Eric Lindberg of Rome paddles downstream after an early morning launch on the Coosawattee in Gordon County.

For years, friends Tamara Salter and Pat Goldsmith talked about a taking long paddling trip together. The problem they encountered is that most overnight trips in kayaks or canoes are difficult to organize and hard to make a reality.

So when the two friends and fellow teachers in Hamilton County learned about Paddle Georgia, a seven-day paddling trip on the rivers of Northwest Georgia, they knew they had to do it.

"We both thought, 'Can we do a week paddling 92 miles?' It's something we've always wanted to do," Salter said. "This trip was already organized, so we thought, 'Wow, let's do it.'"

The Paddle Georgia trip started June 20 on the Coosawattee River in Gilmer County and finished on the Oostanaula River in Rome on June 26. This was the fifth year for the trip, which is organized by The Georgia Rivers Network. The group of 325 paddlers traveled along the Northwest Georgia rivers camping in high school gymnasiums in cities along the way.

"A week-long canoe trip is not an easy thing for individuals to plan," Paddle Georgia coordinator Joe Cook said. "This trip allowed people to participate in a great adventure without having to fret over all the logistics."

Paddlers ranging in age from 7 to 77 came on the trip as families, as individuals and as friends, Cook said.

Each day the group paddled 15 to 17 miles of mostly flat water. Some whitewater near the beginning of the trip caused Salter and Goldsmith to take out their kayaks and carry them to a calmer part of the river. This year's route took paddlers through the free-flowing Coosawattee, the river that served as inspiration for James Dickey's novel "Deliverance."

Salter, who teachers art at Tyner Academy, said she and her friend learned a lot about the rivers during the trip.

"It changes the way I think about the river," she said. "I've always loved paddling, but it really made me appreciate how it's all connected."

At one point, Goldsmith's mother called to say she knew the two women were having a ball. Salter, proud of how hard she and her friend were working on the trip said, "We're not exactly having a ball."

Instead, she and her friend describe the trip as a challenge, and completing it gave them a great sense of accomplishment, she said.

"I can't go on a Mount Everest expedition, but I can do 92 miles on a Georgia river," she said. "We're really proud."

Paddle Georgia included educational programs on the cultural and natural history tours of facilities and historic sites located alongthe two rivers. There was also a research program where participants helped collect chemical and biological data to give a snapshot of the current health of the Coosawattee and Oostanaula rivers.

"We traveled for seven days with a great group of people seeing sites you'd never see from the highway or even back roads," said April Ingle, executive director of the Georgia River Network. "The paddlers never had to stop to fill up their gas tanks and never have to stand in line at airport security, but they were always just one paddle stroke from a great swimming hole."