First time on the Chattooga

Today I took my long overdue first trip down section IV of the Chattooga. After reading all the hype about this river I was pretty excited. What fails to appear in every trip report I've ever read about the Chattooga is the amount of flatwater and how far apart the rapids are. It was pretty slow going until we got to Five Falls. However, what the section lacks in continuous whitewater is more than made up for in how beautiful the run is. The scenery is really cool and there is plenty of oppourtunity to check it out as you float through the shoals and flats. Five Falls on the other hand did not dissapoint. Although not too difficult it was pretty fun, and with undercuts and seives all over I can see where the hype comes from. The lake paddle out was definitely the least fun part of the day but the run is well worth it. I only got the camera out at Soc Em Dog, so here's a few photos.

Overall it's a pretty sweet run. The level was about 1.6, but I think I'll wait for higher water before I take my second run. Thats all for now, later.

-David

High water on the Yellow

Over the last couple days Georgia got dumped on pretty good from several waves of rain. The result, high water in metro Atlanta. After seeing a post on BoaterTalk a few days ago about the Yellow River, and seeing the gauge on AW at 1600cfs I decided to go check it out. I met up with Alex (posted on BT) and we headed down to the river. It was my first time there, but Alex said the water was higher than he'd ever seen it. It sure looked high (and brown) to me. We did a little scouting, as there were some pretty big holes to contend with, and put on. We didn't do the complete section, but from Annistown Falls down. Here's the pics.

Annistown Falls

Some pushy water under the bridge

Stay right!

Alex coming past the bridge

Alex punching through at the bottom

The next shot shows the bottom hole, it would almost definitely feed you right into the massive strainer if you swam out of it.

After Annistown and past the bridge there was some class II-III boogey with pretty nice waves and holes that made me wish I had my playboat. In fact I think I'll load it up and head back tomorrow. This also makes me want to explore the metro ATL area a little more. The only thing that would turn me away is the water quality, but its closer than TN or NC. Anyways, I'm tired.

Later,

-David

Busted cars and lost paddles

Last Wednesday was one of those extremely eventful days that doesn't fully sink in until the day after, and not in a good way. A lot happened so I'll try to keep it short, here we go. Left the house at 5 am headed to Suck Creek, skunked. Drove over to the Tellico for a couple low water laps. However, on the way my paddle was in a cartop carrier that wasn't latched and fell out, but I didn't know it till I got there. Borrowed a paddle and headed back to retrace my steps and look for the paddle roadside. No dice. Bummed, got on the road home. 30 mins into the trip a semi truck in front of me stops in the road and begins backing up casue he missed a turn and doesn't see me behing him. I frantically tried to shift into reverse but I wasn't fast enough and BAM! This is the result.

The trucker was at fault and got a ticket. I was able to drive the remaining 2 1/2 hours home, slowly. The car is now totaled due to the rapairs costing more than than the car is worth. Ugh, what a day. On the bright side I've been wanting both a new paddle and more practical car for a while so now I have an excuse for both. Car shopping instead of Cheoah running Saturday led to the purchase of a 2003 Passat Wagon. Should be a great paddling/road trip vehicle and I like it so far. Dunno about a new paddle yet so for now I must use my old plastic/aluminum Prijon, better than nothing.

Enough of that, time for some paddling. Sunday evening/night we got a bunch of rain, so I had high hopes for a short run on Dick's in the morning before work. The gauge never updated but I decided to go anyways and meet up with my buddy Ryan. I arrived in the morning to a dissapointing level, but decided to put on anyway. I finally got my new camera and Pelican case, so an ELF run on Dick's led to some pretty cool photos. The first few shots are me on the top drop.

The next ones are Ryan on the falls

And a sequence of me on the falls

Even at low water Dick's Creek is a fun way to spend the morning before work and definitely beats sleeping in. Before we put on Dicks we were going to drive up and check out Blood Mountain Creek but the gate at the ranger station was locked. Hopefully it will be open next time, looks like there are some nice drops up there. Until next time, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

-David

More low water fun on Dick's

Dick's creek seems to be becoming my "local" creek run, still about an hour drive though. Yesterday was the second time I've been up there in the last week. The level was definitly on the low side, probably lower than most would want to run it at. But it was all good to go and fun, just a little scrapy. I decided to take the playboat this time which was a nice change as I haven't been in it in months. I ended up running a new line on the falls, a slightly sketchy double boof down the middle/middle right. The sketchyness comes from the landing on the middle ledge being pretty shallow. If you miss your boof there is a good piton/pin potential, but if you hit it right there is a nice boil to pad the landing, then just boof/pencil into the pool below. We ended up running that drop a total of 6 times, and doing 4 full laps on the upper section. Even with the low water it was probably the best way I could have spent the afternoon, and hopefully more afternoons to come. Still no pics, but I did get the new camera so next time there will be plenty of eye candy.

Thats all folks!
-David

Two new runs in one weekend!

After about a month of no paddling I managed to boat twice this last weeked, and both times were personal first d's. Last Thursday a big wave of rain rolled across the southeast and a ton of stuff was running on Friday. I passed Dick's Creek on my way to the Tellico, and decided to take a look. There was more water than I had ever seen in it and it was definitely running, probably a little on the low side but I'm sure it was more water than that creek has seen in quite a while. This was all great, but there were no other boaters around and I wasn't about to put on by myself. Driving away and looking down at the creek I was pretty bummed I couldn't do the run when, to my surprise, I saw someone paddling! I pulled over and ran down to say hey and hopefully get a run in, and to my even bigger surprise it was a guy a new from highschool! Talk about a small world. Anyways, we went back to the top, geared up, and put on. We ended up doing the full length run from the falls down to Turners Corner. It was fun, but the real action is over in the first half mile. Sorry, no pictures of this one, my camera crapped out recently, but a new one is on its way.

Sunday was Cheoah time! I'd never been up there and I don't know why, it's such a fun river. Lucky for me, there was an unsheduled release of about 1100 cfs. Parts of the run are like paddling through a small forest. I'm surprised they didn't remove more of the trees and bushes, they aren't hard to avoid though. It's really a great run though. If were to make a comparison I'd say it's like a beefed up, more continuous Ocoee with much better water quality. Again, my camera was busy taking a dump but the guys I paddled with sent me a clip of Bear Creek Falls and a good shot of Yard Sale. Thanks guys!

So yeah, great run and I can't wait to go back.

Later,

-David