GA: Amicalola River: Edge Of The World!

The Amicalola River gets its name from the Cherokee phrase for tumbling water…

This is information from our 9.5 hour, 20.8 miles kayak trip. The trip consisted of 18.8 miles on the Amicalola River starting at Lindsay Ford (Six Mile / DNR Campground) to the Etowah River and 2 miles down the Etowah River to Kelly Bridge in recreational kayaks. It was quite a trip. Mileage was documented using a Garmin 76CS GPS.

Below is some general information for the benefit of readers who do not know the river.

Section I is a Class I/II creek. The creek is very boney (rocky) at a flow level of 0.63 but a safe trip for beginners. At this level, the ledges allow you to paddle up to them and scout ahead without being uncontrollably washed over them. Plan on getting stuck on rocks many times. Some of the bedrock is angled and some is flat. The flat rock is the hardest to see. Near the Hwy 53 Bridge there is a 3 foot ledge that should be scouted. There are a couple of areas where the route will take you along the bank where the branches (strainers) of shrubs can drag one out of their kayak.

Section II is a Class III/IV (V) creek. A few hundred yards below the Hwy 53 Bridge is an area know as ‘Edge-of-the-World’ for good reason. I read about this area but was impressed when I actually saw it. Special note: The area is a massive, solid rock formation and extremely slippery. The rock in the water is extremely slippery and the exposed rock becomes slippery after getting wet. I would believe more people are hurt falling in this area. Below ‘Edge-of-the-World’, the river is a little wilder than Section I with a few more ledges.

The water level on this date was adequate for what we wanted to accomplish, yet we dragged and got stuck many times on rocks. The ledges were fun and scouted for safety as well as navigability. Scouting is important. It doesn’t tell you how you will do, it shows you the best route and what to prepare for.

Our trip started Saturday morning at 9:30 am when Traci, Cindy, Doc and I slipped our kayaks into Amicalola Creek at the Lindsey Access (Six Mile put-in / DNR Campground)

GPS put-in coordinates: N 34 – 28 – 556; W 084 – 14 – 535

USGS River gage: was 0.63

There were many flowers (whose names I do not know) in bloom that I photographed.

At 0.63 the river is rocky, but much better than out trip the previous Sunday at 0.53. We had fun paddling around obvious rocks, or some how getting unstuck from the unmarked sneaky ones just below the surface. After 2.5 hours we took our first break and were surprised to find out that we had only paddled 3.7 miles. This was our first indication that it was going to be a long day. Our second indication was at the Hwy 53 Bridge which was supposed to be a 6 mile trip was 8.6 miles. By looking at the USGS gage you can see the river level drops as fast as it rises and it was dropping as we paddled. Our second stop was at the big rock formation on river-right, just before the take-out at the Hwy 53 Bridge. None of us wore spray skirts (even though we had them with us) so we were constantly sponging or pumping water out of our boats. We did have some folks who went swimming but that’s the beauty of a water sport. There were 2 dead-falls on this section that we had to exit our kayaks and climb over.

We knew from reading about Section II of the place below Hwy 53 called ‘Edge-of-the-World’, but didn’t expect what we found. It was wild and beautiful. For a recreational paddler, wild is an understatement. After walking around and looking for a route, I decided to give it a try in my CD Kestrel 120HV. Having only the nylon spray skirt with me, I opted to paddle without it, which wasn’t a good idea. After the first drop, the kayak filled partially with water so I stopped and emptied it before making the second drop. On the second drop, the kayak took on about 5 gallons of water which was ignored (another bad idea). The last drop filled the kayak three quarters full, but we made it around the rocks to the recovery pool. My second run of the ‘Edge-of-the-World’ was in a WS Pungo 120 without a skirt. Thank goodness I like to swim and that’s about all I can say about that run, other than don’t paddle a WS Pungo 120 in Class III/IV with or without a skirt! My third run was in a WS Tsunami 125 with a skirt. They say the third one is a charm and this was the charm. The Tsunami paddled like a dream. It made a 120 degree left turn on a dime, dropped about 6 feet, went totally underwater, popped up and made a sharp 90 degree right turn, went over the second drop, totally submerged, popped up and headed for drop number 3, dropped, submerged and popped up again! I have to say that this was a dream run. My fourth run was in a WS Tsunami 120. Not much to tell about this one other than I had another good swim. Below ‘Edge-of-the-World’ and before the island on river-left there was a tree blocking the best route over this ledge, so we paddled down a tricky section just to the right of the tree.

There are several more significant ledges on down river, but after a day of paddling this stuff they were just ledges. Lots of rocks, lots of navigating, lots of dragging and getting stuck on rocks. Paddling on the Etowah River is completely different than paddling on the Amicalola.but it was fun. After what we had just paddled through, paddling on the Etowah is like paddling on slow moving lake water.

It was 7:10pm when we arrrived at Kelly Bridge and the GPS reading was 20.8 miles. It was 18.6 miles from Lindsey Ford to the confluence with the Etowah River.

Conclusion:

The upper 6 miles section was 8.6 (river) miles

The lower 9.75 miles section was 12.2 (river) miles

Time on the river including lunch: 9.5 hours

= One GREAT paddling day!

I have a few videos of the ‘Edge of the World’ ledge area… It would be best if you followed the album link to watch these directly from Google!

Tracy has a few good videos and photo’s in here album too!