Day 25: Wetumpka & the Tallapoosa

Richard camped on a rock island in the middle of the river on Monday night. It rained on him during the night a few times and he found himself wide-awake at 12:05 AM.

It was a beautiful night out; the sky was not clear but it was gorgeous, so he got out of his tent and went down to the river and sat out in the river for about a half hour. At that time the rain began again, so he went back into his tent and the rain continued all night long.

He woke up at 6:25 AM on Tuesday morning and was surprised that the rain didn’t lower the outside temperature like he’d expected. The temperature was so wonderful that he slept with both of his tent door flaps down to get lots for fresh air. As the rain was coming down outside of his tent, he took some pictures from inside his tent looking out at the rain on the river and his kayak floating in the river, covered with leaves that had fallen from the trees in the rain storm. He also meant to take a picture from inside of his tent of the leaves that were stuck to his rain fly, but he got distracted and forgot to take the picture. One of his “words of wisdom” he wanted me to pass along to everyone out there reading the blog is “When you see something and think ‘Hmmm…that would make a good picture’, go ahead and take it - don’t delay, take the picture!”

Soon after waking up, he received a call from a friend of his - Doug Powell - who works for Alabama Power. During their conversation, Doug advised Richard that a strong band of storms was moving through the area and he should stay put for the morning, if not all day. This was the first time that weather had delayed him on this trip, but he was prepared. I spoke to him soon after he hung up with Doug and I was worried that he would get bored sitting in his tent with nothing to do but listen to the rain outside.

Little did I know he has a wonderful imagination. He decided to list out all of the wonderful things he brought with him on this trip. At the top of his list were his kayak and paddle (of course) and his REI tent and REI sleeping bag. He also included his GPS, his rope (another tip from Richard - “No one should leave home without a rope”), his cell phone, his Patagonia clothes (which have kept him warm and dry), his Seal Line dry bags, his waterproof camera and his dry bag that he has for his phone.

The rain stopped and the sky began clearing around late morning. When he went to get out of his tent, he spotted 2 wild turkeys over in the distance. Once they noticed him, they both flew away in a hurry. He described the sound of the turkeys taking off as sounding like “500 feathers taking off all at once”. That’s definitely a noteworthy moment. Too bad he didn’t get a picture of the turkeys as they were flying away.

After spooking the wild turkey, Richard went out to the river to shave. While he was in the river shaving, a foot-long carp swam up within 10 feet of where he was standing in the water. Richard just stood there and watched the fish in the water. The fish swam away after a few seconds. It must be amazing to see such a variety of creatures out in their natural habitat. After shaving, he took his normal bath in the river and brushed his teeth. After getting ready for the day, he decided that it was time for “brunch” - it was late morning, which is much later than his usual breakfast, but it wasn’t quite lunchtime yet. He opted to eat the raspberry applesauce left over from the previous night’s MRE in addition to the rest of his Cheeto’s and some cheese and crackers. He discovered that the cheese and cracker packages don’t hold up well on river trips - the crackers get a bit soggy and the cheese dries out. Richard theorizes that the seal breaks on the package, which is what allows the water and air in to dry out the cheese and make the crackers soggy. He was not too fond of the soggy crackers, so he fed most of them to the fish. He also noted that now that he’s out of Cheeto’s, he’s going to switch over to Goldfish cheese crackers.

All of his gear was damp - from both the rain and from the humid air. He stuffed his damp sleeping bag into the stuff sack, brushed the leaves off of his tent, packed it up and got into his kayak around 1:30 PM. He paddled down river and admired the unique rocks in the river. He described the rocks in the river as being solid rock; they look like they were sculpted from a mound of clay. Richard hypothesizes that the river had sculpted these rocks through time. He described the river as one massive rock formation - the shoals he encountered where one large rock that had been carved away by the river’s water. The rivers in North Georgia are filled with large and small rocks - mostly individual rocks or boulders. The shoals in the North Georgia Rivers are mostly individual rocks all gathered in an area. He compared these shoals to those he found on the Coosa down near Wetumpka. He describes those shoals as one large rock that has been carved away by the water. He also noted that the shoals down on the Coosa are more technical than those found on the Metro sections of the Chattahoochee. Since his kayak is so heavy, it sits very low in the water - this means that when he navigates through the shoals, he’s more likely to take on water. On Tuesday, he went through 3 or 4 shoal areas and commented on how there is not usually a straight line through the shoals - you really have to paddle to navigate around the rocks to make it through the shoal areas without trouble.

As he was coming through one set of shoals, he spotted a fisherman down river, where the shoals ended. He paddled down through the shoals and the fisherman in the boat just looked at him with a “Where did you come from?” look on his face. Wanting to make up for lost time, Richard didn’t stop to visit, and he kept on paddling by. A few miles downstream, he met up with another fisherman who was fishing from a kayak. Intrigued by this, Richard stopped to visit with the young man, who he soon found out was named Steven Earick. Steven fishes out of an Old Town Predator kayak - it is dark green and black. Richard expressed that he had never seen someone fish out of a kayak, much less kayak for the sole reason of fishing from a kayak. After talking with Steven for a few minutes, Richard also learned that he works for Coosa River Adventures. Richard has been in touch with Chris (the owner of Coosa River Adventures) regarding the annual Coosa Adventure Race that is held in Wetumpka in each fall. Richard is trying to convince me to join him in the adventure race next year - I’m trying to talk him out of it, but we’ll see who wins this battle

After saying goodbye to Steven, Richard continued paddling down river until he reached the city of Wetumpka, AL. He described the city as having “one of the most beautiful bridges he’s ever seen.” The bridge consists of multiple arches - Richard described them as similar to “McDonald’s arches”. Once he arrived in Wetumpka, Peggy Blackburn of the Wetumpka Herald came down to interview Richard and take some pictures for the local paper. After the interview, Richard walked around the downtown area and even visited the library where the librarians gave him a book on the history of Wetumpka. During his “tour” of downtown, he saw City Hall, a Masonic Lodge and then he found a Dairy Queen - he couldn’t resist stopping in for lunch. He ordered his favorite - a hot dog, onion rings and a Coke.

During his interview with Peggy, she told him about an old fort (Fort Toulouse) that was located down river, just around the bend. She suggested it as a possible campsite for the night, so Richard paddled down river, keeping an eye open for the fort and the boat ramp located near the park. After paddling for a 5 or 6 miles, it began to get dark and he still could not find the fort. He discovered that it was not on the Coosa River, but a few yards up the Tallapoosa River. After reaching the confluence of the two rivers, he paddled up the Tallapoosa River for few hundred yards and quickly got discouraged when he did not find the boat ramp or the fort. Deciding to give up on finding the fort in the dark, he paddled back down river to the tip of land located on the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. He camped there for the night - about 7-8 feet from the river. He finally stopped for the night around 9:20 PM and set up camp. He was not the “happiest camper” when I talked to him on Tuesday night. Hopefully he’ll have a better day on Wednesday…