Chattooga River Paddle Trip

[Half Ton]

Heres a short vid of the Chattooga River filmed last week.

I phone footage had to be converted for PC by WinX deluxe which left some odd visual effects.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cmmbv56mVIs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cathy]

Nice. Always at classic. During desperate dry times in Georgia, we would boat section IV down to 0.5 on the gauge....always fun.

[Bulldog Nelson]

Makes me homesick

[Eric Esche]

I wanted to watch it, but I could not get it to connect.

1.2 is an interesting level. Little Keeper above 5 falls can get real sticky at about 1.4 and todays shorter boats probably get stuck as good as our 4 meter boats did. Other places can get boney enough to be technically more difficult, but it is still fun all the way down too 0.3, and then it can get dangerous due to pins in slots. Chattooga is a river to respect at all levels, and yes, I still miss having it as my backyard stream from 1971 to 1988.

I'll be missing everything for awhile - I had rotator cuff surgery on Tuesday. Got slides from the old days if you ever want to compare levels. Most are raft shots, taken by Robert Harrison of Whetstone Photography, but I have them at all commercial levels arranged by rapid, by level, so you can see the river grow in volume. Hope to get back over there after my shoulder heals up, maybe next year, but then I will have to decide which boats to take......? the Courier, the Fury, the Gravity, the Mongoose, my old black Hollowform, or the Skreem (if Susan will let me borrow it back). Something for me to ponder over the next few months. Will be fun to see if I remember anything. Can still dream my way down the river. I'd bet Okieboater could too.

Eric Esche

[Steve S]

If you are having trouble with the link in Half Ton's post, try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmmbv56mVIs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Half Ton]

Thanks for catching that Steve!

My pal Matt used to work out there and he mentioned once or twice how much he missed that place. It is very wild and scenic and that region is aces for certain.

Cathy mentioned running it low and still having fun, it was sort of counter intuitive to me that the outfitters would still take trips down at that level, but I could see having fun on the river crawling through the worm holes and swimming as a lot of fun for almost anyone and then the constricted rapids could still be a hoot!

The last time I was there in section IV it was 2.1 and I was in a raft. It was really cool to see a different side of the river this time.

Even though they are not really the same at all, the five falls reminds me of the Cossatot falls minus the consequences. Like wormholes and undercuts, and slippery dang rocks!

Eric, I'd love to see those photos sometime and hope that you heal on up expediently. Oh yeah, you mentioned the new low that I've heard of still running some of the river. Your stories are always fascinating as well as entertaining!