Etowah

Private low steel bridge previously at mile 1 has been washed downstream and completely blocks river. Can be portaged on the left at 300-500 cfs. Dangerous log jam leading to mile 2 is completely impassable can be portaged 50 yards upstream on the left. Extremely dangerous log jam at the bend at Etowah campground. Do not attempt passage on the right or any direction as you will be strained. Other numerous log jams along this route. Be extremely careful.

Hi Judy,Perceptive question! You can run a river in any type of craft, a canoe, kayak, raft, inner tube, boat, or caafrtat, while you can only raft a river in a raft. When I was running rivers back east in the eighties, I was using an open-boat canoe stuffed full of floatation bags, so I wasn't rafting them. Nowadays, I take commercial rafting trips down whitewater rivers, so the verb rafting is appropriate.I'm so glad you enjoyed reading Deadly Currents, and I look forward to reading your blog post about it!- Beth

I paddled this section 2/26/09 and it was very rough. Water level was over 4' on the gauge, but I was paddling on rocks a lot of the time. There are several spots where I had to paddle underneath river-wide trees. There were two places that I had to get out of the water and onto the bank to avoid debris built up. Until this section gets cleaned up - I wouldn't recommend it - even at higher water levels. It was a 5 hour trip paddling almost non-stop.