5/17/2010: Amicalola Cr., Lower Amicalola (GA-53 to Kelly Bridge)
With: David Bernard, Dan Bertko, Kim Buttleman, Marilyn Jones, Regina O`Donnell, Chris Oberlin, Jenny Thomas, Mikel Wellman
This was 70 miles from camp, but we had decided in advance on the long day-trip rather than having to move camp after a second one-night stay.
Only Regina had ever paddled this before. For the rest of us it was a real treat, and the reason we had scooted out of Tellico Plains after only one night when we normally try to stay at each campground for two or three nights; it was so low that we wouldn't have liked to run it a day later. As it was, there was sufficient water to run everything except the first drops of the first big rapid, where there was a log in the chute which carried the most water.
This first rapid falls perhaps 30 feet over 150 yards or so of bedrock! It is followed by a wonderful series of bedrock rapids for about four miles, then by about two and a half miles of tame swift water before Amicalola Creek empties into the Etowah River, which yields about one and a half miles of slow brown water to the take-out.
We ate in a "Texas Steakhouse" in Gainesville, GA, and sprinted to make it back to camp seconds before they locked the gates at 10:00 PM.
