Alcovy

The flood in July 2009 knocked this gauge's readings down by almost 2 feet. In 2010, cfs is no longer reported for this gauge. A level of 1.7 feet corresponded to the old 200 cfs recommended level after the shift.

The gauge is definitely way off now. I'm not positive yet but I think minimum may be more like 6'. I went by and looked at the dam today. It looked pretty high at 2'.

A friend and I ran this earlier in the week and it seemed to have great potential. The level was pretty low and we had to scoot our boats and push ourselves down every rapid. There were 4 river-wide strainers (2 we portaged and 2 we could squeeze under the downed tree). There were many interesting looking rapids along the way that would be great at high water. I suggest, as a general rule, if you can't clear the 1st rapid without scraping, wait until the level is higher. This short stretch took us over 2 hours to run at this scrapy level. Overall a neat river and one that I want to do again.

at 3.2 feet, we were able to run the dam. Two tree portages, but about 6 others requiring some limbo moves, and maybe three you could boof over. I'l still like a little more water, say 3.5 and up. Alcovy is not as flashy as rottenwood or sope. Smaller rapids than those two as well.

At 2.9 to 3 feet there are 2 strainers that must be walked. At higher flows some of the strainers might become more dangerous.

Several nice waterfalls drop into the Upper Alcovy. Most are probably too tiny and painfully shallow to run.

Head north out of atlanta on I-85 to highway 316. Take 316 north take a right on Cedar Rd. and drive less than a mile to highway 29. Turn left and go south to find the put in.

Has anyone run Hopkins Creek? It merges with the upper Alcovy on the way down the run and looks just as steep.