Chattooga
Section 3 - Earls Ford to Route 76 Bridge
| Difficulty | II-III+(IV) |
| Length | 12 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Permit | Do it yourself permits. At access points fill out the permit. Put one copy in the box at the access and take one with you down the river. |
| Gauge | Chattooga River Near Clayton, Ga |
| Flow Rate as of 40 minutes | 1.62 ftlow runnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | December 9, 2024 |
River Description
Section 3 is a beautiful section of river. Since the Chattooga is a National Wild and Scenic River the river corridor is protected by a 1/4 to 1/2 mile buffer zone where developement is not allowed. There are few permanent signs of humans from the route 28 bridge to route 76 bridge. You may see tents and a campsite or two but no roads, houses, convenience stores, or fast food restaurants. The access points (other than those at the bridges) are set back 1/4 mile or further from the river so that you will have to carry your boat for a while. There is a self-permit system (no fee), where you fill out the form, drop a copy at the box near the put-in and carry the other copy with you down the river.
Back in the early days (circa 1970) when this author first paddled the Chattooga, almost everyone paddled either Section 2 (rte 28 to Earl's Ford), Section 3 (Earl's Ford to rte 76 bridge) or Section 4 (76 bridge to the lake). There were reasons for this; most boaters did not know where the other access points were and the roads to them were often 'rough'. Now it seems that a minority paddle the 'old ' section 3 of Earl's Ford to 76 bridge. The access points for section 3 are from upstream, Earl's Ford, Sandy Ford, Falls Creek, Thrift's Ferry, 76 bridge, and I will add Woodall Shoals (technically on section 4 but these days more a part of section 3).
Earls Ford is the takeout for Section 2 and the put-in for a couple of reasonable runs on Section 3. It is not terribly steep so the carry works in both directions. The Sandy Ford access is also not too steep or long and works OK both as a put-in or take-out. Falls Creek is long and steep, it is at best fair as a put-in but I can't imagine anyone wanting to carry a boat up that trail - you'd have to be heavily into self-flagellation. It would serve as an emergency access. Thrifts Ferry is fairly good (and popular) as a put-in, it's a bit harder as a take-out as it's fairly uphill. Route 76 Bridge serves as the n
...River Features
Earls Ford
Put-In
Warwoman Rapid
Run right to left.
First Island Rapid
Run the right side of the island.
3 Rooster Tails
About a quarter mile above Dicks Creek ledge is a short but exciting rapid with a rock that bisects the river flow. Most boaters take the left channel.
Dicks Creek Ledge
One of the more technical rapids on the upper stretch. Many options for routes. Above 4.5 feet this rapid turns into a nasty riverwide hole.
Sandy Ford Rapid
Pretty easy at lower levels. But rather interesting at high water. When 5 falls is too high for mere mortals, lots of boaters end up doing high water runs of section 3. Above 4.5 feet Sandy Ford hides the biggest hole on section 3. Three of my friends tell about a simultaneous cartwheel session in this hole at high flows. 2 of them swam out. The boats ran the narrows without them. Getting the boaters back with the boats got kinda epic.
Just below the rapid on river left is an access point.
Whetstone Creek enters the Chattooga here right below Sandy Ford and boaters can hike their boats up this creek for some waterfalls.
Narrows - First Half
The longest individual rapid on Section 3. The river will bend to the left, and the Narrows will show itself. The most important move is the first wave train/hole, where the river funnels to the middle, next to a couple undercut rocks. If you swim, stay in the middle of the river until you clear the undercuts.
The Narrows - Second Half
The second half of the Narrows can be trickier than the first half. There are boils before the last Narrows rapid, that can get squirly at high water, and slow down your momentum. As for the last rapid, you can usually take either river right, or river left. At higher water, river right can create a curler off the rock in the middle, that can stern squirt you if you hit it. If you don't have a roll, it could be a long swim. Overall, it's an amazing section of river.
Second Ledge
A 6 foot tall ledge. This is where many southeastern boaters learned to boof. At moderate flows there is a good wave below the ledge. Portage left. The line is usually about 3-6 feet off the overhanging tree on the left bank.
Fall Creek
Access point
Painted Rock
Easy at low flows, but grows some large waves above 2 feet. Stay off the big rock in the middle. It's called painted rock for a reason. River left at low levels is a potential pin issue.
Thrifts Ferry Access Parking
Thrifts Ferry
Access point on river left. Just below the thrifts ferry trail is a sweet rapid with a great wave. Nice eddy on river left. Great for spud boats above 1.7 feet.
Bull Sluice (high water)
When the Chattooga gets huge boaters still run the Sluice.
Highway 76 Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportAfter getting up early and watching every gauge we could think of spike, Taylor Sobczak, Sammy Lockwood, and I decided to head to the Chattooga. We met at the whitewater shop and kicked around ideas. We knew the level was spiking hard, but at that time, it had only come up to around 2’.
I convinced them to do Sandy to the bridge because I figured it would probably only get up to around 3’. It was also for this reason that I chose to paddle my Dagger Medieval. It was raining so hard that we wore our dry suits to load boats and run shuttle. As we hike down Sandy Ford none of us could believe the amount of water flowing through every depression in the topography, and the gushing waterfalls that are normally just wet rock slabs. This walk is when it really occurred to me how high this river may be and made me yearn for a larger boat. Sandy Ford was unrecognizable, there was way more water than any of us had ever seen, and I really started to get nervous.
I knew that the narrows would be where we truly understood what we were up against. I went for the traditional line through the start of the narrows, and I narrowly missed a massive hole. I watched a Firecracker get tossed around in said hole. He escaped and we eddied out before running the second part of the rapid. After nearly getting back-endered in what I thought was a clean line, we got through the second part of the narrows and quickly floated down to second ledge.
We made the good decision to scout, and with great difficulty we were able to lay eyes on it. The main line was dropping into a hole with the boil line probably 10 feet from the ledge. That wasn’t going to work in our low volume boats, but I spotted a line on the far side of the river, probably 60 feet from the bank we were standing on. It looked ok, a break between bad looking holes that would be smooth as long as you were on line. By the time I got back to my boat I noticed all the waves in the middle of the river were now larger and some of them had turned into holes. The river was still spiking hard, and my line now looked a lot less inviting. The ferry to that side of the river was incredibly hard, but I turned my boat downstream in time and was able to ride a massive wave through a part of second ledge that is typically dry rock. We enjoyed big bouncy waves and holes before deciding to scout Eye of the Needle.
There were two lines that looked ok, both involved tight moves dodging serious pour overs on both sides (at this point the rock the usually directs all the water to one side was large pour over that looked like a serious beatdown if you entered it). On top of this, as far as the eye could see there were large waves and holes not unlike something you’d see on the Olympic section. We decide to portage because of the remoteness and potential of a very long swim and the loss of a boat very far from civilization. We then enjoyed flying through massive waves and enjoyed some good surfing and big eddy lines.
We scouted Painted Rock and I was glad we did. The rock in question was completely underwater and creating an ugly looking hole. The normal line on river right had its own bad looking hole so the line we ran was middle left driving as hard left as we could to steer clear of the painted rock pour over. That was a fun ride! From Thrifts to the Bull was more of the same big water, you can go places that are normally completely dry and you will pass eye popping holes constantly. By the time we got to the Bull, it was at 4.5’ so we portaged made the ferry to the beach. We were thankful to have made it off the safe.
Overall, this was a fun but scary day. At one point I heard my friends yelling at me, they were alerting me to the 50-foot tree that was in the river next to me. We all eddied out and got to watch it wrap around a rock. It sounded like thunder. This is no place for those unfamiliar with the Chattooga and yet most of the lines are completely different than those at normal flows. This is a big water run, and a swim here could end very badly.
Ran Sandy Ford to the highway at 1.66. This is definetly on the lower side of whats optimal for this run but I would do it again at this level. Run was clear of dangerous wood in all of the rapids.
Went to the Chatooga to run Sandy Ford to Bull Sluice. Was very scrapy in the flatwater and at Bull Sluice, all other rapids went well. The flake at the double drops line on Bull Sluice did not have a lot of water running over it which caused one of the boaters on the trip to get stuck right at the lip of the drop.
Ran yesterday. Internet gauge at 1.85ft. I guess that means the gauge at the bridge was probably 1.7ft. It was a fine level for our first trip. Rapids still had plenty of water. Scraped a couple places in the wide shoals but not a problem at all. We portaged eye of the needle. Just didn't like the look of it. Ran everything else. We observed no wood in any of the main lines from Sandy to Thrifts.
Interpretive signs at US 76 river access that serves as Section III take-out and Section IV put-in.
The strainer / logjam at the Narrows has apparently been removed from the Narrows. Main log is now on river right on the ledge below the narrows (Narrows Ledge).
A high water trip with the Southeast Chapter of the River Management Society celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
A week ago, 4/20/15, there was a large tree, very bad strainer, at Dick's Creek Ledge at 3.5 feet on section 3 that obscured any route over the ledge. Be sure to scout before running.
Jay Davis running Bull Sluice