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Special Points of Interest: • Paddle Georgia—page 11 VOLUME 46, NO. 2 MARCH/APRIL 2012 • Sweep the Hooch—page 19 THIS ISSUE SPRING EXTRAVAGANZA by Mark Holmberg INSIDE THIS ISSUE: by Cheryl and Rich Beverly Eddy Line Editor MLK Weekend 2 Save the Dates : May 4-6 This issue of the Eddy Line is full of information about Three Rivers Paddle 3 Come join us for three awesome days of paddling, upcoming paddling trips of camping, and barbeque at Smokey Mountain Meadows. all kinds. There are flat- Tent and Rv sites are available as well as a few cabins. Altamaha River 4 water paddling and camping Paddle & Campout Reservaons to SMM are not needed except for the trips, a family paddle cabins. Contact info: Ocmulgee Blueway 6 weekend in the western Freda Livingston, Owner North Carolina area, Smoky Mountain Meadows Campground whitewater trips, river GCA Executive 8 755 East Alarka Rd cleanups, the GCA quarterly Committee Meeting Bryson City NC 28713 meeting at Garden Hills, Oklahoma City to 10 919-488-3672 and, of course, the GCA smokymtnmeadows.com Host Olympic Flat Spring Extravaganza—all Water Sprint We'll have paddling trips scheduled for all three scheduled during the coming days. Trip Coordinators are needed - so please months. Paddle Georgia 11 volunteer!! We'd like to have all skill levels represented. Canoing—My 12 Spring will be upon us soon. Experience There will be a group barbeque on Saturday evening. Make plans to get out and Please bring one side dish to share and whatever type of enjoy your favorite river, Trip Reports 13 meat you'd like to grill for yourself. Volunteers are stream, or lake. needed for grills, charcoal and firewood. AWC Tellico River 15 Cleanup So that the club and coordinators know how many to Trip Schedule 16-17 expect, please rsvp to [email protected] Families Paddle Too 18 Thanks and hope to see everyone there! GCA Quarterly 18 Meeting Sweep the Hooch 19 Page 2 MLK WEEKEND, 2012 Turkey Creek is about an eight mile paddle that begins in a pine forest, flows through a hardwood swamp and fi- by Lamar Phillips nally through a saltwater bayou to the take out. On the upper section the water is very clear with a white sandy Back around the first, second, or perhaps the third of bottom and a very good current. The creek is narrow October, Buddy and I were discussing excuses that we with many tight turns and paddlers need to be alert and had not used that we might give our brides to explain keep separated. After a few miles you reach the swampy why we had spent another day on our duff rather than section and from there to the bayou, the current is ra- make some long neglected repairs around our cas- ther lazy. tles. I’m sure Buddy was the one that said, “Why don’t we get a trip together down to sunny and warm Florida On Friday Liz Carter and Buddy took a group including for MLK weekend,” January 13 through 16. Butch Horn, Rebecca and Chris Walling, Marie Short, Tommy and Connie Hollis, Debby Ray, Jean Brown, Although this sounded wonderful, I told Buddy that we Tammy Goolsby, Mike Goolsby, Ralph Bartow, Carolyn should stay home and celebrate the holidays with our and Bruce Cook and the most important member of the wives. Even at Buddies’ advanced age, his selective group, Dickie Tillman who acted as our emergency res- memory is very good and he reminded me that Maggie cue squad, paddled Turkey Creek. There were a num- had told him several years back how much she appreci- ber of spills due to the current pushing paddlers into ated him “getting Lamar out of the house for a few days under brush in the tight turns. We may have a problem so I can relax without his supervision.” This made sense getting Dickie to go on any more trips with us because so I decided that I would give her a break and our trip we had some problems a couple years back on this river planning began. and Dickie ended up being the Good Samaritan. We highly recommend anyone planning a trip to take Dickie We decided that the weather would be great down in along! He comes in handy. the Pan Handle and we made reservations at Black- water State Park where we have stayed several Titi Creek also is on Eglin AFB and it too is very clear times. We posted it and almost at once started getting and shallow. It also has a speedy current and is very calls from others wanting to enjoy some warm, sunny woody. It flows through a tupelo and cypress swamp weather. with closely spaced trees. Several other streams flow into Titi. You best not relax too much or you’ll find A few days before we were to leave, we had thirty-two yourself broached against a tree or stump and in the wa- folks sign up for the trip so we decided that we had to ter. After the swamp, the creek flows into Shoal River, split the group up and paddle two different rivers each a blackwater steam, a couple of miles before the take day. Two of the rivers were on Eglin AFB and requires a out. permit to paddle the streams. (Originally, I thought we would not have over fifteen paddlers so I had to order Jim Nuetzel led our group consisting of Mary and Matt more passes.) We obtained passes for Titi Creek and Carroll along with Matt’s mom, Brenda Carroll, a new Turkey Creek for both Friday and Saturday. Both are paddler. Brenda had a few close calls but she stayed up rated as A or A+ for scenery by “Canoeing & Kayaking right and gained so much confidence that she went Florida.” By the way, Liz Carter a long time GCA mem- through one rather swift twisty hazard backwards! Oth- ber was one of the authors. er paddlers were Dick Polmatier, Richard Salenfriend, Poni Shannon, Chad Chandler, Angeline Young, Elise and The Eddy Line , © 2012, is published bi-monthly as the official newsletter of the Georgia Canoeing Association, Inc., publication address: 3060 Pharr Court North, #315, Atlanta, GA 30305. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Eddy Line , c/o Georgia Canoeing Association, P.O.Box 7023, Atlanta, GA 30357. Page 3 VOLUME 46, NO. 2 Dan MacIntyre, Emily Strickland, and Jane Cason. Fortu- nately we all made it through in the upright position. THREE RIVERS PADDLE We had several paddlers that were not accustomed to April 20-22nd the tight turns and current on Titi and Turkey Creeks, Towns Bluff Park, Hazlehurst, GA so some of us decided to stick with wider streams with not as much current. Saturday we split up again and Join The Georgia Conservancy on a paddle and camping some paddled Titi and Turkey while others pad- trip highlighng Middle Georgia's beauful waterways. dled Blackwater River. From the name, it tells you it is a black water stream with beautiful large white sandbars Featuring secons of the Ocmulgee, Oconee, and as well as some steep clay banks. It’s about an eight-mile Altamaha Rivers. The trip will begin on April 20st in Haz- paddle and the take out is right at the park. Everyone lehurst, as we meet at Towns Bluff Park to camp for the had a really great paddle. night. The morning of the 21st, we will be shuled upriv- er to Lumber City, where we will begin our paddle on the By the way, going south to find warm weather doesn’t Ocmulgee with experienced guides to lead the way. That always work! Friday night was down to a brisk twenty- night, we will again camp at Towns Bluff Park in Haz- five degrees but the days were really nice and sunny and lehurst. great paddling weather. It warmed up to a more com- fortable mid-thirties Saturday and everyone was ready The following day (April 22nd) is Earth Day, and will fea- for another paddle Sunday. ture a 9 mile paddle and river cleanup to Grey's Landing, in partnership with Rivers Alive. We paddled Juniper-Sweetwater Creek Sunday and again split up into two groups with some paddlers putting on The Georgia Conservancy has reserved all of Towns Bluff the water about two and a half miles above the rest of Park for camping the nights of the 20th and 21st, but us. This is another beautiful, clear creek with many sand space is limited so be sure to register early to guarantee bars and a current of one or one and a half mph so we your spot. did not have to work very hard and the lazy break on the sand bars under the warm Florida sun was wonder- The Three Rivers Paddle is one of a four "Heartland riv- ful. ers of Georgia" series of camping, paddling and steward- ship trips in south and central Georgia to bring to light It was a fantastic weekend and we had several folks that conservaon efforts, economic development and recrea- had not been on a trip in the Pan Handle before. All on opportunies on the Flint, Ocmulgee, Oconee and agreed that it was well worth braving the cold weather Altamaha Rivers. and want another trip down there. Even the ones who Largely unknown to the Georgia outdoor enthusiast - took a swim said they wanted to go back down, although Flint, Ocmulgee, Oconee and Altamaha Rivers - are a one of them said they would most likely just hang treasure trove of unparalleled natural beauty and recre- around the campfire so the paddlers would have a warm fire when they returned.