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