Reynold's Bend on the Etowah River
After several of us finished Introducing Tony to the Etowah last year, I decided we really wanted to do the next section of The Etowah River – Reynold's Bend. When I ran across a Coosa River Basin Initiative's (CRBI) guided trips page a few months ago, I was thrilled to see they had this 17-mile section as one of their outings. After asking around, Roger and his son, Kyle, agreed to register for this trip, too. I was thrilled when we finally got out on the water to get this trip started.
We had a good sized group and I was able to get a quick "Hey Mom!" photo of Roger and Kyle.
The section has the most fish weirs of all of the Etowah and we stopped at one of the early ones to check it out.
Our guide for this trip was Joe Cook (the fella pointing below; and sorry for the glare – my camera took some damage during my family's Florida Keys 2015 vacation) and he shared with us the details, and historical significance, of these fish weirs. He also posted a sweet photo album on the CRBI's Facebook page.
Several years ago, I stumbled across the trip Joe and his wife, Monica, took down the entire length of the Chattahoochee River which motivated me to begin paddling and stand up my own epic, if not slow-moving and (possibly) over-optimistic, adventure; S2S - The Chattahoochee River from Source to Sea. My travel load has been tough these last few years, but I'm still chewing on it. Check out Joe's books on Amazon.
We witnessed some awesome wildlife, but my camera was definitely not as fast as my eye. I did sneak in this rough picture of a blue heron and we also saw egrets as well as a bald eagle. We saw some fish, too, and of course... turtles!
The next stop was Ravenel Cave (blurb below from river section guide).
This ancient cave was likely used as shelter by Native Americans, but it was most notably employed as a “saltpeter mine” during the Civil War. The Confederate Nitre Bureau mined caves throughout this area to extract nitrates to be used in the production of gunpowder. Proximity to water—an essential ingredient in the extraction process—is the likely reason this cave was mined. Soil was removed from the cave floor and through an arduous process that involved soaking the soil in water, adding wood ash and boiling off the water, potassium nitrate was created. The miners were known as “peter monkeys” and worked for low wages in the dark, damp caves. The workers at the Ravenel Cave were Confederate draftees who earned 60 cents per day. The Ravenel Cave was mined during 1861 and 62, but the nearby, and larger, Kingston Saltpeter Cave produced Confederate gunpowder until Sherman’sinvading troops destroyed the operation. According to a 1970 survey, the cave extends 203 feet into the bluff overlooking the river.
It was fun going into it.
It wasn't the cave crickets above that suggested I turn around, but the tight spaces and the pitch black that encouraged me to head back out!
Back on the river we had a cool little ledge to go over next.
I know this does not look like much, but it looks a bit more interesting down at water level. 
Joe was nice enough to take a few photos of me on this little drop that are in his photo album, too.
While I'm so no beauty to behold, this river sure is!!!!
About two-thirds of the way into this 17-mile trip we come upon Rock Island.
What do you do at Rock Island? You jump into the river!!
I stole these three photos from Joe's album, too!
While that was surely a "sight to see", there were plenty more cool sights for the next two miles which is the namesake of this section of the river; Reynold's Bend.
At this point in the day, with about four miles left on the trip, I think we were all getting a bit tired and ready to make our way to the end. We just kept getting our paddles wet and eventually we saw the bridge that signaled the take-out point just ahead.
What a great day on The Etowah River and for me, this is the longest stretch of river I've ever paddled that did not have a single bridge crossing it. It is so nice to have such a remote river run within easy reach of Atlanta. I'm betting I'll do this run again someday!!