Recommend a canoe trip?

patooyee · Sep 1, 2010

My brother and I want to find a canoe trip to go on that will be fairly secluded and in the wilderness. No tourist traps and I want to see mountains again. We want it to be somewhat of a survival trip. Chattanooga area is convenient to drive to but not required. Anyone know of anything? Most of the stuff online is just tourist crap. Basically, if there are designated camping areas we don't want it.

J. J.

grcthird · Sep 1, 2010

Re: Recommend a conoe trip?

I've done two 50 mile trips down the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and one 25 mile trip down the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. But it's been a long time ago. When we went it was wilderness, and there were plenty of beaches to camp on and a ton of bluffs to jump off of, some about 80 ft high. Water moved most of the time and there were some decent rapids, nothing too bad. I'll see if I can find some info on it for you.

patooyee · Sep 1, 2010

Re: Recommend a conoe trip?

Man, I would love to do either of those but the drive time is a factor. He'll be coming from Orlando and I'll be coming from the FL Panhandle. We're wanting to do this over the course of a long weekend and want ot be able to drive there as we own our own canoe/gear and want to park a vehicle at both ends. Thus, north GA / southern TN is about as far as we care to go before we start loosing too much of our weekend to just the drive. Know what I mean? That's why Chatanooga came to mind, it is a quick drive all on interstates but still very scenic and mountainous.

J. J.

muchado · Sep 1, 2010

Re: Recommend a conoe trip?

I'd go for one of them jimmy smith canoes I hear they are bad bitches... :tarzan

patooyee · Sep 1, 2010

Re: Recommend a conoe trip?

Hardline Crawlers should just be renamed smith-cole-cameron-chat.com because apparently those 3 people are the only things worth discussing here. I also think its ironic that they are the three people who post the LEAST here.

J. J.

kid rok · Sep 1, 2010

The chatooga river is great. It's on the Georgia S.C line. They even made a movie of a canoe trip back in the 70's. Burt Reynolds was one of the star actors.

s10me · Sep 1, 2010

great river for sure.....just be careful stopping on the river banks ;D

Neal3000 · Sep 1, 2010

what kind of rapids if any are you looking for? the chattooga is LOW right now

patooyee · Sep 1, 2010

No rapids necessary, we're in it to practice survival skills and to have a brotherly experience before w get too old and bogged down by kids to truly rough it anymore.

J. J.

Bones · Sep 1, 2010

OMG a 50 mile float/camp/live of the land trip would be epic! I love going on float trips which usually just end in camping at the end and that's that. A weekend long float trip from A to B to C to D would be some serious memories. :****: :gay:

nateb83 · Sep 1, 2010

Re: Recommend a conoe trip?

patooyee said:
Hardline Crawlers should just be renamed smith-cole-cameron-chat.com because apparently those 3 people are the only things worth discussing here. I also think its ironic that they are the three people who post the LEAST here.

J. J.

LMAO

That is seriously the truth though :wtflol:

benfowler87 · Sep 1, 2010

Little River Canyon in north al is supposed to be a good trip. I've never been but always wanted to go do a float/camp adventure like this!

grcthird · Sep 2, 2010

We hit a place in Florida called cold water creek for a weekend trip once. No mountains but the water was quick and pretty fun. I just spent the last 30 minutes looking for a book I used to have that detailed all the rivers in Alabama that you could float in a canoe. It has maps with rapid locations, put in and take out points, camping spots. I'm kinda pissed that I can't find it

I'll keep lookin for ya. :dblthumb:

Edit; Here's one, but not the one I was thinking about.

http://store.allaboutrivers.com/river-guide-books/alabama-river-guide-books/Paddling-Alabama-C123-i51.html

I forgot about the Flint river! It's a fun 3-4 day or a weekend trip. Haven't done much in the mtns other than the Hiawassee Ga tourist trap day trip.

kid rok · Sep 2, 2010

Check out the chatahoochee. you could start in the mountains, float through lake lanier. then foot ferry over the dam and back into the river and make it all the way back down to the panhandle. Pretty decent river for canoing. very small rapids complete isolation at times. plus you can literally float through down town Atlanta.

Neal3000 · Sep 2, 2010

benfowler87 said:
Little River Canyon in north al is supposed to be a good trip. I've never been but always wanted to go do a float/camp adventure like this!

it's way too low to run and there are hard rapids on all three sections of it....not canoe friendly

this is the site that we use to check water levels....plus it has good descriptions of the rapids, directions to put-in and take outs etc.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_view

just from a quick look at it, it's going to be pretty tough to find anything in the mountains high enough to get down with a canoe full of gear.....i took some newbie friends down sec. 3 of the chattooga in kayaks in July at 1.8 and it was very scrapy.....now it's at 1.34.....which is technically runnable.....it IS an incredibly beautiful river and you won't see any sign of civilization anywhere except at the put in and take out

CHASMAN9 · Sep 2, 2010

How about the Ocoee river. I drove by it a million times on the way to Tellico and there was a bunch of white water rafting guides. :dunno:

BamaTJ · Sep 2, 2010

There are lots of options around gatlinbery and the SMNP. Nantahala come to mind but it is a little touristy, the Ocoee is the opposite of what you want. It is a few hours and a huge tourist trap. I would check in the NC area or the mtns of North GA. I have been backpacking in both and it was a lot of fun. There are some places in AL also, but probably not worth the drive..

patooyee · Sep 2, 2010

Matt O. said:
There are lots of options around gatlinbery and the SMNP. Nantahala come to mind but it is a little touristy, the Ocoee is the opposite of what you want. It is a few hours and a huge tourist trap. I would check in the NC area or the mtns of North GA. I have been backpacking in both and it was a lot of fun. There are some places in AL also, but probably not worth the drive..

We're both coming from FL.

J. J.

CHASMAN9 · Sep 2, 2010

Matt O. said:
There are lots of options around gatlinbery and the SMNP. Nantahala come to mind but it is a little touristy, the Ocoee is the opposite of what you want. It is a few hours and a huge tourist trap. I would check in the NC area or the mtns of North GA. I have been backpacking in both and it was a lot of fun. There are some places in AL also, but probably not worth the drive..

I did not know the OCOEE was so bad and the opposite of what you wanted. I have a friend who is a guide on the Ocoee river Ducktown and says they have a little of everything. If you want stuff with banjo's playing and daryl and his brother daryl telling you "boy u sher hab a perty mouf" then maybe you should go with Matt's idea. :flipoff1:

imarockfan · Sep 2, 2010

JJ, check out www.tallapoosariveroutfitters.com.The Tallapoosa runs around 1 mile from MM.Then if ya'll need rescuing you'll know some folks near by.
You can float from Georgia to............???
Click on the canoe trail spot on the left,there is a day by day journal from a man that floated it from beginning to end.
Seems like it would be pretty cool.