On April 10th, I and other GCA members paddled the Toccoa River near Blue Ridge , GA. We put in at Dial Road and took out at Shallowford Bridge Road around 7 miles downstream. Much of this section of the river is located within the Chattahoochee National Forest and the first 4 miles of the trip was along the Forest Service designated Toccoa River Canoe Trail. The canoe trial is 13.8 miles and starts at Deep Hole and ends at Sandy Bottoms where we ate lunch.
To view the video go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n0AJUtJBS4
or
Normally, GCA puts in at the Toccoa Valley Campground and takes out below the Party Rock and Little Nantahala Rapid; however, the property owner is now not allowing paddlers to take out there. Apparently, they are concerned about liability should a paddler get hurt on their property. Jack Taylor, the trip leader, explains the situation in the video. Because of this issue, we were unable to paddle the most exciting and beautiful rapid on this section of the Toccoa, which is Party Rock and the Little Nantahala.
Party Rock got its name from the numerous folks that were out “partying” at the rapid. During the summer folks would hang out and swim in and along the rapid, drink beer, picnic and have a big party. Aska Road , which is a publicly maintained road, parallels the river and at Party Rock there is a little pull out/parking lot. A couple of years ago the property owner that owned the land on both sides of the river became upset at the number of folks loitering and drinking along their property and local law enforcement started handing out tickets.
Recently, the property owner in a very nice non-confrontational way asked paddlers to not take out along their property for liability purposes. Jack asked the group what we wanted to do about the take out and the consensus was that it wasn’t worth getting a ticket or ticking off the property owner so we opted to take out at Shallowford Road.
You might notice that the look of the video is a bit different. I’ve uploaded the most recent edition of Corel Video Studio free trial video editing software and it is much better than the freebie Windows Movie Maker that came with my PC. The Corel software has more bells and whistles and it didn’t make my computer crash as often. I was also able to upload a better quality video to vimeo and you tube. I’ll probably go ahead and buy this software because of its ease of use.
Someone asked me about the music for the videos. I buy my music from www.soundsnap.com. I’m able to relatively inexpensively ($1.50/audio clip) buy royalty free music.
Regardless of the take out situation, we had a great time. The sun was warm and the company very pleasant. The water was flowing nicely and the little class I/II rapids were lively and fun. The Toccoa is a great beginner whitewater river. There are a couple of cool class II rapids and the scenery is exceptional.
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Jack is mostly right (my in-laws own a cabin 5 minutes from Party Rock). But a minor clarification.
ReplyDeleteThe problematic land owner in question does not own both sides of the river and will not harass those who "pass through." However, she doesn't understand setting safety and why anyone would want to step on her rocks and get out of their boat. I've passed through (taken out downstream) without incident.
The most downstream end of the parking lot is not her land; however, there is little room to park for a group to take out.