I can honestly say that I never intended for our first real trip of the A2A - Paddling from Atlanta to Alabama expedition to take place in August (mid August at that), but with the busy summer we've had and all the work travel I've been tackling, it has simply worked out that way. The good news is that, despite some stumbles, this trip finally does get the journey started. What better way to kick it off than with the longest trip Tony and I have been on; 18 full miles – mile marker 304 down to 286. Check out the progress on my Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map.
For those that have been following Tony and I on these trips, you'll quickly notice that we had to backtrack 5 miles to Paces Mill that we already did in A2A - Trip 0; Powers Island to McDonough Power Plant (We Finished up the ATL50). Why? Well, because of the totally frustrating event I captured in Andy, Can I Put My Bullet In!! That said, adding these miles in helped us stretch this out to the longest trip yet and also helps us plan for the rest of the A2A trips as we were quite a bit slower than that last time we ran these same miles. That day, when the water was more than 2 feet higher on the river, we ran a total of 8 miles in 2 hours. For this trip those first 5 miles up to the power plant took us 2 hours. In fact, as I know you're wondering, we took almost 7 hours to do all 18 miles.
Our first real understanding of how low the water was surfaced when we got to the big drop off that we hit last time and is marked as "A" in the image below. When we last hit this we blindly soared over this edge which I now know was even more rocky just under the water than I realized. Thankfully, we did great last time with no wipe outs. Despite Tony's desire to simply portage past all of this, I padded down to the flume marked by "B". It was roaring hard and I was hung up near the edge against the protected area checking it all out. I eventually got fired up to give it a run and decided to cross over to Tony who was on the other side to give him my camera so that he could take some action shots of me "shooting the 'hooch". Well... I now know I was way too close when I started across the top of the falls and was (more than!!) surprised to find myself being sucked in. I got pulled in backwards and then my kayak started swing to the right which then had me entering the flume sideways. Yes... you are imagining this right... I didn't last long and was dragged underwater just after the water flipped my kayak.
I'm not going to lie; there were a few second there that I actually was a bit scared. The force of the water kept me down despite my life jacket and my kicking trying to get me to the top. When I finally did come back up, I did a couple more of these bobs, but each one was shorter than the last and by the fourth time I came up it was clear I was going to get to keep my head above water. My heart was pumping by this point. So much so I didn't even mind the freezing waters. Fortunately, I was able to get myself and my kayak over to the little sand bar identified at "C" above.
This next picture is a bit closer of a zoom on the water hazard that gave me such trouble. It probably looks tiny to many of you, but take notice of the scale of the cars to the right of it. I still content (although Tony doesn't agree with me) that I could have taken it, but it surely got the best of me. Heck, I would have felt less crappy about the whole thing if I wiped out giving it a real try; not just being accidentally sucked into it.
You'll quickly notice that I don't have any other pictures to share. Why not you ask? Because I lost my friggin camera from the little pocket on my life jacket that I keep it in. Major bummer, but if anyone now needs a good Christmas gift (or my birthday is coming up!) idea check out the burnt orange Nikon Coolpix AW120 waterproof camera.
As for the rest of the trip, it was mostly uneventful, but surely loooooooooooooong. It was nice to travel under 285 and 20 signifying the true end of the formal Atlanta boundaries. We even floated past Six Flags and got to hear a bit of a concert. Much of this section of the river could be summarized as "it looks bad, but it's not as bad as it looks". Meaning there was plenty of downed trees, and a generous amount of trash, but overall it was much better looking than I was imagining based on prior stories I've heard and read. I guess the shear absence of anything other than mother nature sure goes a long way to make this part of the trip enjoyable.
When we finally got to Buzzard Roost Island at mile marker 291 (13 miles in) we both agreed to take the rest of the trip as easy as we could. Those last 5 miles did take their sweet time and while I always enjoy being on the river, I was glad to finally see the bridge over Highway 166 which meant the boat ramp where I left my car many hours earlier that morning. I'll probably take, at least, one weekend off just to try to catch up to my real life especially since the family is so busy and I've still got some serious travel ahead of me. I'll be sure to post more on the A2A - Paddling from Atlanta to Alabama trip when we get out there again.
Yep, Gretchen and I are surely getting older. Last week Connor started High School and now we've moved Zoe into her dorm room for her freshman year at Kennesaw State University.
She's participating in a program called THRIVE which has a few perks, such as getting one of the super sweet four bedroom suites. Yes, I said sweet suite!
Look at that room! "Kids today" (I've always wanted to say type that) having it so much easier than anything I every remember. This place is definitely nicer than the first apartment I had in college. The view out her window isn't too bad either.
Needless to say, Gretchen and I are so proud of her and so excited for her. How often do any of us get a chance to start with a blank slate with such a wide set of constituents? Zoe did great in high school and enjoyed herself, but this really is her time to THRIVE and be everything she wants to be.
Oh... and the kitchen is pretty awesome, too!
Good luck my sweet girl and Mommy and Daddy are right here for you – just call.
If you follow my FaceBook personal profile you'll already know I've been getting to visit the range lately with my kids. I'm excited about their interest, and skill, with recreational shooting. My son has been very interested in getting a bolt-action .22 and we finally decided to head down to Sharpshooters USA and buy him a Ruger American .22 Bolt Action Rifle. While checking that out, we ran across a pretty good deal on a Marlin Glenfield Model 25.
We decided to purchase this old, but well-maintained, rifle and then we hit their range to pop off some introductory rounds.
We're focusing on shot grouping (not adjusting the sights) and Connor put the majority of these shots into a quarter-sized area at 15 yards.
Just to make sure the rifle is shooting straight, I went ahead and shot a full 7-round magazine into a decently tight group.
We had a blast shooting this rifle before wrapping it up. Back at home, my son got to learn about the required maintenance coupled with shooting.
He did a pretty good job cleaning up my "Rick Gun", too. I can't wait to get back on the range with my son!!
Let me start by saying it was not quite as bad of a river run as Martin Sheen had in Apocalypse Now and everyone is (almost) smiling about it now, but we did have a less than perfect trip on the Chattahoochee this afternoon. As most difficult stories begin; I had the best of intentions...
I (somehow) talked the whole family into a bit of a floating trip down the Chattahoochee River in Roswell from Island Ford to Azalea Park. I've covered this 3.5 mile section a few times before (including last week as described in Andy, Can I Put My Bullet In!!) and thought it would be perfect for us. We hit the water with Zoe in the yellow kayak, Connor and Gretchen in a giant inflatable boat I bought right after EPIC FAIL - Attempt at Final Leg of ATL50 to try to finish up the ATL50 - Canoeing thru the Chattahoochee River NRA (which I finally wrapped up in A2A - Trip 0; Powers Island to McDonough Power Plant (We Finished up the ATL50)), and myself in my X-Factor. It looked to be a good time.
Zoe, despite getting jammed up several times on the shoals that are present at Island Ford (she made a few friends he helped her get unstuck), was having a great time. In fact, I have to admit one of the shining outcomes of the trip was that Zoe is interested in going out on the river again.
Awesome! But... let's now get ahead of ourselves. Things really didn't go that well...
First, the shoals really aren't very rough here, but there are MANY rocks along this section of the river.
Second, the boat I put Gretchen and Connor in is was VERY BIG.
Third, the combination of #1 and #2 really gave those two a VERY TOUGH time navigating the river.
Without going into the full story... they eventually hit some fallen trees along the shoreline (like those shown above) and poked a BIG hole in the outer chamber of the boat. Thankfully, the inner chamber held plenty of air and we decided to continue on down the river. The next picture shows how sad the boat looked without the outer chamber inflated as well as our little barge that we created by holding onto each other for a little, but ultimately that was just too slow.
In fact, the phrase "just too slow" described very well the rest of the journey. Painfully slow even! Thankfully, we did get to see a bit of wildlife along the way and in between grumpiness we had a few moments of fun when we realized that's all we were trying to do in the first place.
I ended up towing the Titanic a good portion of the way which is probably why my arms are sore right now. It took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to crawl the 3.5 miles of this short trip.
We finally go to the boat launch at Azalea Park and the pain didn't stop there. My kayak flew off my rack before getting secured and nearly knocked a couple of cyclists pedaling through the parking lot. That was the icing on the cake thankfully and getting in the air conditioned car and securing something cold to drink at a nearby QT really did lift everyone's spirits.
As the phrase goes, "it sounds bad, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds" could summarize this slow moving river run crawl. It also was a good reminder of a lesson I learned a long time ago; don't try to make your hobbies/interests into someone else's. 
Next up, pushing on with the A2A - Paddling from Atlanta to Alabama with an 18.5 miler to firmly get us out of Atlanta and into the countryside. I can't wait!!