Big Cedar Creek II

With another beautiful Saturday on the horizon, my brothers and I made a last minute decision to head back out to Big Cedar Creek and get in one last bit of adventure before they headed back to Texas. It turned out that a lot of people had a similar idea, because the good folks at the shuttle and rental center told us that they were putting nearly 90 boats on the water that day for the same 5 mile stretch of creek. We got an earlier start than we did last Saturday, and the water level was down quite a bit without the rain this time. Because of the rain, I hadn't realized what a clear, clean creek Big Cedar is. It still has that same green tint that all the water in Georgia seems to have, but it's a clear green, not a murky green. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the surface of the creek bed. Most waterways in the area are muddy bottom and with the fluctuating flow thanks to generation, there is a constant stirring up and settling of silt in the water. Big Cedar seemed to be a mostly stone bed and with no dams on the waterway, the flow changes aren't nearly as dramatic.

When I was doing my homework on my 12' canoe, I came across a lot of comments on the instability of canoes of that length and shorter. As I raised the seats, I also received the same sort of "Watch out" comments warning that stability might become an issue. I am not sure if my expectations in terms of stability are just very low, but I have not found this particular model to be excessively unstable at all. I'm not a large guy, and I have pretty good balance, but even standing, the balance of this boat doesn't feel precarious, and it's yet to tip on me - even paddling standing through light shoals. I absolutely love the 119 and what a light, flexible canoe it's turning out to be!

The fishing wasn't anything to mention, but we did spot four large gar, all within 100 yards of each other. Like last time, even though we didn't catch any huge fish, their presence was made known.

Our shuttle driver mentioned that the creek downstream from the takeout point is also paddle-able, but he made mention of an area called Brushy Branch that the creek flows into. It sounds like Lake Weiss, which is just across the line in Alabama, backs up the Coosa River and Big Cedar Creek there to the point that it becomes a sort of flowing lake. It's a spot that looks like a cool paddling adventure for another day...