The rain was heaviest north of Chattanooga during the week so for our Saturday plans we diverted from the Smokies to the Plateau. The first option was Crab Orchard Creek. The water level at the launch met the conditions from the guide book so we decided to do it. The group numbered four - two from North Georgia suburbs of Chattanooga and two from Blairsville, Georgia. It was to be a Georgian raid on a Tennessee Creek. Due to the very long length of the run (over 13 miles) we had to get an early start.


Caption: Sunrise over Missionary Ridge from the expansive Swafford Estate in Rossville.

Crab Orchard begins with a half mile or so of flat water. It didn't start out very promisingly as we had to limbo a few logs before we even got to the rapids but after a while we started to hit some whitewater and in another mile or two it had picked up and we started hitting some class III. Due to low water level several of these rapids featured tricky approaches. The run was a bit on the low side but still runnable and still fun.


Caption: Play waves at the put-in. In retrospect it would be best to see a few more inches of water over this rock layer. It was a little deeper than it looks in this photo but basically you need slightly more than this. That said, having run the creek, too much more would probably get pretty scary.

There are a number of substantial boofs in this part of the creek and I had pretty good success at properly executing the maneuver. It's been a long road to proper boofing for me. It's a more difficult technique than is first apparent and I think when people tell you it's easy then it's probably because they don't know how to do it properly.

Several of the drops are blind or nearly so and it's necessary to practice a careful controlled descent. Most rapids can be scouted without getting out of the boat but there are a couple that require foot scouting if you have no guide. The water level was a little low to run the single IV on the run and three of us portaged it (two through the Great Rhododendron Jungle) while the fourth scooted down the river right slot next to the obviously undercut rock. It's not a route I would have chosen but on the other hand the portage was absolutely terrible, making honorable mention in my List of Worst Portages. After we got below the rapid it became apparent that the big pillow in the middle of the rapid that looked unwelcoming from upstream was actually a viable boof if approached with sufficient speed and I greatly regretted the deplorable portage. We found out one of the West Virginian paddlers in the group behind us made a successful go of it a few minutes later. Oh well. It wasn't apparent from the scouting location that it was a viable line.


Caption: I still can't see the line from here. Nonetheless, it looked good to go from downstream and we know it was run successfully a few minutes later. Not pictured: the rest of the rapid. There is a quite a bit more to it. I had difficulty getting photos on this run due to the need to move quickly and the continuous nature of the run.

A word on controlled descent: make sure your group is well spread out when running around blind corners with no obvious eddies in sight. There were a lot of strainers, logs, and outright log jams on Crab Orchard Creek. We had a bit of a traffic jam when much to our horror we suddenly found ourselves faced with a class III bisected by a great big boulder with a pillow in front of it. The main flow went left of the boulder but the channel was obstructed by a big, thick hemlock log with spiky nubs of branches sticking out the-better-to-impale-you-with. After much bumper boating, rock scraping, tree branch face swacking, unintentional eddying, and desperate maneuvering we all managed to drop the slot to the right of the boulder. All of this took no more than 10 or 15 seconds. It would have been fun except it wasn't.

We noted as we strove ever downstream that there were an unusual number of very large side falls on tributaries dropping off the Plateau into the ravine. I wish I could have gotten some photos as there were about three waterfalls that were huge and spectacular. This led to an increase in flow just when it was needed most. The result was a very, very long section of continuous II-III with a lot of wavetrains, holes, and nice twisty rapids. As Brian remarked, there is A LOT of whitewater on Crab Orchard Creek. It was great fun but eventually became exhausting and we began to look impatiently for the confluence with the Emory River.

  Questions included:
  "Where's the takeout?"
  "Are we sure we're on the right creek?"
  "Where's the restaurant?"

When we finally came upon the Emory, it was nearly at flood stage and looked like it was flowing past the confluence at about 15 miles per hour. We peeled out into the current and rode the swells. Brian noted that it was like being in the ocean. I love big water. The Emory flattened out in places and was wavy in other places with a little funny water here and there and we floated the 3 miles from the confluence to the takeout in Oakdale in what seemed like about a half hour. Even in the flatwater it seemed as if we were moving about 4 to 5 miles per hour by my slow jogger reckoning.

The Blairsville crew had to hit the road for their extra-long journey home but Brian and I stopped in Harriman for some pretty good Mexican Food at Los Primos next to I-40. The only thing odd about the dining experience occurred when I looked out the window and saw a wheel rolling across Highway 27 sans vehicle. "There's something you don't see every day," I thought to myself (it came from a boat trailer on the off ramp from the interstate). I recommend the Tacos de Pescado, complete with authentic pico de gallo and avocado slices. Nice!


Caption: Tacos de Pescado in Harriman.

Weather was fabulous with a high in the low 60s. It was a great day to paddle a creek!