Boy Scouts on the Etowah

What a trip!

It began several months ago with a phone call from Todd Hobbs, Scoutmaster of Troop 735 in Dallas, Georgia, who was looking for a 3 or 4 day kayak trip down the Etowah River for a small group of Boy Scouts plus several adults.Several months later the plan was to meet at 10:30am Thursday, July 8, 2010, at The Outside World on GA400 . From there it was a 3 mile drive to the Hwy 53 Bridge where the group would start their downriver journey. During their 4 day, 3 nights event, they would paddle 65 miles through Dawson, Forsyth and Cherokee Counties to the Knox Road Bridge Park at the backwaters of Lake Allatoona, for their take-out location on Sunday.

Never knowing how a trip will go, this one couldn’t have gone much better.

• Starting Put-in GPS: N34-22-910, W084-03-812
• Starting time: 11:35am Thursday, July 8, 2010

Starting at Hwy 53 it is always amusing to watch everyone packing their gear into the kayaks for the first time, but they did it like pros. Then they dragged the kayaks down the bank to the river and climbed in. The river was a little murky from the rains and up a couple inches from the normal flow, which would help us out. What you need to know is that natural, small rivers like the Etowah, are full of rocks of all sizes, tree stumps and trees. Trees totally blocking the channel had been mysteriously removed by a good Samaritan, but the other things would be interesting obstacles for them to paddle over, around, or under. A few times, they would cause an unscheduled swim and a laugh from the others or just plain fun. Paddling (kayaking) is a water sport, so getting wet is just one of the things that happens and there were several unscheduled swims. Who was first, who was last and who swam the most will remain a Boy Scout secret.