The Official Batteau Festival web page

Day 7: Slate River to Cartersville

by Tom Bowman

After climbing down the bank and paddling to a ramp to get the gear situated, headed out on a 21 mile jaunt to Cartersville. Went through the Bremo Bluff rapid easily, then found a strange looking rock in the river. It was some kind of metal though, with a pirate happy face on the end. Then I discovered a large flat rock, with pools, in the middle of the river. Stopped long enough for a beer. Then took the Elk Island channel, with a couple of bateaux. They stopped at a great spot for games, skipping stones, sling shots, and a mano a mano tug of war. Then followed Lady's Slipper and Thomas Jefferson, through the six mile behind island run, under a couple of seriously deficient bridges. Then surprise, Lady's Slipper started a water fight... but soon found out Thomas Jefferson had five gallon buckets! Lady's Slipper tried again as we returned to the main channel of the James. This time they tried using a battery box to throw large quantities, but lost it overboard. I was trailing them, and picked up the battery box and returned it to Joy, Tina and Barbara on the Lady's Slipper. It was near sunset when arriving at Cartersville, and was all I could do to get the tent up and hit the rack.