20 Years—that’s over a hundred years in dog years (more on that later). That’s how long Georgia Rivers has hosted its Paddle Georgia events. In 2005, we hoped to get just 100 people to register for that first epic journey on the Chattahoochee River; 300 people signed up.
On the last day of that inaugural trip, we stopped at Hilly Mill Falls, a beautiful cascade in Heard County that empties into an inviting swimming hole. When I reached the rise overlooking the falls, what I witnessed made it clear that we’d hit upon something special with this crazy idea of a week-long paddle trip.
Before me were a host of people from all walks of life—young/old, male/female, black/white, gay/straight—all frolicking in the cool water. It looked a lot like an earthly vision of heaven—a joyful collection of souls all celebrating a shared journey.
Next June, we celebrate our 20th anniversary (for those counting, we skipped 2020 because of a world-wide pandemic) with a 7-day, 80-mile adventure down South Chickamauga Creek and the Tennessee River. We’ll stroke through three states—Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee—in this one-of-a-kind journey.
This week, I ventured up to South Pittsburg, Tennessee (home of Lodge Manufacturing…think iron skillets) with my daughter Ramsey and scout dog, Oconee, to check out a portion of next year’s route.
It will be Oconee’s last scouting trip. She is 15 and nearing the end of her life. She “rescued me” on the Oconee River in December 2010 as April Ingle, Ben Emanuel and I scouted the route for Paddle Georgia 2011. Since that day, we’ve been mostly inseparable. She’s chased the scent of deer through the woods along the Oconee, wallered in dead fish on the Ogeechee (and every other river in the state!), chased gators off sandbars on the Ocmulgee and swam in the springs of the Withlacoochee and Suwannee.
The journey down the Tennessee with my good ole’ now-gray-haired dog and 25-year-old daughter who was just six on that first Paddle Georgia got me to reminiscing on 20 years of adventures: friendships formed, magic encountered, folly sometimes averted and often experienced.
In 2005, Atlanta police tried to run us off the campus of North Atlanta High School, a campsite arranged and confirmed with the high school principal months in advance. “Unless you’d like to pay for hotel rooms for these 300 people, we’re camping here,” I told the officers. They called the principal; we stayed.
In 2008, Paddle Georgia became known as “Puddle Georgia” as Donna McCarthy, John Councilman, Dean Crist and the rest of the Dumb A— River Gang (plus 300 of their friends) drug their boats over the drought-stricken shoals of the Flint River.
In 2009 on Carters Lake and the Coosawattee River, one wayward paddler took a wrong turn and like sheep, everyone behind followed (not naming names…Bonny Putney!), only realizing their mistake after more than two miles of wrong way paddling.
In 2011, we caked ourselves in white kaolin and jumped in a Georgia red clay mud pit as part of the “Redneck Olympics” in East Dublin on the Oconee River.
In 2015, Terry Pate and others posed “nude” on the Ogeechee River’s “Nude Beach.”
In 2018, Rob, Robert and Beverly Benfield and the Paddle Georgia Navy dined on fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café in Juliette along the Ocmulgee River.
In 2019, a leaping sturgeon slapped Pat Hriczo on the Suwannee River.
And then there are the nightly animal jokes, a tradition that started with the robust redhorse in 2007…What do you call a robust redhorse that was just arrested? A robusted redhorse.
We’ve made humor with washboard mussels, Halloween darters, blind cave salamanders, gopher tortoises and more. What do you call a darter that had beans for dinner?…a farter darter. Or what did the elementary school mathematics teacher say to her unruly classroom of American shad? “SHHHHH! Add!” Or How do washboard mussels communicate? By shell phone. Or why are gopher tortoises (the official state reptile) listed as a threatened species? E-reptile dysfunction.
Groans or laughs. On Paddle Georgia one is as good as the other.
As Ramsey and I paddled down the Tennessee with ‘Conee resting peacefully between us, we talked of these Paddle Georgia adventures past and those things in our life that have been constant…those things that in tough times bring us comfort, assurance and joy.
I offered up the companionship and unquestioning love of a dog for the past 14 years. Ramsey who has shared with me each of the Paddle Georgia adventures since 2005, mused on the question a bit and said, “Paddling.”
“Yup,” I said. “Being on the river is good for the soul.”
I suspect many among the 7,000 or so Paddle Georgia participants over the past 20 years feel the same way.
Hope we will see you on the Tennessee in 2025!
Paddle Georgia, A Project of Georgia River Network - Weblog 