Georgia Wilderness Society
Sepulga River AL
October 8, 2024
Curt & Irene Cole, and Basil Youman were able to do the gorgeous Sepulga River in south Alabama, on Oct. 8, 2024. We thought Hurricane Helene would of dumped too much rain, but I believe they did not get any. Milton was not too far away, south of us. We got a little wind at the nice campground, Open Pond, in the Conecuh National Forrest. With the Senior National Forest Pass it was only $4.00. Before we camped, we drove 4 and half hours from home. After we did our shuttle, we put in around 3:30 our time at Bull Slough Bridge and did 7.5 miles down to Brooklyn Bridge and Bottle Creek. The river was beautiful with its high banks of limestone. Sometimes the root of a tree would be protruding through the hole in the ledge. Often there would be beautiful green ferns along the bank. The water was at 2.85', but most of the time it was around 1 foot and sometimes just a couple inches deep, but I didn't have to get out. I did fall out after getting hung from a little drop, nothing serious. We were concerned about the canoe that Curt and Irene paddled, because it was heavier. They paddled it with not too much difficulty.
I went home the last day, Friday, and Curt and Irene opted to stay at the great campground at Open Pond. I probably should have done this. Thanks Curt and Irene for joining me on this GWS trip. They were both pretty rivers.
We were able to gather some wood and had a small fire. Irene shared some nice lemon cookies. She also saw a small gator and one that was showing his eyes. I saw a deer also today. Curt looked for fossils both days, but did not have much luck. Before we went to bed, Irene said I should pull up my boat up away from the water more, as the water seemed to be coming up. I had pulled it up twice already. I am glad Irene said something, because the next morning, the river was almost up to the back of boat. I forgot about the dam at Andalusia. The third day we paddled to Parker Bridge/Bradley Rd. We paddled past the Mancil Rock, beautiful area and finished at the paved parking area. We started to see more sandbars today. The birds we saw were Eagle, Kingfishers, White Egrets, 2 Blue Heron. Temperatures were nice, upper 50s at night, around 80 day time. It would of been nice to have done more miles but the take outs didn't quite workout.
We saw a Copperhead coming out of the river. It was beautiful but we kept our distance.
The second day we paddled the Conecuh R. from Harts Bridge down to about the only sandbar on left side with a small waterfall coming out on the right, where we camped. It was a soothing sound and drowned out the logging trucks that were crossing Hwy 29, just occasionally, 3 fourths of a mile away. Did 7 miles. A beautiful day on the river & temperature around 80.
