8 - Metro Columbus/Phenix City

Columbus Georgia has created a fun whitewater park that offers something for many skill levels. You can run the entire 2-mile course or, if you wish, simply park and play at the Wave Shaper island or CutBait Rapid. Park and Play trips, attempt to visit (if skill level permits) when releases are at 3 or 4 units (surfing and hole work are possible @ 2 Units). You can surf The Good Wave or play in Work Out Hole above Wave Shaper Rapid. River Running : Below 3 Units, river running with complete trips are usually the preferred activity. Also great opportunity for eddy work at Tie Snake Rapid at 1 or 2 units. Please be aware levels go up and down daily and often become big water in couple of hours. Please be sure you are aware of the range for the day you are paddling and understand what conditions are created at those levels. DIRECTIONS TO THE PUT-IN From the takeout, drive up 11th Street to 2nd Avenue and turn left. Drive approximately 1.9 miles to 35th Street and turn left. Drive one block to 1st Street and turn left. On the right is the Georgia Power sign. Turn on the blacktop road immediately after the Georgia Power sign. Follow this road a few hundred yards to the parking area. There are only 8 parking spots, so plan shuttle accordingly. Please do not leave anything in your vehicle at the put-in. Advised that you leave all items in the vehicles remaining at the takeout parking garage for safekeeping. This is a rather remote spot and break-ins do happen. Update 2017-11-25 While parked at the put-in on a Saturday morning, someone broke the window on my truck and stole my wallet, which was fairly well hidden, and my girlfriend's expensive North Face parka. (The did not stealy a laptop or radar detectors.) TAKE-OUT PARKING The takeout parking garage address is 1028 Front Ave., Columbus, GA 31901 The cost to use this parking garage is $2 and is the safest area to park. On the weekends and after 5pm during week, parking is free in the garage. Parking spots around the parking garage are time limited during week - so plan accordingly. Please be considerate and do not use the reserved parking spaces - as of Oct 2015 they will ticket ($30) parking in designated spots. Outfitters and Shuttle Service: WhiteWater Express shuttle information & store. (706) 321-4720 1000 Bay Ave Columbus, GA 31901 Restaurants: Two blocks east from Wave Shaper Island is Broadway and multiple restuarants are available by foot from Waveshaper Island. Misc Links: *A great write up about some of the play features in Columbus by some of the Jackson Team!* See the YouTube video by Team Jackson Dam Release info is released daily. While on the link below, you must change the release selected from 'Morgan Falls (Bull Sluice Lake)' to 'North Highlands (Bibb Mill Pond)'. This dam is directly upstream of put-in for this reach. =================================================================================================================================================================================================== Release Translation =================== 1 Unit = 850cfs =============== 2 Unit = 4500cfs ================ 3 Unit = 9000cfs ================ 4 Unit = 13000cfs ================= Georgia Power Release ====================================================================================================================== USGS for 14th Street - Columbus Georgia ============================================================================================= Considerations for Water Level Interpretations - - The Georgia Power website is great and it appears that the 'Turbine Release' info is realtime but this site has limitations. The CFS discharge only reports flows THROUGH the turbines of North Highland Dam, any water flowing over the dam is not included in this value. So be mindful that during flows that exceed 13.5K, water will be spilling over the dam and this CFS value is only to determine turbine release not river flow. Though on the average, Georgia Power wants all the water through the turbine so this CFS value is usually the entire flow of the river. - - The USGS page for this reach includes the entire flow of the river in its reporting and updates once an hour at about 15 minutes after the top of the hour.