Expect the unexpected should be the motto for this year’s Paddle Georgia. When you weave through the Flint’s bends around Pine Mountain and Sprewell Bluff State Park, you’ll never guess that you are in Southwest Georgia. From the initial launch site east of Woodbury, the journey travels for four days across the Piedmont, meaning four days of rapids and shoals and a trip through what is arguably the most scenic stretch of river in Georgia. From the fall line, the river descends into the high coastal plain where it remains remote and wild. Unlike previous Paddle Georgia’s, this year’s route doesn’t pass through “civilization” until the final day of the trip when we enter Montezuma and Oglethorpe. In fact, it is the first Paddle Georgia that does not travel beneath an interstate highway.

For more information including a virtual tour and registration information, click here.

If river rapids generally fit into one of the following classifications, but the water temperature is below 50 degrees, or if the trip is an extended one in a wilderness area, the river should be considered one class more difficult than normal.

Class I – Moving water with a few riffles and small waves; few or no obstructions.

Class II – Easy rapids with waves up to three feet, and wide, clear channels that are obvious without scouting; some maneuvering is required.

Class III – Rapids with high, irregular waves often capable of swamping an open canoe; narrow passages that often require complex maneuvering; may require scouting from shore.

Class IV – Long, difficult rapids with constricted passages that often require precise maneuvering in very turbulent waters. Scouting from shore is often necessary, and conditions make rescue difficult. Generally not possible for open canoes: boaters in covered canoes and kayaks should be able to Eskimo roll.

Class V – Extremely difficult, long, and very violent rapids with highly congested routes that nearly always must be scouted from shore. Rescue conditions are difficult and there is significant hazard to life in event of mishap. Ability to Eskimo roll is essential for kayaks and canoes.

Class VI – Difficulties of Class V carried to the extreme of navigability. Nearly impossible and very dangerous. For teams of experts only, after close study and with precautions taken.

About 200 yards south of I-285 below Hartsfield International Airport is a small brick structure that bears the name: “Flint River Pumping Station.” This is where the feeder streams and rain culverts from College Park, Forest Park and the airport come together to form a stream. It’s a drainage ditch around Riverdale, but by the time this stream flows east of Fayetteville, it’s a river, on its way to becoming one of Georgia’s most prominent, the Flint.

It was the river that ran between Tara and Twelve Oaks in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. Scarlett could look out “across the endless acres of Gerald O’Hara’s newly plowed cotton fields toward the red horizon” where the sun set “in a welter of crimson behind the hills across the Flint River.”

As the Flint passes west of Griffin, it is a major river. When it enters Upson County and runs head on into the tail-end of Pine Mountain, it is one of Georgia’s most scenic rivers and the reason all ages of outdoorsmen and women flock to it.

It is canoeable above GA 18 west of Thomaston. But be ready to do a lot of portaging and bushwhacking through deadfalls, dams and other obstructions. Below GA 18, the scenery changes dramatically, and the Flint becomes a mountain river full of Class I and Class II rapids. This kind of terrain continues for 20 miles or so and climaxes just below the GA 36 Bridge with “Yellow Jacket Shoals,” a boat-busting rapid that can easily jump to Class IV in high water. Fortunately, the GA 36 bridge just before the shoals is the usual takeout.

After the rapids and the Fall Line, the Flint becomes a big, strong, flat water river, flowing south to create Lake Blackshear near Cordele, and finally, into Lake Seminole where it joins the Chattahoochee to form the Apalachicola in southwest Georgia.

Canoeing GA 18 Bridge to Pobiddy (Talboton) Road—About three miles below GA 18 the country changes; Pine Mountain throws up a barricade to the river’s edge, and resulting conflict between river and rock provides some of the most exciting scenic vistas along any Georgia river. The plants and animals of the mountains occur along this river valley, intermingled with coastal vegetation. As a result, Spanish moss hangs over mountain laurels and rhododendron, a strange but beautiful combination. The river has walled off, or more properly, carved off a sweeping bend in the Pine Mountain escarpment, leaving a cove protected on three sides by mountains and on the fourth by river. This river cove has provided isolation for plants, animals and people for thousands of years. Today, it offers the best recreation potential in the middle of the state if properly used. Just above Sprewell Bluff, a large ridge on the southwest side of the river, the Flint offers a series of shoaly rapids of no real consequence, but enough to pep up an otherwise placid run. A county park opposite Sprewell Bluff affords a takeout point for the upper trip, a place to enter the river for the lower stretch, or a picnicking and viewing point for the auto traveler. From Sprewell Bluff to GA 36, the river continues its good manners, with little gradient and no significant rapids.

At the GA 36 Bridge, the river appears swift but smooth, a tempting place for an easy Sunday float. But don’t believe it. Around the first bend, the canoeist will begin to encounter a building series of rapids, climaxing in the twisting drop at the bottom of Yellow Jacket Shoals.

At high water (10 feet or greater on the GA 36 gauge), these rapids can build up some very heavy water, with large waves, big holes and a better than even chance to swamp an open canoe. At about 10 to 11 feet, the river can be run by decked boats and rafts manned by competent, experienced paddlers. At high levels, even these paddlers would probably be endangered. At lower levels (eight feet), the river offers intricate maneuvering and long step drops down narrow chutes. Minimum levels are around seven feet. Take out for this run is at Pobiddy (Talboton) Road. The Yellow Jacket Shoals stretch with medium flow requires about three hours running time, a comfortable afternoon run.

There are few other rivers in the world where tupelo trees form part of the obstacles in the rapid, where Spanish moss drips onto mountain laurel, where water and rock have combined to give such a beautiful sweep to the travelers vision.

Put-Ins/Take-Outs: This section of the river naturally divides itself into several different trips. From GA 18 to Sprewell Bluff (about 14 miles; 6 hours) is an easy trip with no significant rapids. From Sprewell Bluff to GA 36 (7 miles; 3 hours) is more of the same. From GA 36 to Pobiddy (Talboton) Road, it’s a different story. Just around the bend is Yellow Jacket Shoals. Beginning boaters should remember that different water levels completely change the personality of a river. At 11 feet the sections above GA 36 will require more skill.

More Information: For up-to-date information, maps, water levels, over-night camping, shuttle, history and the latest river conditions, stop at Jim McDaniel’s Flint River Outdoor Center at the GA 36 Bridge, eight miles southwest of Thomaston. Born and reared near the river, Jim and his wife Margie have run this outpost since 1978. 706/647-2633.

One of the most interesting and anticipated experiences traveling up or down the lower Chattahoochee is that of going through the locks. Three dams on the Chattahoochee River—Walter F. George, George W. Andrews and Jim Woodruff—have navigation locks that allow recreational as well as commercial boats to travel both upstream and downstream. The locks are necessary to transfer boats from one water level to another. “Locking through” can cause anxiety the first time you do it, but it is relatively easy if you are prepared and follow the proper procedure.

1. Signal the lockmaster as you approach by calling on VHF radio Channel 16 or by cell phone (lockmaster numbers listed below) or by using the ropes at the upstream or downstream sides of the dam to sound a horn. A VHF radio or cell phone is good to have when going through the locks. We had neither the first time we locked through the Woodruff Dam on Lake Seminole. Most approach ropes are on the end of the approach corridor farthest away from the dam gate, but this one is extremely close to the gate, and we could not reach it in the choppy water. We had to go back two miles to Seminole Lodge to call the lockmaster to tell him we wanted to come through.

2. The lockmaster will signal you through the lock via traffic lights or horn blasts. A flashing red light means “do not enter,” a flashing amber light means “approach slowly” and a flashing green light means “enter.” A long horn blast means “enter the lock” and a short horn blast means “leave the lock.”

3. Pay attention to instructions and signals from lock attendants as you enter the lock; they will direct you to one of the floating locks. Be particularly cautious if you are entering with a lot of other boats or a very large vessel.

4. Have at least one 150-foot mooring line ready. On all three Chattahoochee River locks, boat passengers do the mooring. These passengers should wear PFDs. Tie the line to the floating lock and shut off the motor.

5. The lowering and lifting process is fairly slow. Sometimes you will not even feel it. But the noises of the floating locks as they do their job are eerie—especially in the Walter F. George Lock, which is the largest and very hollow.

6. When the process is completed, the lock gates will open. You are now on the same level as the river. Release your lines and proceed slowly from the lock.

Walter F. George Lock and Dam. This 82′ x 450′ lock on Lake Walter F. George drops, or lifts, passengers 88′ between the lake level and the riverbed below the dam. Open 7 days a week, 8am-4pm. 912/768-2032.

George W. Andrews Lock and Dam. This lock on Lake George W. Andrews is the same size as the Walter F. George Lock (82′ x 450′), but the lift/drop through the lock is only 25′. Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. 912/723-3482.

Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam. This lock on Lake Seminole is also 82′ x 450′ but it has a lift/drop of 33′. Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. 904/663-4692.