Powering Through the Lake Allatoona Section of the Etowah River

Created by Lester Martin
Last updated: Oct 16, 2017
3 min read

Just as we did last year when checking off Yurts of Georgia State Parks while at Red Top Mountain & Allatoona Lake, Gretchen and I rented a boat (same model as last year) and rode around on Lake Allatoona.  We were just about the only folks on the lake and much of it was close to glass.

There was a reason it was almost empty.  Temps in the upper 60's with overcast skies, but fortunately no call for showers.  We were a bit cool, but we tried to "look cool" at the same time!!

We had four hours to burn on the boat rental, so I took advantage of the fact that although Gretchen has no real interest in participating in my goal of knocking out all of The Etowah River (if you think that's a dumb goal, I can't image what you think of my S2S - The Chattahoochee River from Source to Sea dream), she had a chance to finish a section of it with me in this boat and we ended up driving the full length of the 18 miles (36 for us as we went out and back) of Lake Allatoona section of the Etowah.  Here's the bridge that we drove to (the beginning of the section) and then turned around.

 

Yep, that was exciting looking!!  (wink)  Here's the map created by my iPhone Routie app that shows the out & back path we took.  Of course, I updated my Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map, too!!

On the way back, we pulled over in this little cove (just to the right of the green push pin in the pic above) where we swam; albeit VERY briefly as the combination of the water and the air temp made it just a bit too chilly for the two of us.  We were very close to shore and the water was probably about 25-30 feet deep based on how much line I had to let out for the anchor.

We saw several herons throughout the day, but towards the end of our trip we decided to drag race this goose.  It actually could paddle pretty darn fast.

 

We finally caught up!!

We had a great day and again, THANK YOU, GRETCHEN, for getting us out there!  I am looking forward to our two upcoming Yurts of Georgia State Parks trips in a couple of weeks which will complete that "checklist" we've been working on!!