GA Park Paddlers Club Series - Paddle 1 Chattahoochee Bend

Your TL's are experienced paddlers and enjoy planning and experiencing areas outside of metro Atlanta.  Both have kicked around the idea and 2017 is the year we get the shirt offered by GA State Parks.

Join us for our quest to earn the coveted Park Paddlers Club T Shirt!  The GA State Park system has identified 6 waterways, 22 miles total, at various locations around the state, that comprise the Park Paddler Club. These parks are Chattahoochee Bend, Crooked River, George L Smith, Reed Bingham, Stephen Foster, and Sweetwater Creek. If you’re familiar with the Canyon Climbers Club or Muddy Spokes Club, this is the same idea. We will be scheduling various paddles/camping events based on locations and weather throughout the year. The official number is 22 miles, we see this as a minimum and intend on doing much more dependent on parks and conditions.

How it works: You purchase a Park Paddlers Club card from a ranger station at any participating park or online at www.gastateparks.org then visit each park and paddle the specified waterway and minimum length. The ranger will then stamp your card. Once all 6 stamps are collected, you send the card in and receive a Paddlers Club T-shirt by mail.

Our intentions are to offer camping opportunities at each event, these will be posted accordingly. At each event all paddlers will be expected to have their own boats and equipment and be able to paddle a strong D3 or D4. Our paddles will involve currents, wild animals, and many hours in a boat – it is not an advanced series of events, but the paddles also will not be beginners’ paddles in most cases. We hope to complete the series within 2017, but dates will be subject to locations and geographical considerations (i.e. we won’t paddle the swamp during yellow fly season, etc.). So join us for one, join us for all, just join us and paddle!

Our first paddle will be Chattahoochee Bend park. This is a 5-mile day trip which will begin at McIntosh Reserve Park, just off Highway 5 south of Whitesburg, Georgia. We will set up a shuttle to Chattahoochee Bend based on participants and vehicles in attendance. The state website states that paddlers can expect to see otters, a variety of herons and water birds as well as Bald Eagles. Deer, bobcats and coyotes come to the river’s edge to drink. Our paddle ends at the Chattahoochee Bend Day Use Area Boat Ramp, the first access with parking and vehicle access. The paddle is billed as a day trip, but we will be doing in a shorter amount of time as we will then go to our second paddle - Sweetwater Creek Park. Please see separate event posting for this paddle.

Your leaders have paddled this section of the Chattahoochee, and are aware that dependent on water levels and natural occurences, it is likely to have class ones, dead fall, obstaccles and large rocks to manuever around. Nothing is extreme, but you should feel comfortable manuevering a kayak in a current. Your leaders are expereinced in rescue, but see no likelihood of needing to exercise such strategies.

We will meet at the boat ramp at McIntosh Reserve Park

As this and Sweetwater Creek are the first paddles of the series, participants in either/both paddles will have first priority in upcoming paddles. we want to be able to accommodate all who would like to earn the tshirt together. 

All members are welcome to register and participate in each event. However those who have registered to complete the Paddlers Club Series will have first priority. When registering all members will go to a wait list. Those in the Paddlers Club Series will be added to the event first. After those registrants have been added, other registrants will be added in the order they have registered. 

At the end of the paddle we will caravan to Sweetwater Creek and meet others there, commencing with the second paddle in the series. This paddle will be relatively easier and will not require a shuttle.  

Those interested in camping are invited to stay for the night. we'll discuss those details closer to the paddle.   

May cancel in case of inclement weather

If bringing a dog, be sure your friend is well versed in your boat

Dogs must have PFDs also

Please realize other paddles in this series are not suitable for dogs, especially when we visit the Swamp areas which are inhabited by many predators.

We will meet at the boat ramp at McIntosh Reserve Park

Park Paddlers Club Cards may be purchased in advance online or at Ranger Stations http://www.georgiastatepark s.org/ParkPaddlers

Please feel free to set up your own carpool - plan on being 30 minutes early to the event.

This event may be cancelled due to inclement weather