Withlacoochee River

The Withlacoochee River is a 115-mile tea-colored blackwater river and a tributary of the Suwannee River. It rises in Georgia, northwest of Nashville, and flows south through Berrien, Lowndes and Brooks counties. The Little River joins it at Troupville, near Valdosta. After crossing into Florida, it forms the northeast boundary of Madison County and the western boundary of Hamilton County. It joins the Suwannee at Suwannee River State Park, west of Live Oak. WWALS Watershed Coalition describes the river as undammed. At the USGS gauge near Pinetta, the drainage area is 2,120 square miles. The name comes from a Creek word roughly translated as "little river."

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection lists the Withlacoochee River North as a 28-mile designated paddling trail. It runs from the CR 145 bridge at the Georgia line, past a carry-in launch at the CR 150 bridge, a carry-in launch at Madison Blue Spring State Park and the Madison boat ramp at the end of River Park Road, to the boat ramp at Suwannee River State Park. Along the way the river runs through tracts of Twin Rivers State Forest, which has carry-in canoe access at its Sullivan, Westwood West, Citty Bend and Withlacoochee (Pot Spring) tracts. Rocky shoals are common and become harder to pass at low water. The trail guide calls a Pinetta gauge reading above 54 feet best for paddling. At Madison Blue Spring State Park, no vessels are allowed in the spring or spring run, and overnight parking is not allowed.

Madison Blue Spring is a first-magnitude spring that flows into the river. Its mapped underwater cave passes beneath the river just south of the State Road 6 bridge. In the 1800s, steamboats carried passengers, freight and mail on the Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers.