Georgia Wilderness Society
Etowah River
May 17-20, 2024
Our flotilla arrived at the take-out, US 411/Neel’s Landing, about 4:15. Rain that night put a damper on the camp fire, so early to bed to read.
Sunday morning we put-in at Neel’s Landing for a run of about 16 miles to Rome’s Dixon Landing at Grizzard Park. With no intermediate access points, this stretch takes a commitment. There are some homes, many quite nice with elaborate landscaping. Many of these homeowners take the approach that the least amount of vegetation on the banks is the best. Therefore, they end up with erosion or lots of expensive and unsightly rip rap. Again, we had plenty of fish weirs and shoals, all an easy class I. Jeff surfed every chance he got, so spent much of each day trailing well behind us. A couple of bridge piers from the 1850s are still on these sections, and an old deck-less steel truss bridge from 1880s as well (the latter on Saturday’s section). Two or three bald eagles paid us a visit. Places to take a break are few, as the banks are steep and muddy and, since the water level rises every day with dam releases, slippery as well. We finally spotted a lunch stop at a pipeline that had a small sand beach on each bank. We had mostly blue sky with scattered cumulus until a brief shower hit us before we reached our take-out about 3:35.
Saturday morning, we put-in at Cartersville, beside (take a deep breath now) Hwy. 61/113/West Avenue/ Cartersville Hwy./Rockmart Hwy. Anyway, this developed concrete ramp with a large parking lot is 3 miles SW of Cartersville. After running shuttle, we got on the water at 10:10, for a paddle of about 17 miles down to US 411/Neel’s Landing. A group of teens also put-in at the same time, but we left them behind and never saw any other boaters either day, except a motor boat or two. On the way, we spotted several deer, and plenty of birds and flowering shrubs/trees. Turtles too, but not many fish until we got well down from Cartersville.
Many fish weirs are along the river, along with numerous shoals. Water released from Allatoona Dam can easily rise 5’-9’, but the releases didn’t begin until we were well ahead of the wave front. Instead of high water, we were a little worried about the water being too low, but we didn’t often scrape bottom, and no one had to get out of their boat to get unstuck. We took a lunch break at the Georgia Power Hot Tub. This is where the cooling tower outflow from Plant Bowen runs into the river, probably at a temperature of 90 degrees or so. The rip rap is dished out to form a tub a few feet across and maybe 2’ deep. We got sprinkles for only a few minutes, not long enough to put rain gear on.
Back at camp, we enjoyed another camp fire. We all had no where to go in a hurry, so we spent another night at camp, heading home Monday after breakfast. Thanks for all the camaraderie, and especially to Joe & Jeff for the shuttles. See you on the water again soon.
Gauge readings near Cartersville were about 5.1’/550 cfs at put-in Saturday, and 5.3’/670 cfs Sunday. This was a decent level suitable for getting over the shoals and weirs. The river rose about 8’ each night at the Cartersville put-in.
By Trip Leader Curt Cole
Five GWS members had a great time on the Etowah River, despite a few sprinkles.
Participants were Curt & Irene Cole, Joe Mangum, Terry Ross and Jeff Sorensen. Jeff camped at his nearby home, but the rest of us arrived Friday, 17 May, 2024. Three of us had a beach-side camp site, and a nice campfire Fri. and Sun. nights, but we got rained out of Saturday night’s fire.
