French Broad Near Hot Springs

[Kelly-Rand]

I was hiking the AT near the NOC take out in Hot Springs and saw a couple open boaters taking out there. I'm just passing through w/o boats and would like to know about this stretch of the river. I noticed that there was a wide river right keeper hole near the end there at least at this river level. Anyway nice to see the OC's.

[Wendy]

Hot Springs is the take out for section 9. Its nature changes with the water level. You probably saw the ledge above the bridge which at recent levels becomes a hole. The river can be paddled from 500 to 5,000 for most boaters or higher. When the Big Laurel is running it empty below an alternate take out at Stackhouse. We often paddle out after running Big Laurel at levels from 5000 to 10,000. A nice intro level is 1200-1500 cfs. Here is the AW link. Below Hot Springs the river is mostly class 1/2 with one harder rapid. https://www.americanwhitewater.org/cont ... /1074/main

[Kelly-Rand]

Thanks, Wendy.
Yes, I was speaking of the ledge above the bridge extending from (RR).