Introducing Tony to the Etowah

Wow, it has been two whole years since Tony and I were on the river with the last trip being A2A - Trip 1; 2 Kayaks, 18 Miles, 1 Lost Camera, and Too Many Hours (FINALLY Out of Atlanta) where I seriously had a solid scare (I need to try that bit again – this time with my boat pointing down river!).  I was thrilled that with with my second Malibu Kayaks boat (its debut voyage was The Start of the Oostanaula River) I was able to talk Tony back out on the river where he belongs. 

For this trip, I introduced him to The Etowah River where I have recently run a few of its sections.  Roger joined us as well.  As the Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map shows, we ran the Hardin Bridge section, but that was a game-day decision we made when we found out the put-in launch's park was closed for the season on the slightly shorter Euharlee seven mile run.  We made good time once we finally got on the river completing this nine mile section in just under three hours.

As the prior picture shows, this is another secluded river section for those like me who are eager to escape all the hustle & bustle of Atlanta and just paddle down the river taking in the beauty all around.  I was glad to find some turtles on this section which just seemed to be absent from some of the earlier sections of the river.

We were also blessed with a beautiful blue heron/egret that kept flying downriver a few hundred yards as we approached it.

We saw a cool old pair of pilings that predate the Civil War and was a key crossing point for trips during that conflict.  Yes, like so many things around Atlanta, this old wooden bridge was burned during the Civil War.  The pilings were eventually re-purposed to support an iron truss bridge which stayed open until 2008.

This section is home to six fish weirs as well as an area called Rock Garden where the river widens and becomes home to tons of barely submersed rocks that cause you to pick your path carefully.  Some good shoals followed to speed things up.

This trip was a fun and relatively easy section and I was so glad Tony could get back out on the water.  When shuttling back to the starting point to get everyone back in their cars we took a 10 minute diversion to check out the Euharlee Creek Covered Bridge that Gretchen and I visited back in Two More Covered Bridges.

Roger was a good sport (it took a couple of tries to get him to behave) and took a picture for his family.  Tony... well... Tony was being Tony.