C-Forum

I got an email from a person who was concerned that he would be in the minority because he wanted to paddle moderate water.

I hope nobody will stay away because he/she is thinking that they are not a good enough paddler. There will be people just like you and lots of moderate river possibilities. There really will be creeks and trips for everyone. Come on down.
Chris Kelly

As rusty as I have gotten this year (3 times on the water so far, 7-8 times since November?), I'll be interested in moderate water - probably IIIs or so. I understand some folks will be bringing kids, they'll most likely be looking for IIs or so.

Something else I'll be looking for are goods and services - I've got some paddles that could use fixing. Anybody bring glass materials and skillz?

Scott;

I'm with you. Had the 3rd back surgery Jan. '06 and managed to paddle only 2 or 3 times this fall. One of those was a section II trip tandem with the 8 year old. I'm rusty myself and looking for steady class III trips to rebuild my balance and confidence.

I can scare the crap out of me/us here in Ontario. There is lots of stuff we don't / won't do.
Looking to have an pleasant time and enjoy the rivers / people / atmosphere, and be able to continue to paddle during the summer, rather than recuperating from some stupid injury!
Dian & Jon

Hey Chris,

Could you post a couple rivers in the novice, intermediate and advanced range?
We can search the AW site for river descriptions from there. There's a number of Canadians looking at this trip but without a couple rivers to look at, they might not go down. Hey, Jon!!!!!
I've been swamped lately but now lets see if we can't get some info out to the Ontario paddlers.

It's not so much we need an itenerary, just some basics like hotels, and rivers and activites that are going on.Maybe this has already been posted? It's a 19 hour drive, not your typical paddling trip. Anyways, between Jon and I we can cover paddlers in Ottawa (Me) and Toronto (Jon) we just need some help putting the meat on the bones

I'm going but staying offsite (March 9t to 17th) with another family (Greve's) We've got 4 young paddlers with us between the two families and are working out some rivers but that is a special case, most just want to know that Tallulah type rivers aren't hte only options
Any help you can give we'll pass along to our various contacts and virtual canoe club contacts.
Cheers
Gail

Im up for moderat paddlin, caus I aint that good. Hope to learn somethin from someone.

trip for all levels remember alsomost all class v turns into class two somewhere

On the Cumberland Plateau, only an hour away is Clear Creek which has a lovely beginner run; Barnett Bridge to Jett Bridge. From Jett Bridge to Lily Bridge, about 2.5 miles, is a solid class II section with an easy class III at the end which is easily avoided. I have always thought that Jett to Lily is about as good a class II section as there is because there are a bunch of nice rapids,with space between them. If one wanted a very nice 7 mile paddle with easy whitewater one might chose Barnett to Lily. It has nice warm up, nice class II drops and ends up with class III Lily rapid which one may avoid completely. The Plateau will also stun you with its natural beauty.

The Plateau also boasts several great runs in the III/IV range with Clear Creek, Lily to Nemo being standard III, the Obed from DBT to Nemo being III with an easily walked IV, Daddy's Creek, with 2 solid class IV drops and lots of III. Harder are Crooked Creek, Island Creek and others.

One wonderful feature of the Cumberland Plateau is that it almost never has too much water. The nature of the streams is that one can simply move further up the watershed. This theory naturally has limits. There are water levels which are too high for anybody.

Even closer to Lenoir City is the Tellico, which will almost certainly run in March. It has maybe 8 miles of runnable water with the highest 2 miles being very class IVish, the next 3 more like III and then with a few class III exceptions, pretty class II. It is all roadside so one may pick their own poison.

The Hiwassee is the standard class II+ run and it is maybe an hour away.

There are several sections of the nearby Pigeon and Little Rivers at various levels of difficulty. I am not as well versed in these. Maybe Louie or some other locals will chime in

For those seeking more challenge, the Sinks of the Little, the Cheoah and others are close. If we get more water better paddlers might also consider Crooked Creek or Island Creek.

There is a lot of good runable whitewater here and typically in March lots of it is running. I don't think that anybody familiar with the area is concerned that we will be short of stuff to run. To hurt us the levels have to be truly abnormal.

Caveat. As I rate these runs I am assuming low to moderate water levels. As we all know, if the water rises so generally does the difficulty and danger.

I hope othere will add their perspective and I hope this answers your question. Chris Kelly

I thought I better jump in here since I haven't been around the forum in a while. We're still coming, just a little change from our original plans, my wife Liz broke her ankle skiing. Soooo, I think she's going to be a shuttle bunny? I'll be paddling with our girls most of the time, but do plan on doing a few runs worthy of the Taureau!

See Ya all down there!

Al

We all (myself included) are starting to sound like a bunch of whining butt boaters from the kiddie pool. It ain't just Louie fest is goin' ta be great. I can't wait.

Jack,
What's the deal? why 3?

I just had my second in November (bad disc at L5/S1)

Pain came back 2 weeks later. I'm trying accupuncture now, in hopes of avoiding another surgery.

Best of luck recovering,
David Nickerson

cheajack wrote:Scott;

I'm with you. Had the 3rd back surgery Jan. '06 and managed to paddle only 2 or 3 times this fall. One of those was a section II trip tandem with the 8 year old. I'm rusty myself and looking for steady class III trips to rebuild my balance and confidence.