Horsepasture River: A Long Trip Report
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:33 pm
So this one goes out to Racer X, but I figured everyone would enjoy. Last Friday, as I was gearing up to finally get to paddle after a week of schoolwork, or attempting to do schoolwork, I made a few phonecalls and had to settle for the Horsepasture River. (That was a sarcastic remark.) I talked to a few people and my hopes and dreams of finally getting to paddle in the Gorges State Park came true. The rain held out, and the Horsepasture held water. My friend Brian (the Brain) tagged along as he often does seeing as he doesn't have a car and is willing to huck himself off anything I will. Made a few phonecalls and decided to meet Heath in Brevard at 9 AM saturday morning.
The Horsepasture is located in the western boundary of the Gorges (Gorgeous) State Park. It is one of several rivers in this extremely remote haven located about 20 minutes west of Brevard near Cashiers. It's the most remote of all the rivers in the park, including the infamous Toxaway, Whitewater, and Thompson rivers. All of these rivers are characterized by big waterfalls, big slides, and deep gorges. The land was purchased by Duke Power back in the middle of the 20th century (not sure when) with the plan to DAM ALL THESE RIVERS TO GENERATE HYDROELECTRIC POWER! Somehow in the 80's, the land came up for sale and the state bought it, completing the last puzzle piece in a huge area of wilderness on the NC and SC border. The park is about 10,000 acres I believe, and one of the most diverse areas in the east due to it's odd geology and large waterfalls. The highlands plateau falls to meet the South Carolina piedmont, thus creating massive waterfalls like Windy Falls (200-300') Rainbow Falls (few feet bigger than Niagra) and probably 50 or so equally captivating but smaller falls. It's a phenomenal place.
So we met Heath at 10AM due to an inoperable alarm clock on his part and headed to the river. Another friend of his, Ben, met us at the Gorges State Park parking lot and we suited up. The best thing about this river is you don't have to set shuttle. The tradeoff is a treacherous 3 or 4 mile hike out, climbing about 1200' and then descending maybe 400' back down to the parking lot. It's steep, long, and it was hotter n' hades. We hiked the mile down to Turtleback Falls from the parking lot and put in. Turtleback is probably about 15 feet total, with a sweet autoboof and a nice soft landing. Don't miss yer roll though because Rainbow falls lurks about 100 yards down stream. We hopped out of the boats and portaged the falls and got back in at the bottom. The spray and wind coming off these falls is amazing. I felt like I was in a hurricane, climbing around on super slick rocks and wading through mud holes at the same time. The spray from the falls has created a bizarre area on the hillside adjacent to them with very little flora existing there. And what does exist is rare, in fact it's one of only 6 sites in the world where a particular moss is found. 2 of the other sites are also in the park. Anyways, I digress... We ran a couple bouldergarden rapids below the falls and got out to scout and walk around a crappy sieve rapid. Heath ran it, and it didn't look hard, but the consequences were terrible and it didn't look fun. We got back in our boats and continued through some more boulder gardens and a few nice ledges. Stairstep Falls is the first "big" rapid we came to. It probably drops a total of 100' or so in a series of 5 15'-20' ledges. It's a Giant's staircase for sure. Despite an ill placed log half way down, we ran it. No, styled it. A few more bouldergardens and we approached Pitstop which was a huge bouldergarden with a nice 8' boof at the bottom. The Brain got a little crazy and wound up going through a nasty slot at the far left at the bottom which was NOT where you wanted to be but he came out smelling like roses. Everyone else had clean lines, but I think it took a Cboater to really show how it was done.
After this we came to a series of rapids known as the "Highway to Heaven." First was "Exit A," where we walked the entranced due to another shitty log, and seal-launched in to the current. You drop over a 8' ledge into a flume and then fly off a nice 10' boof directly into a downed tree. Fortunatly we all made it though the tree alright, but it was sketch at best. "Exit B" was next, which can be seen in LVM where Nate Elliot gets his butt whipped in a big butt hole at the bottom. We had to seal launch off a ledge at the top, drop 10' or so, drive left to aviod two holes but not so far left that you get stuck in the crazy recirculating eddy under the decapitation rock, then punch the big butt kicker at the bottom. The Kayakers had me on this one. As a righty, I couldn't get far enough to the right on the seal launch/slide and wound up dropping the 10' onto a nice Sunshine-esque rock. It hurt, and I "lost the T" as a result of the horrible bounce, did a wierd "aerial flip" to my offside in the middle of the rapid and got 100% discombobulated. I rolled up and made it through the butt-kicker and tried to collect myself. I would say if you tried to invision a train wreck you'd have a pretty good idea of what happened. Everyone else thought I was dead, or knocked out, but I was somehow alright. They still wouldn't believe me but we pushed on. Whew...
The best part of Highway to Heaven was still to come. There was about a 200 yard slide below with an eddy on the left halfway down. We didn't scout, and I missed Ben and Heath going down so we just charge into it blindly. I remembered Heath saying something earlier about keeping left and pointed straight at the bottom or you would get deflected right on a curler and peton the beegeezus out of yerself at the bottom. So the Brain and I anteed up and headed on down. It was awesome. Kind of like the slides on Grassy Creek at the Russell Fork but 10 million times bigger and better. Man this river kickes butt.
At the bottom, the rest of the group decieded that I was still on a "dry hair day" because I flipped to my offside in "Exit B." I think the fact that it's always awesome to witness a major wreck and the fact that I wasn't hurt helped contribute to their decision. I just shrugged and still consiered it a horrible wreck and wasn't to pleased with my line but thus it goes. That full facemask was a good investment.
I don't remeber the names to the rest of the rapids, but there were several big ones below here. We continuted down to above Windy Falls and took out. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Actually, it resembles the edge of the world. Ole' Chris Columbus must have had this in mind...
We climbed out onto a rock outcropping in the middle of the falls which was by far the stupidest/sketchiest/most dangerous thing I have ever done due to lack of ropes and slick rocks. Oh well, it was worth it to sit on the edge of the world. We are probably some of the few of 100 people in the world who've ever gotten to witness this remote beauty so intimately.
After a half hour or so of aviodance, we shouldered the boats and started walking uphill. I'm not going to go into the hike because it's best to go into it without knowing anything about it. It's steep and long, but definatly pretty. The top of the ridge offers an amazing 360 degree view of North and South Carolina and made it well worth it. After 2 and a half hours of hoofing it we reached the parking lot. I've never felt so good.
Everyone had an awesome day on the river. This river is short (maybe 2 miles at most) but chock full o' nuts...I mean high quality rapids. Definatly worth the hiking and cussing on the way up the hill. I can't wait to go back. Hopefully next time I'll have a few Cboaters to enjoy the experience with and show them dam kayakers how it's done. Whew...
The Horsepasture is located in the western boundary of the Gorges (Gorgeous) State Park. It is one of several rivers in this extremely remote haven located about 20 minutes west of Brevard near Cashiers. It's the most remote of all the rivers in the park, including the infamous Toxaway, Whitewater, and Thompson rivers. All of these rivers are characterized by big waterfalls, big slides, and deep gorges. The land was purchased by Duke Power back in the middle of the 20th century (not sure when) with the plan to DAM ALL THESE RIVERS TO GENERATE HYDROELECTRIC POWER! Somehow in the 80's, the land came up for sale and the state bought it, completing the last puzzle piece in a huge area of wilderness on the NC and SC border. The park is about 10,000 acres I believe, and one of the most diverse areas in the east due to it's odd geology and large waterfalls. The highlands plateau falls to meet the South Carolina piedmont, thus creating massive waterfalls like Windy Falls (200-300') Rainbow Falls (few feet bigger than Niagra) and probably 50 or so equally captivating but smaller falls. It's a phenomenal place.
So we met Heath at 10AM due to an inoperable alarm clock on his part and headed to the river. Another friend of his, Ben, met us at the Gorges State Park parking lot and we suited up. The best thing about this river is you don't have to set shuttle. The tradeoff is a treacherous 3 or 4 mile hike out, climbing about 1200' and then descending maybe 400' back down to the parking lot. It's steep, long, and it was hotter n' hades. We hiked the mile down to Turtleback Falls from the parking lot and put in. Turtleback is probably about 15 feet total, with a sweet autoboof and a nice soft landing. Don't miss yer roll though because Rainbow falls lurks about 100 yards down stream. We hopped out of the boats and portaged the falls and got back in at the bottom. The spray and wind coming off these falls is amazing. I felt like I was in a hurricane, climbing around on super slick rocks and wading through mud holes at the same time. The spray from the falls has created a bizarre area on the hillside adjacent to them with very little flora existing there. And what does exist is rare, in fact it's one of only 6 sites in the world where a particular moss is found. 2 of the other sites are also in the park. Anyways, I digress... We ran a couple bouldergarden rapids below the falls and got out to scout and walk around a crappy sieve rapid. Heath ran it, and it didn't look hard, but the consequences were terrible and it didn't look fun. We got back in our boats and continued through some more boulder gardens and a few nice ledges. Stairstep Falls is the first "big" rapid we came to. It probably drops a total of 100' or so in a series of 5 15'-20' ledges. It's a Giant's staircase for sure. Despite an ill placed log half way down, we ran it. No, styled it. A few more bouldergardens and we approached Pitstop which was a huge bouldergarden with a nice 8' boof at the bottom. The Brain got a little crazy and wound up going through a nasty slot at the far left at the bottom which was NOT where you wanted to be but he came out smelling like roses. Everyone else had clean lines, but I think it took a Cboater to really show how it was done.
After this we came to a series of rapids known as the "Highway to Heaven." First was "Exit A," where we walked the entranced due to another shitty log, and seal-launched in to the current. You drop over a 8' ledge into a flume and then fly off a nice 10' boof directly into a downed tree. Fortunatly we all made it though the tree alright, but it was sketch at best. "Exit B" was next, which can be seen in LVM where Nate Elliot gets his butt whipped in a big butt hole at the bottom. We had to seal launch off a ledge at the top, drop 10' or so, drive left to aviod two holes but not so far left that you get stuck in the crazy recirculating eddy under the decapitation rock, then punch the big butt kicker at the bottom. The Kayakers had me on this one. As a righty, I couldn't get far enough to the right on the seal launch/slide and wound up dropping the 10' onto a nice Sunshine-esque rock. It hurt, and I "lost the T" as a result of the horrible bounce, did a wierd "aerial flip" to my offside in the middle of the rapid and got 100% discombobulated. I rolled up and made it through the butt-kicker and tried to collect myself. I would say if you tried to invision a train wreck you'd have a pretty good idea of what happened. Everyone else thought I was dead, or knocked out, but I was somehow alright. They still wouldn't believe me but we pushed on. Whew...
The best part of Highway to Heaven was still to come. There was about a 200 yard slide below with an eddy on the left halfway down. We didn't scout, and I missed Ben and Heath going down so we just charge into it blindly. I remembered Heath saying something earlier about keeping left and pointed straight at the bottom or you would get deflected right on a curler and peton the beegeezus out of yerself at the bottom. So the Brain and I anteed up and headed on down. It was awesome. Kind of like the slides on Grassy Creek at the Russell Fork but 10 million times bigger and better. Man this river kickes butt.
At the bottom, the rest of the group decieded that I was still on a "dry hair day" because I flipped to my offside in "Exit B." I think the fact that it's always awesome to witness a major wreck and the fact that I wasn't hurt helped contribute to their decision. I just shrugged and still consiered it a horrible wreck and wasn't to pleased with my line but thus it goes. That full facemask was a good investment.
I don't remeber the names to the rest of the rapids, but there were several big ones below here. We continuted down to above Windy Falls and took out. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Actually, it resembles the edge of the world. Ole' Chris Columbus must have had this in mind...
We climbed out onto a rock outcropping in the middle of the falls which was by far the stupidest/sketchiest/most dangerous thing I have ever done due to lack of ropes and slick rocks. Oh well, it was worth it to sit on the edge of the world. We are probably some of the few of 100 people in the world who've ever gotten to witness this remote beauty so intimately.
After a half hour or so of aviodance, we shouldered the boats and started walking uphill. I'm not going to go into the hike because it's best to go into it without knowing anything about it. It's steep and long, but definatly pretty. The top of the ridge offers an amazing 360 degree view of North and South Carolina and made it well worth it. After 2 and a half hours of hoofing it we reached the parking lot. I've never felt so good.
Everyone had an awesome day on the river. This river is short (maybe 2 miles at most) but chock full o' nuts...I mean high quality rapids. Definatly worth the hiking and cussing on the way up the hill. I can't wait to go back. Hopefully next time I'll have a few Cboaters to enjoy the experience with and show them dam kayakers how it's done. Whew...
