For five or six years I’ve led a winter trip on the Etowah tunnel section, usually on a weekday. Several years ago it happened to fall on Groundhog Day, which I thought was funny. (Tunnel and groundhog, get it? Yeah, I’m easily amused.) So I have since declared this to be the annual Groundhog Day run and scheduled it to coincide with Groundhog Day.

This is important only because the event usually falls on a weekday. Most years there are three or four boats. Last year I had zero. There are always a few folks who call to see if the date is right: “but that’s a weekday.”

Not so this year: it fell on a Saturday. I had about twenty five people sign up to attend. Even after the call offs that left 18 people and sixteen boats who came out to paddle in 25 degree weather. The day was predicted to warm to 60 but I think the low 50’s is the best we saw. That was at the take-out parking area in full sun, not on the river between the ridges.

We set our shuttle, gave the safety spiel and hit the water with Jack Taylor in the lead and David Brytowski and myself as the sweep. There were sixteen boats. Two tandem canoes: Chad Hyess & Drew Byer and David Brytowski & Vincent Payne. Three OC1’s: Robert Harris, Karen Saunders and Jack Taylor . An assortment of 11 kayaks paddled by Darlene Hawksley, John Miller, Lamar Phillips, Melissa Karasek, Lori Helman, Lisa Haskell, Keith Haskell, James Unger, Michael Kellis, Dan McNavish and Carol McNavish. The group included a half dozen paddlers new to this river and a couple of paddlers who were new to paddling.

We got everyone on the river and ran the first small drop without incident. Around the second bend there was a nasty combination of strainers, rapids and logjams that most people opted to portage. A few brave souls paddled down the drops, ferried across in front of the strainer and slipped through an opening between a log and a treetop. The whitewater boats did this very cleanly but two longer kayaks needed a bit of assistance to stay out of the strainer.

We were dismayed to see a set of posted signs on the property at the entrance to the tunnel. A local paddler told us that it was because people can set up a camp leaving behind chairs and grills and a zip line. The zip line is still visible and could pose a threat to paddlers when the water is much higher. It looks like 3/8 inch cable and is only about four feet off the water and not very taut.

After the tunnel section the river has few rapids and the longer kayaks were able to out pace the shorter whitewater boats. There was a place where a log stretched across the entire width of the river. Karen and John sat on the log and helped pull boats across. I know their toes were cold. The two old guys in the red tandem boat known as Big Red refused to paddle anymore for the remainder of the trip and were last to make the take out.

The take-out at Highway 136 is convenient from a parking perspective but is a brutal carry. It might be a good idea to keep a spare key with your river gear. With a little assistance from Triple A we all made it home safely.

by Vincent Payne
From The Eddy Line, March 2008

For more information on this river see:
Etowah Tunnel Section 

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