(Madonla Road to Ocoee Confluence)

The weather was pleasant – just at the end of some rainstorms, mild and overcast. Edward Stockman, the Trip Coordinator, advertised the trip as a Fightingtown Creek trip but, as always, Edward had a backup plan.

We met at the McDonalds in Blue Ridge and debated whether to go with plan A (Fightingtown) or plan B (Toccoa). We decided there was a decent chance of water in Fightingtown, so we convoyed to the put-in and did a visual check on the river and decided it looked minimally runnable. Participants were Edward Stockman, Doug Ackerman, Jack Taylor, Dave Soltice, Dawn Southern and Allen Hedden (OC-1); Steve Smith, Kelly Harbac, Lisa Haskell, Christine Blumberg and Greg Spencer (K-1). We set shuttle, leaving most of the vehicles at the confluence with the Ocoee. Shuttle is short and straightforward: Madola Road to Mobile Road, right turn, continue to take-out (name changes near McCaysville). For the majority of the participants, this was a first run on Fightingtown. The creek is usually only runnable after a good rain or during very wet seasons.

Because of the small, tight nature of the streambed and the propensity for strainers and deadfalls, Edward had limited the size of the trip. It can become quite a zoo getting a couple dozen boats over or around a massive strainer. Setting off downstream, there were a couple of riffles to warm up on, followed by sections of flat water interspersed with short Class 1 & 2 rapids. We had a strainer drill set up, with a signal from the lead boat, and designated boaters to exit their boats to help others negotiate the strainers. We used the drill several times. Some of the strainers were simple to negotiate by nudging the boats over, others had to be portaged.

One big triple strainer was extremely complicated, requiring several assistants in the water to guide/push/pull boaters over and around. Fightingtown is a beautiful creek, but has become well on the way to being another Cartecay as far as development is concerned. Some of the new homes fit fairly well into the scene, being set back from the stream bed and having ample natural vegetation to screen their presence. Others are more obtrusive, built on the flood plain with expansive manicured lawns, decks, boardwalks, docks, etc. And there is no shortage of “No Trespassing” signs.

The trip was uneventful for the most part, with one exception. It was Dawn’s first time out solo in her Sequel, and at one point on a bend in the river the current pushed her into some overhanging limbs. As novices tend to do, she leaned away from the limbs (and spiders) and the inevitable happened: she flipped in the current. Several boats went by, seeing her hanging on to the boat stuck in the overhanging limbs, and each paddler implored her to “Let go of the boat!”What was NOT so obvious was that her foot was somehow stuck in the boat, which was in turn lodged in the limbs, and the only thing keeping her head up was hanging on to the boat. Thank goodness she had the presence of mind to ignore the advice of the passing boaters. A rescuer was able to wade out to assist and hold her up while getting her foot untangled from the boat and freeing the boat from the limbs. A very scary episode for a new paddler!

Pictures are at http://canoeist.smugmug.com/gallery/ 4891351_RsoLM. Many thanks to Edward for coordinating the trip! A fun day on a rapidly disappearing resource.

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