Paddle Georgia 2015 Day 6: Legislators, Trash, and Unicorns

What do legislators, trash and unicorns have in common?

Day 6 of Paddle Georgia finds the paddle participants on the river with invited professionals and Georgia legislators. This popular day had professionals from Sierra Club, 100 Miles, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Josh Findlay from US Reps Jody Hice’s office. The new “fresh” paddlers gave all of us an opportunity to share “our” river with them and talk about the beautiful journey we have been on this week. Yes, it feels like we know this river. We have bumped and shimmied and danced around her trees. We have bathed in her cool, clear amber water. We have lounged on her many large, CLEAN, sugar sandbars. I think I can speak for many a paddler who is very sad to see this journey coming to the end and promise to come back.

CLEAN, yes in caps… the cleanest river I have ever been on…period. Being the “Trash Queen” I guess I can be considered sort of an expert. Today, Thursday, is our Paddle Georgia river trash cleanup. I was so fortunate to have past PG participant Christine Kirkland from Effingham County Schools contact me and offer to help me with our cleanup months ago. Not only did she and fellow teacher Lauren Osborne arrange for the dumpster, they also made sure we had a party! The generous people of Effingham County thanked the PG paddlers with food, cold drinks, T-shirts and much merriment. Even in this clean river we managed to bring in around 1,500lbs of river trash.

O yeah….Unicorns… yes unicorns. There has been a unicorn appearing on the side of the river on various paddling days. I included a picture, and just for the record I had absolutely nothing to do with this appearance.Lots of people have seen it, and yes it is alive, yes it is kind of silly, and maybe even a little weird. But when I first saw it, just for a split second, I believed it was magic. The Ogeechee can do that.

Bonny Putney, Georgia River Network Board Member

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Day 4 Paddle Georgia 2015: Short n’ Sweet

Today we completed our shortest day of the trip – about 10 miles. I can only describe this day as short and sweet – short days on the river leave time for fun, sun, and relaxation. And the Ogeechee River delivered and delighted on all accounts. Well, except for maybe sun. Distant storm clouds treated us to cool temps and playful breezes. I must say it was one of the most enjoyable days I have had all my days of Paddle Georgia.
After sleeping in until about 6:15am I headed out to grab my daily Café Campesino, a must-have for an awesome day. Then, I sat down to enjoy Effingham County High School’s outstanding breakfast, which not only included a hot bar but also a selection of sweets. The Paddle Georgia Youth Program girls took full advantage of the doughnuts, sweet buns, and muffins to fuel up for the day.
The girls, all students at Camp Creek Middle School in Fulton County, make up our Paddle Georgia Youth Program. Each year, a group of underserved students receive scholarships to join the Paddle Georgia flotilla and I am fortunate to guide them down the river. All are “canoe-bies”, new to canoeing and camping and eager to learn. The Ogeechee’s waters have taught them to be fantastic paddlers and their skills improve daily – strategizing with their paddling partner to sneak through strainers, reading their maps to know what to expect ahead, and seeking out the best beaches for swimming.
Wildlife is always fun – we arrived at the put-in to find that a sneaky field mouse had made our canoe home for the night. A few miles into the day we spotted a water snake gorging itself on a fish. Our students snagged a live mussel out of the sand and peered into its shell to find it was still inside. We also spotted Swallow-tailed Kites, dragonflies galore, and even a darter.
The helpful current and low mileage left us lots of time to relax – a welcome break from the past few more challenging days. Water cannons locked and loaded, we ambushed some of our fellow paddlers in a friendly water war. Call me bias, but I think we had ‘em beat. We took a peek at our watches around mile 9 to see that it was only about 3pm, so we grabbed a beach and a cookie break and soaked in the river life, laughing with one another and coming up with river names for each other. Our crew now consists of “Nascar”, “Coach”, “Bacon”, “Fro”, “Little Dolphin Girl”….you get the idea. Don’t be surprised to hear someone say “Hey Tiki Torch!” as we banter across our boats to each other. Don’t be surprised to hear us singing, whistling, or trying to solve Mr. Joey’s (now affectionately named “Chilly”) latest riddle. With our crew, the fun never stops.
Speaking of fun, tonight’s evening programs were all about fun.

All 300-some odd thru-paddlers obediently gathered for the annual group photo and then headed to dinner. As I type, the sounds of fun surround me – the rhythm of Cornhole bags hitting the boards during the very-popular Cornhole Tournament, Victor’s gameshow music echoes through the cafeteria during Game Show Night, and the folks with Adopt-a-Stream share their expertise with a group of around 35 people so that they too can keep watch over our waters. The Paddle Georgia Youth Program girls are all also on their way to becoming certified by AAS, I can’t wait to hear what they’ve learned.
Days like this make it easy to see why Paddle Georgia has captured my heart. The community, the advocacy, and for me, the tradition. Good people abound. It’s contagious. My hope is that our Youth Program participants catch the love of rivers and help us sustain our water resources for the future.
Alicia Evans, Georgia River Network Board of Directors

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