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LISTEN: Two men are paddling the entire length of the Chattahoochee River to raise money and awareness for a river advocacy group. Jarod Horne and Stephen Burden began their 500-mile journey on March 1 in the north Georgia mountain town of Helen. GPB’s Orlando Montoya spoke to the duo.
TRANSCRIPT:
Orlando Montoya: Two men are paddling the entire length of the Chattahoochee River to raise money and awareness for a river advocacy group. Jarod Horne and Stephen Burden began their 500-mile journey on March 1 in the North Georgia mountain town of Helen. Their rafting adventure is expected to take a month. I caught up with them last night, just after they set up camp outside Cuseta, south of Columbus, on the banks of the river.
All right, Jarod, why did you decide to paddle the river from start to end?
Jarod Horne: Oh, that’s a loaded question. So I grew up on the river down here in Phenix City, Ala., and this has been part of my life ever since I was born. And so I always had the idea of, like, “Where does this thing really take you?” So I always have this idea of doing it. And I did it once right after college. And it didn’t really go to plan. We didn’t make it as far as we wanted. We made it to Roswell from Helen. I met Stephen kayaking in Columbus, Ga., and we both had this crazy idea. And we were both like, “Yeah!” We’re both stoked on doing it and yeah, ended up doing it…