I have been scouting the tributaries of the Oconee River for canoe/camping suitability, and spent March 27 & 28 looking at the Apalachee. This river is described in Sehlinger and Otey, but I was unprepared for the monster shoals I found, which they described only as "more impressive" than a pretty average grouping of class II ledges further upstream.

I can't recall ever seeing a write-up of a trip on the Apalachee, and I report this now because these shoals, which run for 200 plus yards, would seem to offer a great place for developing white water skills as well as maybe holding a rescue clinic. The distance from put-in to takeout is only one mile on the river, so this section could be run multiple times, or more likely, you would line the boats back up to the top and do it that way.

At the head of the shoals, there is an abandoned railroad bridge with safe planking, and with a little effort you can climb up the grade and walk out on the bridge for a great scouting view. Do this at your own risk, of course. The shoals can be scouted from river left the full distance. The footing in places is steep and rocky, so be careful.

From the railroad bridge about half way down, the shoals are bland, then it gets very exciting, especially river left. It appeared that by going river left around an island, you then enter some very fast water that becomes a chute, leading to the top of several ledges that offer multiple opportunities of varying difficulty.

River center may also be another option. There is a large rocky island to river right, and it looked as if the easiest way to traverse this area is to run to the right of that, but I did not get to see it that well.

This area is popular with locals for fishing and partying, and I would not advise leaving a car there overnight. I look forward to running these shoals myself, at a slightly lower water level. I would classify them as class II/III, and at high water maybe a IV. Below the shoals, the river runs 9.9 miles to the headwaters of Lake Oconee, with a take-out on the left at the Hwy 278 bridge, if you wanted to do a leisurely all day trip.

Directions for the shoals section are as follows: Put-in: On Hwy 441/129, about half way between Madison and Watkinsville with access river right below the bridge.

Take-out: Go about a mile north from the bridge on Hwy

441/129, take an acute right turn onto a gravel road (Tappan Spur Rd). After crossing an abandoned rail line, encounter an intersection, take the right, un-named fork. This is Old Madison Hwy, which will take you on decent road all the way to the river, where there are sand bars for easy take-out, and reasonable parking, but maybe not after a heavy rain.

In Sehlinger and Otey, these are access points "O" and "P". Before deciding to try these impressive rapids, I would suggest taking a good look from the take-out. If anyone has run the Apalachee, or these rapids, I would like to hear from you, and likewise if anyone decides to run them based on this

by Dick Hurd
From The Eddy Line, May 2003

In the May issue of The Eddy Line I offered a scouting report on the above river suggesting that there might be an interesting run from Hwy 441 to Lake Oconee. I had been scouting the river for canoe/camping suitability, and had approached every bridge crossing I could find, but had to rely heavily on old data from Sehlinger and Otey. Shortly after this report was published, I got some feedback from members who had tried this trip in the past and viewed it as a canoe trip from Hell! Both Doug Massey and Jeff Engel describe a river that becomes a swamp before reconstituting as a river just above Lake Oconee.

Two thoughts come to mind: There is nothing new under the sun, and those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. I can only hope nobody took my advice! I have researched my Eddy Line archives, and discovered three reports of ill fated trips on the Apalachee. Jim Patsios reported a terrible experience from a trip on 11-19-1989, and Jay Palmer did likewise for a trip on 6-25- 1989. Both trips ended in the dark, long beyond their anticipated finish times. Dan Roper reported a similar cautionary tale in October, 1993.

So, by all accounts the rapids below 441 are a fun activity, but below that, only masochists need apply. Dan questioned whether S&O had really paddled that section, and Jay advised that S&O's writing "merits the same degree of scrutiny as a contract from a used car dealer." Be forewarned yourself. Within our club there is a lot of collective paddling experience, but distribution of that knowledge is a problem. There is no Eddy Line archive as such, but maybe there could and should be — the old issues contain a wealth of paddling and scouting reports.

There are .pdf files around going as far back as we've been doing the .pdf version, and beyond that there are PageMaker Publication files saved on the GCA computer going back to the early 1990s. Paper prints exist of most of the older issues.

A feasible project would be to index all the articles published in the newsletter over its history and to post the index on the GCA web site with a search function available. It would be relatively easy to keep updated monthly or quarterly or so. Either paper prints or digitized copies of specific articles could then be requested from the archives, depending on what's available.

Is anyone interested in such a project??? It could start out simple, with the index only including paddling destinations, and later expanded to include all articles. Contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you would be intrested in helping out.

By Dick Hurd
From The Eddy Line July 2003

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