Watersports

Cartecay River

The Cartecay River Watershed is 136 square miles of forested land among the Blue Ridge Mountains. The run of the Cartecay alternately drops over narrow rapids up to 100 yards long and then pools for placid stretches of scenic stream. Recreation on the river includes 3 miles of scenic calm below Holt Bridge Road, followed by 7 miles of intermittent white water on a narrow streambed under forest canopy. Developed commercial access and shuttles are available at Lower Cartecay Road.

Ellijay River

The Ellijay River Watershed consists of 92 square miles among the mountains in the Chattahoochee National Forest. The watershed includes a reservoir dam constructed at the Kells Creek confluence in 1969 and proposed for expansion over existing wetlands in 2004 to accommodate increased residential water demand downstream. The Ellijay’s tributary streams on Rich Mountain flow over bedrock and boulder, with stream crossings over natural rock rather than road surface.

Coosawattee River

Below the Ellijay and Cartecay confluence, the Coosawattee River channel varies from 120 to 150 feet wide and has a bank-full flood capacity up to 3,500 cubic feet per second between banks that range up to 10 feet high in the lower stretch of the river. From Ellijay, the Coosawattee River descends 20 feet over an easy 2-mile stretch, before dropping 552 feet in the next 19 miles of mountain escarpment. In the final 27 miles to its confluence with the Oostanaula at Blue Ridge, Georgia, the Coosawattee drops only 50 feet. Carters Dam forms a reservoir at Lake Carter within the final stretch of the river.
Source: USA Today

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