Vincent Payne and Doug Oetter, our heroes at the Buzzards Island Dam!
Good news! That ruined dam in Milledgeville that we had to negotiate today was a piece of cake. Thanks to Paddle Georgia veteran Doug Oetter, along with some of his students at Georgia College & State University and the staff of downtown Milledgeville’s Oconee Outfitters, all we had to do was hop out and walk 15 yards around a short, steep drop in the river while our safety boaters sent the canoes and kayaks by hand down the chute. A piece of cake!
Below this old dam at Buzzard’s Island was one of many sweet swimming spots that we had today in (relatively) cool, clear water below Sinclair Dam. There were a couple of good rope swings, and fortunately we had enough water in the river for those and for paddling, both. By the end of the day, the current had slackened a good deal as the river dropped, due to dam operation back at Sinclair. On an 8-mile day for Paddle Georgia, this only presented a problem for those paddlers who were particularly zealous about participating in our river clean-up day… and who loaded their boats down with anywhere from one to 12 tires pulled from the river. The tire pile at the take-out was quite a sight!
In other news, the Union-Recorder newspaper here in Milledgeville digs Paddle Georgia, which we appreciate. Check out their story and accompanying video here (partly starring yours truly with a one-day PG guest, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Mark Williams).
To sum up: we’re over the Fall Line, out of the Piedmont and its shoals, and fully into Georgia’s Coastal Plain. The river is changing dramatically with each day’s travel. Where today there were rocks and riffles, tomorrow there will be tight bends full of downed trees and snags. Best of all, no more dams!
We ended the day with a rousing round of canoe tug-of-wars at a pleasant Georgia Military College park on Lake Sinclair. In the end, it was a team led by paddler James Watson (a young man who got his start on Paddle Georgia and is now a member of the U.S. Junior National canoe team) that won the tourney.
Tomorrow we head for swampy bottomlands… and maybe the trip’s first gator! More tires and a couple of rope swing pics below…
-Ben Emanuel
