We finally got a good rainfall after several weeks of relative dryness and cold temperatures. With a lot of stuff running and some of it at fairly high levels, Steve Smyth and I decided at the last minute to try for Clear Creek, a small tributary of the Cartecay that flows off Burnt Mountain. Carolyn Rand joined in at the last minute as a volunteer shuttle bunny.

On the way into Ellijay, Carolyn and I passed over Mountaintown Creek and it definitely appeared to be running, which I took as a good indicator of whether or not Clear Creek would run. We met Steve at the Cartecay launch on river left (which was a mistake, we should've met at the DNR takeout). We dressed there, piled Steve's boat into the back of Carolyn's truck and headed around to the put-in for Clear Creek. I noted with a sigh of relief that it definitely had enough water to paddle. It also didn't appear to be too high, which I always consider to be a good thing when I'm paddling a new run, especially if nobody on the trip knows the run . . . and that was the case for us.

We hurried a little at the put-in because it's a little like launching in the middle of a neighborhood. The bridge is small and an old lady and man looked us over good to see what we were up to as we donned dry tops and spray skirts before launching into the muddy water. In a few minutes we were downstream and Carolyn, our shuttle bunny, was quickly gone. I don't know where you're supposed to park at the put-in so I was very grateful to Carolyn for shuttling us and we didn't have to deal with the issue.

The creek is small, about 20 feet wide at that point and starts off as a swift class I-II stream. You quickly leave behind the houses and get walled in by Rhododendron, Hemlock, and Pine. A few trees must be ducked under. Then you approach a serious horizon line accompanied by a lot of noise. We were approaching the first drop, according to the AW site, Timber Falls.

The creek splits into two channels around a large bedrock island. Some water goes over to the left and around a blind turn and another channel with a little more water goes to the right. We were able to paddle up into a small eddy on the right and we could see that the right side was clear of wood although it definitely looked a little sketchy.

It was a long complicated bedrock slide that partially runs under an overhang for 40 feet or more before dropping over a small ledge into a pool. It looks fairly impressive from the top and the creek probably loses between 8 or 10 feet from beginning of the slide to the pool below. Unfortunately the photos I took from the bottom don't do it justice. For some reason the lighting down in the ravine didn't favor photography and there's little that could be done with my outmoded digital camera. Note that the left channel eventually comes out in a steep slide that I would estimate drops about 8 feet onto the last ledge. The landing zone looked like it might have shallow rock so I'm glad we went down the right instead, and anyway the right side is great fun.



Steve playing in front of Timber Falls. The slide on the river right side is bit more impressive than is apparent in this photo . . . especially when you are descending it.


Steve went first and I pulled into the eddy and got a look. I blanched a little when I first saw the drop but Steve was OK at the bottom so I eased into the line I wanted and then took a couple of good propulsion strokes to get started and I was off. I intended to stay right to avoid a somewhat scary looking rock overhang that juts out a few feet over the left side of the slide but the acceleration hit quickly and the current immediately began dragging me left towards the overhanging rock. I picked up speed until I was moving very fast indeed and doing shallow rock-scraping draw strokes half the way down to stay as far right as possible. I ducked my head instinctively and positioned my paddle to avoid the overhang as I was pulled right next to it. I cleared the rock overhang and then I was in the bottom of the slide where I basically got turned right by the water coming in from the left channel and launched into the pool.

The speed with which all this occurred is the main thing I remember. I got an immediate adrenaline kick and grinned. It's definitely one of the most interesting drops I've run. Somehow I followed a lazy S-turn slide to the bottom and it felt like I was going about 30 miles per hour when I got to the bottom. Yeehaw! I've been thinking about that drop since I ran it and I can't wait to go back for more.


The steeper left side of Timber Falls. For a sense of scale, the height of the initial drop is about 8 feet.

At this point you've basically dropped into an area punctuated by so-called "mini-gorges" where sloping rock walls run up to the forest and giant smooth rock formations abound. It's a neat place to visit.

The next sliding drop is apparently called "Flume," although I would say the flume is the least of your worries. We eddied out above the drop to make sure it was clear of wood and to look for a hole. Steve scrambled up the bank on river left while I fiddled with my spray skirt and almost let my paddle precede me over the drop, which would have been very stupid indeed. Steve began returning and indicated that I should go right down the middle. He said it looked like nothing significant.

The middle actually looked as good as anywhere so I went ahead. It was a short easy slide with no significant hole at the bottom but I noted with horror that there was a very large pinning/piton rock on the right side of the slide. Steve had decided not to tell me about it because the last time he told me where not to go on Section 3 at Dicks Creek Ledge, I had gone straight into it. I decided to keep my mouth shut because he had a good point but I would've been happier if I'd scouted it myself. After this you ride down the "flume" which reminds me of the runout from Mattress through the mini-gorge on Warwoman Creek. It was easy and fun class II.

It seems like we paddled around another corner or two and some Canada Geese preceded us down the creek, keeping a careful distance. Then we approached Headless Horseman, which we got out to scout on river right. This was yet another excellent bedrock type slide rapid and we climbed up on a huge rock formation to get a look. We couldn't agree if it was actually Headless Horseman at the time because we remembered it as having a right turn at the bottom from the photos on AW, but actually I think we had both confused it with Flume now that I've been able to go back and look again.

Headless Horseman was arguably the most difficult rapid we ran all day as there was yet another terrible looking boulder in the drop on the right and to the left of it, right in the line you would presumptively choose to paddle, was a "cauldron" with water circulating into the hole-gnarr behind the boulder. It looked pretty ugly. I hung out with my throw rope and camera on river right while Steve ran the drop. The purpose of the rope was for pulling him out of the hole or helping him escape from a pinned boat.

Part of what makes Headless difficult is that the approach isn't a gimme. There's some class II wave hole action as you try to line yourself up. I watched Steve's approach carefully to see what happened to him. Here is his approach.


Steve Smyth in the approach to the main slide at Headless Horseman.


This turned out to be way too far right and he subbed out in the hole and had a very close encounter with the big pinning rock. Yikes! Here's a blurry photo of the action.


Steve Smyth's Salto eaten by the cauldron-hole-thing in the middle of the main slide at Headless Horseman. The horribly positioned boulder is visible in the foreground.

Having seen what happened to him, I knew I wanted to hit a line through a small downstream V that I could see that was much farther left in the entrance, and then follow a shallow fold into the cauldron in the middle of the drop. This line was definitely better at this level although it did push me dangerously close to the decapitation overhang at the bottom on the left that gives the rapid its name.

At higher water that rapid would be very interesting indeed. Too far right and you're toast on the pinning rock. Too far left and into the undercut you go. All this is not to mention what might become of the cauldron-hole-thing in the middle of the drop with a little more water. It was good stuff but it's not one I'd carry back up to run again. I was glad to be in the pool below.

I might rate it more like III+ for generally sketchiness and small margin for error. If you get squirreled around in the entrance and miss the line by much then "Bad Things" are likely to occur. If you went over the drop sideways then you might need some prayer.

The last drop is a huge horizon line but turns out to be fairly simple. The geese were still ahead of us and they paddled right up to the lip in the middle and we thought we were going to get to see them swim the rapid. But then they just stood up and started waddling down, which told us that the middle was too shallow to run. Water was being funneled down both the left and the right of the drop and it all looked bony but eventually we both ran down the left and got a teeth-jarring ride to the bottom. From there we could see that the right line was pretty bony too so I don't think we necessarily chose wrong, the rapid just needed more water.

After this we could see the Cartecay ahead, which was a major disappointment. We hadn't realized the creek was so short. I realize now by looking at the AW page carefully that the creek part of the run is only about a mile long and this agrees with my internal odometer. Still, it was a very high quality mile. I still grin when I think about Timber Falls.

At this point you have to paddle the Cartecay River down to the DNR takeout. The Cartecay was probably at the highest level I've seen it and we ferried across the ridiculously pushy outflow from Clear Creek Falls to river right to climb up the rocks and scout the drop to decide if we wanted to run it.

At that level water was flowing over most of the ledge and the main drop looked horrible, really. There was a fairly steep hole that was a "frowning" v-shape and was about 4 or 5 feet deep. It was difficult to tell if it could be punched or not. In the event that you did get into it retentively, I'm pretty sure there would be no surfing out of it as the shoulders were both pouring water into the ricirculation.

Steve thought he saw a line down the far left that would ride over the left shoulder into the outflow but it looked nearly impossible to me. I've tried to eddy out down there at normal levels and it just isn't easy to get either right or left while going down that drop, and the water was moving much faster than normal.

We scouted the falls a long time but just couldn't see a definite line on the left side other than trying to punch the hole, so instead we ran the ledge down a neat flume that had opened up on the right side. It didn't look like much but it turned out to be faster than expected and we both grinned at the bottom.


The fun channel down the right side of Clear Creek Falls on the Cartecay. The monster wave-hole on the left is visible in the background. This is the only decent photo I got all day . . . despite the washed out effect in the waterwater at the bottom of the flume.

After this we basically played our way down the Cartecay, enoying the unusually high water level. A few play holes appeared at this level that are not usually present. Unfortunately we were in creek boats so play was limited for us. But the high water made the long flat stretches easier, and a swift current pushed us toward the takeout where we arrived early enough to make it home before dinner. The run had taken just 3 hours.


Green trees and Rhododendron on the muddy high-water Cartecay. Good play at this level.


I definitely give a big thumbs up to this run. It's short but sweet. I think if I run it again I will be trying to determine if it's possible to carry back up on a couple of the good drops. Since it's so short, you might as well get as much enjoyment as you can from it. As an added bonus, the large rock formations, mini-gorges, and bedrock slides are really cool looking. I'll be back.

Thanks to Steve Smyth for taking a day away from work to go creeking with me and to Carolyn Rand for serving as shuttle bunny. Thanks also to whoever wrote up the creek on AW or I might never have run it.