Chattahoochee

Nantahala Outdoor Center NOC is the outfitter on the Metro Hooch. They will rent you anything you want to get down river and can arrange instruction for those that want to learn.

Ran the 'hooch from Johnson Ferry to Paces Mill on 3/21/15, about a 6.5 mile float that took us a little over 3.5 hours including a brief lunch on the beach at diving rock. If you just float (don't paddle) it takes about 5 hours. Water level around 3 ft which I think is about 2100 cfs. It was a nice relaxing paddle on a beautiful day. Saw otters in multiple places. I'm told they can be aggressive but they didn't give us any trouble. Nice stretch to float if you aren't looking for a big adrenaline ride. I took 3 newbies with almost no experience paddling and my dog in my kayak and we didn't have any trouble. We were in two tandem sit-on-tops. Watch out for fly fisherman at the takeout, they can clog up the area pretty well.

Roll practice on the Chattahoochee river.

The AW ranking of Class I-II for normal flows and up to Class III for high flows is accurate. It all depends on the water level.

Middle section of Island Rapid

Top Part of Island Rapid. You should be able to use the trees in the background to line up these three photos to get a panaramic idea of this rapid.

Beautiful Fall Day on the Hooch... the water was green and as clean as I've seen on this section.

First off, there is no class II+ rapid on this section. Went down this section twice yesterday (1480, 1200 cfs) and we had a great time. Brought a buddy who had never been kayaking and whitewater and he had a blast. The water was green, didn't smell and the scenery was amazing. This section gets a lot of bad publicity, but I enjoy it everytime. The two corner rapids are class II... they are both listed as II+, but they aren't. Most fun part of this run is the 100 yard section of rapids above the Island. It carries you all the way around the corner where there is a smooth, rounded rock river right that you must navigate before making the turn. At 1480 cfs the wave train on the Island rapid will get you wet.

Another shot from the Island looking downstream. You can see the rock that everyone jumps off of on the left.

Bottom of Island Rapid 1480 cfs

There is an outfitter just google 'shoot the hooch' but I called them today and they charge $25-$35 an item for private boaters depending on where they shuttle you to. Ludicrous.

I would also like to know if there is an outfitter for this section. If not I would like to run it soon in a canoe and if anyone is interested we could take 2 vehicles and leave one at the takout. Hit me up at stodge@comcast.net. Jeremy

we like to stop here and take a break or a snack, the metro hooch is a great local atlanta run,10min from downtown

is there a outfitter or anybody that runs a shuttle on this section any info would be great thank u

mike jumping off the rocks

well, we ran this section yesterday. the cars we left at the put in were all broken into. someone took a crowbar or something and pried the locks out of the cars. they obviously knew what they were doing. the cops have had this problem before. and are working on finding the culprits. my suggestion is to park on the river right side of the river as the parking lot has more activity and is less hidden.

If doing an 'attainment workout', an alternate putin/takeout is the NFS parking lot and beach off of Whitewater Creek Rd (see the East Palisades map). This is just upstream of the I-75 bridge. From here it is a short paddle upstream to 3rd ledge.

Curious if the hydro relicensing for the Morgan Falls Dam will have any effect on boating this river.

Many of the paddlers and fisherpeople place little or no credence in the BacteriaAlert program. I, for one, have paddled the Hooch in all conditions and have never gotten sick. There is also no reason to believe that infection is a greater risk on this river than on other GA rivers. The 'HIGH' risk warnings are a classic example of exaggerating risk, and could have been replaced by a simple warning that when the water is high and brown, it is likely to be dirty and certain to be more dangerous for swimming.

The Hooch was a flowin.

I went out just after the heavy rain from Francis and Ivan and it was quite a blast. Ivan was by far the wildest I've ever seen the river, 6-8' holes just north or the Jumping Rock at Sandy Creek. On Friday the 17th the river was somethign special. My trip was a bit soured by 2 rookies that I happened to see fall out and I spent a good bit of time getting them safely to shore. But they made it. We even managed to save one of their boats. If you're in the market for a $200 red Galyans kayak, the other one is somewhere still in the river. Anyhow, the river is back to normal to high levels now, went out again today check out how the river has changed. Just south of the Palisades stay to the far left and there are some new cuts and changes in some old ones. I just found this site and its cool to have somewhere to talk about it. Taker easy.

I found a trip report of the river at 28,000 cfs:

From: 'Jimmy' <whitehtwoo@y...>

Date: Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:47 pm

Subject: Metro Hooch at 22 ft

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How often do you get the chance to paddle the chocolate milk colored

water of the Metro Hooch at 22ft? Not since, well... today. Which

was my reasoning behind doing it. My buddy Jamie and I put in at

Powers Island just after noon. The water was at the bottom of the

walking bridge over the inlet and there were 2 dry steps at the

river. As we approached the 285 bridge, there were a few honks from

passing cars above.. I'm going to assume they were meant for

encouragement.

Lots of boilers and funky currents under the bridge and a small wave

train on the right, nothing really worth stopping for. About 100

yards down and around the bend, we could see the first set of shoals

and they were raging. We pulled over by the Riverside apartments

platform and planned our route. River right seemed the best bet,

doesn't hurt to be close to shore if need be.

Things were bouncy for the next 50 yards... and at Devil's Race

Course the waves grew to about 5 feet and were coming from all

directions. I got caught between one coming sideways and another

cresting right in front of me. It flipped me over (yuk!) and the

current started pulling me to the bottom of the river... upside

down. I tried to hit my roll, but couldn't get the paddle out of the

water fast enough before I started sinking. I had to punch out and

spend the next 20 yards floating to the shore. I collected my boat

and paddle, dumped out and met Jamie a few yards downstream.

Everything else from then on was a little pushy, but for the most

part washed out. The Palisades take-out ramp was completely

underwater and we ended up paddling all the way to the far end of

the parking lot, just before it hits 41.

Beware of car breakins at the takeout and possibly the put in. Be particularly aware of a black jeep cherokee with very dark tinted windows, as that was the vehicle driven by the person who broke into my car at the takeout of this run last week. If you see a car like this parked away from all of the other cars in the lot, try to get the license plate number and call it in to the rangers of the park, as this vehicle has been implicated in several of the recent breakins at this park. Be good to bag this guy so that cars left in these lots can be a bit safer again.

I boated below the takeout once and there are some mild rapids from here to 'the Wave'.

Twice recently I've had the pleasure of running the metro hooch around 8000 cfs. Its sweet.

First ledge. The hole on the lower left is really big. It looks friendly, but you would have to drop it from above, and we've been skirting it. There is no good eddy to look at it before you drop it, and if you miss it you are on to the next wave/hole. The midstream ledges are awesome!! Surfing everywhere. Holes, waves of all types and descriptions. Most of them are one shot deals, but if you don't catch the one you are going for, be heads up and there will be another close by. After that is a good breath catching stretch of flatwater. Which leads the second set of ledges :-) Best surfing is top right, then start working to the middle. In the bottom middle of the channel are two large holes. The top one is more of a cool, but really big breaking wave. Its good to go. Behind that is a full blown hole. I've seen it played in, but not often. The eddy lines here at this level are big, boily, and mobile. Just below hole #2 is the only eddy you will come to midstream. Take a breather. More surfing is just below to either side of the island. The best hole is directly between the eddy and the island, but its hard to see until you get close. From there work back to the right of the island and grab whatever hole you can drop. At this water level I was perferring the faster boat over the spud for making the moves. (but the spud rocked once you made the moves).

Below the island it flatten out until you get to the next ledges. The next set, start right of center, then start working right. Once again, drop anything you can. No eddies - so all the holes are one shot deals. On the right, where there is flatwater, is a nice big surfing wave. Once again a one shot deal.

Then things flatten out for a bit. Next thing is the squirt spot. Nice wave beside the eddy. Long boats can ender, short boats can throw multiple ends. The wave beside the eddy is finicky.

The big VW sized boulder is very close to covered at 8000 cfs. Great eddyline for squirts and such. Below that is the I-75 bridge. The bridge is a hoot. Boiling eddy line. Marching and moving eddy fences. There is a great wave toward the bottom left with a good bridge piling eddy. Surfing the pillow above the top pilings is fun, but sketch.

Below the bridge is a great wave on the right. Another once shot catch on the fly deal. There is a tempting wave below this one, but stay away, its made by a rootball and backed by 75 feet of underwater strainer. Below this is mostly flatwater, with two or three smaller waves before you get to the takeout. At this level the water will be mostly runoff. Rolling and swimming is not recommended.

Somewhere around 12,000 cfs is when the take-out parking lot is in danger of going under water. Which is also about the level the National Park Service locks the gates to the take-out. Not a problem for boaters, just paddle across the parking lot and hike up the hill to the parking area outside the park.

This is the second set of 'rapids' on the metro hooch. At this low summer level there are some good eddies for squirting. At higher water all of those rocks start to make some nice holes and waves.

The slalom gates are usually taken down during the summer.

if you plan on doing the chattachoochee keep this in mind if it bothers you, the water is not very clean so dont swallow too much
when it floods this run is not hard at all but there could have been nasty holes we didnt see because it is so huge in lots of parts so be carfull, mainly of trees. this is a funny part of a flood though
no racing kayaks allowed.
dont make fun of me i had too