Choosing to Run ‘Cut Bait’ on the Chattahoochee

Cut Bait.

As in, fish or cut bait. As in, make a decision.

The signature rapid on the new Chattahoochee River Park whitewater course is forcing almost everyone involved with it to make decisions. Those who manage and operate the course are deciding how best to get the closed rapid reopened to paying customers in a safe and timely manner.

Once that happens — which could be as early as this week — the rapid will force potential rafters to decide if they want to challenge it at high flow.

Charlie Walbridge, a whitewater safety expert from West Virginia brought in last week to run the river, cautions that Cut Bait is not a rapid everyone should attempt. The former safety chairman of the American Whitewater Association made four runs through Cut Bait at high flow Wednesday. Read on…