Elk River Trip Report and OC Waterfall Record Clarification
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:11 am
I finally got to run the Elk today. Matt and I drove up from Knoxville and met Edgar (a fellow open boater who kayaked today) who showed us down. He has become a real Elk local since moving to Boone this fall. This was his 3rd Elk trip this week! The Watauga was 470 cfs today and the Elk level was low medium.
The run starts with a portage of the 55 ft waterfall that Steve Frazier ran in the 90's. Then you have a great IV-V section with big bedrock rapids and slides. This section ends with a mandatory portage of twisting falls that involves lowering boats with ropes and takes 40 minutes. After the portage you run a beefy 15' waterfall with a bad hole that feeds directly into a 45' waterfall. Below there it's class II to the take-out.
Edgar and I fired up the big waterfall at the end (I would estimate it's 45') This is the once Jim Little ran in the 90's. I would say that's the tallest waterfall I've run. The drop is 45' tall but the top 10' are a near vertical ramp and then you freefall the rest of the way. I think that is why Leland calls it 33' in his guide book. It is way taller than 33'. It is really tall and pretty scary at the top. I Oregon Tucked in my canoe and plugged it! It was sweet. The impact was still pretty hard and I don't know if I would ever want to do a waterfall any taller than this.
The only casualty of the day was Edgar's broken paddle at the bottom of the falls. Also, the memory card on the video camera ran out of space right as I was coming out of the eddy to run the last falls... Oh well, I guess that gives me a good excuse to get back up there.
Also, of interest I found out today that about 10 years ago Shaggy ran the waterfall that Jim and I did not the one Steve Frazier did as I incorrectly posted on this board in the past. So Steve has the record by himself at 55'. That drop in a monster. People often get these two falls confused because some people call them both "Compression Falls" when I heard Shaggy ran "Compression Falls" I thought that meant the top falls but today I talked to someone on the trip that confirmed it was in fact the bottom falls.
To my knowledge the only waterfalls in the 40' range that have been canoed are La Gloria Falls on the Rio de Oro in Mexico by Jim Coffey and the big waterfall at the end of the Elk by Jim, Shaggy and me.
The run starts with a portage of the 55 ft waterfall that Steve Frazier ran in the 90's. Then you have a great IV-V section with big bedrock rapids and slides. This section ends with a mandatory portage of twisting falls that involves lowering boats with ropes and takes 40 minutes. After the portage you run a beefy 15' waterfall with a bad hole that feeds directly into a 45' waterfall. Below there it's class II to the take-out.
Edgar and I fired up the big waterfall at the end (I would estimate it's 45') This is the once Jim Little ran in the 90's. I would say that's the tallest waterfall I've run. The drop is 45' tall but the top 10' are a near vertical ramp and then you freefall the rest of the way. I think that is why Leland calls it 33' in his guide book. It is way taller than 33'. It is really tall and pretty scary at the top. I Oregon Tucked in my canoe and plugged it! It was sweet. The impact was still pretty hard and I don't know if I would ever want to do a waterfall any taller than this.
The only casualty of the day was Edgar's broken paddle at the bottom of the falls. Also, the memory card on the video camera ran out of space right as I was coming out of the eddy to run the last falls... Oh well, I guess that gives me a good excuse to get back up there.
Also, of interest I found out today that about 10 years ago Shaggy ran the waterfall that Jim and I did not the one Steve Frazier did as I incorrectly posted on this board in the past. So Steve has the record by himself at 55'. That drop in a monster. People often get these two falls confused because some people call them both "Compression Falls" when I heard Shaggy ran "Compression Falls" I thought that meant the top falls but today I talked to someone on the trip that confirmed it was in fact the bottom falls.
To my knowledge the only waterfalls in the 40' range that have been canoed are La Gloria Falls on the Rio de Oro in Mexico by Jim Coffey and the big waterfall at the end of the Elk by Jim, Shaggy and me.