanks Jay!

Early breakfast at SSK. A Honda CB350 pulled up. Talked to its owner, Johnny, for a long while. He has an old ’72 Ford with the 390.

The river is even lower than last time. I’m floating here, but barely. There are lot of new sandbars that weren’t there last week and the small rapids just up past 400 are almost nonexistent.

Beached for exploration.

Signs of predator activity. Raccoon most likely.

Small velociraptor. Its not uncommon for them to prey on raccoons. These were found a few feet away.

There are lots of turtles out there and I’ve been trying to get a good pic of one. Even though I glide silently across the water like a crocodile they always end up seeing me and jump in the water. Had to use a little zoom on this one before he leapt.

Lots of little places to explore. This is probably just a drainage ditch, not sure, I was thwarted by a hail of arrows let loose by the natives.