Chattooga

Purple dagger Mamba creek boat pinned in strainer/undercut on far river right of the shoals. No paddlers were injured. Small section of yellow throw rope daisy chained to the stern grab handle. If found, please contact me (Beau Milam) at 404-655-9083 or beau.milam1@gmail.com.

Riverside log in Jawbone. The river will need to drop to get it out.

There is a dark green Blackfly Option open boat stuffed deep in right crack. The throw bag flushed out with the loose end attached to the airbag lacing. The rope is tied to a log on river right. This should not pose any danger, just want to make everyone aware. No one was hurt, or in any danger. If the boat should flush out, please let me know. chrisromberg1966@gmail.com

Tangled Rope underwater towards the end of Jawbone:

We ran it at 1.4 ft on August 31st, 2014. One of the girls in my group going down today was flipped towards the end of Jawbone, running to the left of the big rock and the right of the little rock right before the eddy to Sock Em Dog. I was watching her the whole time, when she rolled, half way up, I saw this dark green/black colored rope tangled up on one side of her paddle. She held on tight and tried to roll again but it was pulling her upstream. She swam out of her boat later saying that her skirt imploded while trying to roll again. Fortunately she was able to get out before Sock Em Dog, her boat was retrieved after the Dog and paddle found after Shoulderbone.

I was glad that the rope tangled up to her paddle and not her body. She doesn't carry a knife with her. Please pass this on to everyone you know planning on visiting the river and paddling this section.

Consider portaging Jawbone.

Attention Paddlers:
Hazard in 5-Falls

During the last year, a number of kayaks have been pinned in Right-Crack.
Please be extra cautious around this river feature. Consider setting safety ropes below Corkscrew.

US Forest Service

Just a quick note to let everyone know to watch out for a log in Shoulder Bone on Chattooga IV.

The log is behind the overhanging rock (Shoulder Bone rock) on river right and it is pointing somewhat upstream out of the water. We were using the usual left side/angled line and going left/middle through the holes below without issue. If you hold tight to the river right overhanging rock, the log may very well be in play. It's easy to avoid, just stay left.

I'm not sure that it can be seen from upstream at all because we didn't know it was there until already in/below the rapid. If you know to look for the log beforehand, you might be able to see about 6 feet of it sticking up out of the water.

Overall a great day on Chatt, blue skies and good water. We even had the rarest of occurrences on the lake - both a tail wind and current to help us along most all the way to the takeout. Apparently they are releasing at the dam because the lake level is anywhere from 4-8ft lower depending on the lake width. It was really odd seeing so many sandbars out of the water and broken rafting paddles littering the bottom.

A tree is falling over into the right hand line at Woodall Shoals and there is a lot of wood at the bottom of the top drop. Don't run the drop without scouting it first.

'Ran at 1.2 river gauge today, but Stekoa was bumping (I estimate the level after Stekoa to be 2+)... New log stuck in middle crack/old log flushed out. The new log is horizontal like the last one, but juts out, creating somewhat of a boat flipper to your normal boof line. Not sure how long the branch will be on the log (roughly 4 inches thick), but take care to adjust your lean to avoid punching out on the wall. Happy fall paddling!'

Whatever was stuck on the old log washed out. The old log is still there.

Paddled Section 4 yesterday, a VERY low water run, about 1 ft on the bridge. Was able to see a large log pinned vertically in right crack. There is also a large log pinned in the left line of shoulder bone almost out into the main flow. USE CAUTION here at higher water when these hazards will not be exposed and could result in some nasty boat pins!

crack has changed in the last 30-45 days. right crack is now clear. just after new years, the wood from right crack appeared in far right crack and was kinda ugly; since then, however, the big log has washed out of far right crack and deposited itself in some rocks above jawbone--actually not a bad place for it. there are still some smaller logs in far right. i'll post some pics later in the week.