After reading the tragic report that Vincent Payne sent us about the death of the kayaker in a rain swollen creek in the Smoky Mountains, I thought it important to start a dialog about different rivers and creeks and what happens to them at different water levels. If any of you have experience, please share it with the group. The life you save may be your future paddling partner.

Rivers at normal flow are not the same river at flood stage. Remember that. Always. To set the stage for my report, I think it is important that you know a little about me and my paddle partner for this adventure.

I am 59 years old, 23 years of military experience, time as a scoutmaster. Lots of time spent in the woods, less time on the water. I am SCUBA certified and a fair swimmer. I am comfortable in the outdoors and in most matters (I did say most, not all) I think I display good judgment and like to think I have a little bit of common sense.

I have been kayaking for a little over 4 years, mostly lakes and Class 1 and 2 rivers. I figure at the current rate of improvement I will be running the Class 3 rivers with you young folks by my 70th birthday.

My boat of choice has been a Necky Manitou, a nice rec kayak of 10 feet ll inches. I have taken her down the Nanty, but did not run the Falls. She has also been down the Chattooga, Section 2, so I do have a bit of Class 2 experience.

In March of this year I got my first whitewater kayak, a sweet Dagger GT 8.1, and have been slowly but surely getting more comfortable in her. We have also been down the Nanty, but again I carried her around the Falls. I am an ACA certified kayak instructor for moving water up to Class 2. I do not have a roll but I can wet exit in a New York second. Last, I have taken a two-day swift water rescue course, which I recommend to everyone who paddles.

Doc is the adult in this paddling duo. He is not as old or good looking as me but that is a story for another day. I believe he has been paddling a little longer than me, both canoes and his boat of choice, a Tsunami 120 (12 feet). Doc has never paddled a whitewater boat. Again, he is a man with good judgment and common sense.

That is the duo; here is my report and what I learned. The section of the Etowah that I am writing about is putting in under the Highway 9 Bridge near Dahlonega and taking out at the Castlberry Bridge. This is a trip of about 6 miles. It has several Class 2 rapids and one Class 4-5 rapid, Etowah Falls.

The Falls are easily portaged on river right. You can actually paddle to the top of the Falls and take out, but I recommend stopping about 50- 100 yards above the Falls on river right. That way there is no chance that you and your boat will get caught in the current and make and unexpected boof off the Falls. Very experienced boaters do run this falls. I ain’t one of them.

The gauges I will refer to can be found at: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ga/nwis/current/. They are under the Cossa-Tallapoosa River Basin section. The first one is number 02388900 and is located at the bridge where we put in on Hwy 9 above Dawsonville, near Dahlonega. The second one is number 02389150 and is located at Highway 9 below Dawsonville.

For the sake of this report, we will refer to the Hwy 9 Dawsonville gauge since this is the one I looked at most. For the record, the reading on the upper gauge is usually lower than the gauge on the Dawsonville one.

As you all know, in late August we saw more rain than we have in ages. As the rain fell, the rivers and creeks were rising. The computers and phone lines were hot with people wanting to know what to run, who was going, what levels were safe. Excitement was in the air; there was water in them thar hills!!

On August 26, a group of us started plotting a kayak trip down this section of the river. I have been down it before, both in my Necky and my Dagger, at water levels between 4 and 4.5 on the lower gauge. (For future planning, I would not want to drag my boat down this section if the lower gauge is below 4 feet. Ever.) Doc had never paddled it before but was anxious to give it a go. All summer the lower gauge has been hanging around 3 feet. Not good.

At 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday the gauge was at 4.42 and climbing. Looking good. By 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday it was at 6.58 and going up. Looking good. By 5:00 p.m. it was at 7.74 and we were beginning to wonder. At 9:00 p.m. it was at 10.06 and we were having second thoughts. For those of you who are new or inexperienced, note how fast the water level climbed with heavy rains in the area. Almost 7 feet in just a few hours.

At this time we decided we needed a backup plan. We did know that with the rain mostly stopped, the rivers would start to drop like a rock. So this is what we decided: we would check the gauges at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday and make a decision of whether to paddle the Etowah or run the Hooch from Buford Dam to Settles Bridge. The only thing we knew for sure is that our boats were going to get wet somewhere.

Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. the lower gauge was back down to 7.16 and continuing down, so we decided to drive to the river, give her a good look and make an on site judgment call. Because the decision to paddle was made at the last minute, work conflicts and miscommunication dropped our group from 8 maybes to 2 positives.

Doc and I drove to the take out at Castleberry Bridge and did a walking scouting trip of Castleberry Rapids; Class 2, rocky and technical run at levels around 4-5 on the gauge. After giving the rapids a good look from the river right bank we saw nothing that caused us any concern. As a matter of fact, the rapids looked much more inviting with water higher than 4.5.

We were close to a go but had one more stop to make. We drove to the put-in and again walked the river and gave her a good look. No excess debris was noted. Of course the water was higher and swifter than I had paddled before but we both decided that it was not so bad that we could not paddle against the current if we encountered river wide strainers and had to turn back. When we put in at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday the lower gauge was at about 6.7, about 2 feet higher than I had run before.

From this put-in, it is about .75 miles to the first Class 2 rapid, Chuck Shoals. This is Class 2 at levels around 4 feet on the lower gauge. Chuck Shoals is also a very rocky and technical run, not very long but boy do you scrape the bottom off your boat at normal flows. When we came to this rapid, again we gave it a good look. It was clear and for the first time I saw it with water over the rocks. wW actually had a clean line to shoot through that sucker. I knew from experience that if we cleared Chuck Shoals and did not encounter any serious strainers the rest of the run would be a hoot and really not dangerous.

So off we went, shooting over the rocks I was used to dragging on, misty rain, no one on the river but the two of us, life does not get much better. When we reached the Falls, we beached out boats and sat at the top and had a very nice lunch break. It is hard to believe there is such beauty so close to Atlanta, and sad to think that most people are too busy to ever see it.

The run at this level was much more fun and exciting that it is at lower levels. According to our map, we had 6 solid Class 2’s to enjoy. At lower levels, you can debate whether they rate a 1 or a 2 rating. Since no one but Doc and I were there, we voted. Everything was a 2 except the Falls: we gave her a solid 5 rating.

We had been paddling and playing for about 3-4 hours when we reached Castleberry Rapids. Our scout from the bank was right on the money and we encountered no problems. That was the end of another great day on the Etowah. Doc and I have both decided that we would give this section a very hard look at levels between 7.5 and 8.5 and would probably run it at those levels. But we would repeat our process. Park and scout the lower rapids from the bank. Since they are so similar in difficulty to the upper rapids, if they looked safe to run, we could do it again.

I know this has been wordy, but I do hope that some of you enjoyed it and more important, got enough information to help you plan a canoe / kayak trip on this part of the Etowah. This is my advice:

1. Wear a helmet and spray skirt, even with a rec boat, at these water levels.

2. Never run anything you have personal doubts about. Better to portage and paddle another day than to have your body pulled out of a strainer 2+ feet above the water levels because you used poor judgment.

3. Never run a river for the first time when it is at or near flood stage.

4. If you want to paddle a river that you have never been on before, find a buddy who has and get on out there.

5. Learn which gauges to watch and what the levels actually will mean to your paddling experience on your favorite rivers.

6. With a little planning and common sense, rain and higher than normal levels are a real treat that we should take advantage of.

One thing I will admit we did wrong. For safety, you should always have at least 3 paddlers. In this our judgment might have been a little weak but if I had the decision to make again, I would still be writing this report. I trusted that my experience and my paddle partner would keep me out of trouble.

As I sit at my desk writing this on Sunday morning, wishing I were on the Nanty with Doc and the rest of my paddling buddies today, the lower gauge is at 3.81 and still dropping. Watch the weather: if that river starts to rise again, you will find us back on it.

If any of you have any questions for me about this river, never hesitate to contact me. Paddle safe but paddle something.

by John Miller
From The Eddy Line, October 2008

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