Stekoa Creek, GA

Top of 20-20

Top of 20-20
Photo by Logan James @ -12" on 441 bridge

River Description

  This run from 441 bridge to Rickman Airfield Road Bridge is 2 miles in lenght with a very easy shuttle.  The creek at the bridge is flat with one rapid in the class 3-4 range for about .2 miles then picks up as it drops about 200 feet in a mile long stretch where all the big drops are.  The river then flattens out for .80 miles of class 1-2 wave trains to the takeout.  I have done 2 very low water runs of this section with the first being at -12” on the painted gage on the 441 bridge and the other at -9” on the bridge. Both runs were very similar in that is was very scrappy and had lots of portages for such a short run. The first rapid is roadside and it is a 4-5 foot ledge that has a sieve in the river right side that cannot be seen because it is covered in water.  At the low flow I got pinned in this seive. The creek then flattens out for about 100 yards then goes around the bend into a huge nasty rapid that looks to drop about 30’+. We portaged and did not see much of a route at the low water, but I have looked at it at high water like 2 feet on the 441 gage and it is huge and still looks nasty. I would say a V+ rapid. After that was a slide entrance into a waterfall of about 15’ high.  It is a high angle slide. This is the slide in the pic and the video named 2^nd rapid or Big Slide Worse Hole. The hole at the bottom looks like it would get bad at high water. There is also a piton rock in the center right side that causes a reticulating hole on the right side of drop. The river then drops through some small rapids that many were clogged with wood. We had to get out 2 times in this stretch because of log jams. After these small rapids you will see a huge horizon line signaling the time to get to the bank. This rapid is 20-20 in the photos because it looks like a double drop of about 40 feet. We portaged this on the right side by sliding down the rocks at the low water level. The bottom part of the drops looks like it is a go, but the landing is only about 4 feet deep at low water. The pool below might fill up at higher water and you would probably be fine as long as you landed pretty flat and did not pencil. The top drop did not seem to have a good route as it all landed on rock. The next significant rapid is what I called double crack in the photos. We were able to slide down the middle with the low water, but might be difficult at higher water. The next rapid is right below and it has a huge holly tree in the bottom, but the right line looks like a very good boof if the tree was removed.  There is also a route down the center but the left line looks to be the bad place. The next rapid is a slide that drops bout 15-20 foot, and is the video titled last rapid. The river then starts to flatten out with small waves to the takeout at the bridge. If anyone else has ran this section and has any other data or information like names of rapids let me know by posting a comment.
 

The rapid descriptions and ratings are from when paddled at a very low flow.  Come water I will be able to edit them.

There is about 4 miles of flatwater before things start to drop again. That is covered in the next section of the creek.