The Wildland Journal

Slowly, a few miles every year, I'm chipping away at my goal to paddle the entire Etowah River. It's 164 miles long, and I'm 66 miles in right now. I suppose you could argue that it's the easier of the miles that've been paddled too, considering some 26 of those are the still, slow waters of Lake Allatoona. Regardless, it's a goal and an enjoyable one to work toward at that. A lot of those miles have been solo, a few with my wife Jeannie, and now that my brother(s) are around more, they're racking up a good bit faster. This latest stretch was 10 miles from Boling Park to Field's Landing . This was the first bit of Etowah I've done upstream from the lake, and for the first 8 miles or so there was a nice current pushing along. It's all woodlands on both sides, and only a couple of houses peek through the trees along the way. Unlike the lower Etowah I'm used to, there were no riverside shacks or private boat launches dotting the banks. I have...