Fires Creek - The Definition of Continuous Whitewater
North Carolina December 12, 2008
Steve Smyth Edward Stockman Stacy Stone Chris Clevenger Jennifer Shearer Allen Pogue
Level: correlated approximately 500 cfs Nantahala at Rainbow Springs gauge, my visual estimate would be somewhere between 300 and 500 cfs in the stream bed.
Steve's "stump gauge" to tell whether or not it's running. This is a good level.
Fires Creek is a super-continuous creek that tumbles out of the Valley River Mountains and Tusquitee Mountains between Murphy and Hayesville, North Carolina. We ran a section that is approximately 6 miles long and starts at the first forest service bridge and continues all the way to the Hiwassee River. The first three miles are maximally continuous II-III whitewater, really just one 3 mile long rapid.
We launched sometime around noon with everyone agreeing to practice a carefully controlled descent. I had not been in a boat for over a month and my heart was pounding before I went a hundred yards. I almost immediately got pinned sideways on some submerged rocks. Fortunately I was able to extract myself and thereafter remembered to start looking further downstream. On such a busy creek, focusing too much on the little stuff in the foreground causes you to get out of position for subsequent drops, and that is how the situation came about.
Catching our breath! Eddies big enough to contain the entire crew were rare. I wish I could have gotten more pictures while on the creek but it just wasn't possible due to the continuous nature of the creek.
Eventually I settled down and felt a little more in control except for being on the verge of adrenaline shock for a while. We soon came up on a mandatory scouting situation within a short distance (due to wood) and Steve got out to make sure that we could make it through before we continued. The presence of wood in Fires Creek is one of the few drawbacks of the run. We eddy hopped as much as possible in this area although it is somewhat difficult on Fires Creek due to the continuous nature of the whitewater and the lack of sufficient eddies to hold several boats.
There is really only one clearly defined drop on this section of Fires Creek. It is a tight, technical, blind class III where the creek flows through a slot onto a submerged boulder to form a pillow. It is necessary to run to the right of the pillow and then drop through some small holes and into the wave train below. Fortunately there is a large enough eddy above it to get out and scout for wood, which was handled by Steve. Then we all dropped through the slot and to the right of the pillow, regrouping in a series of eddies some distance down the creek, there being none closer that were big enough to hold more than one boat at a time. Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos due to the lack of eddies anywhere near the drop.
After this we paddled down a ways through still more continuous whitewater and eventually came up on some braided channels that were hosting some large logs and got out to scout. Some of the wood was very unfortunately placed, and everyone but Chris and Steve decided to portage. I got some very nice video of both of them running it. Chris's canoe bridged over the retentive-looking hole nicely and Steve made it look easy by hitting a weak spot in the hole and cutting back right in front of a nasty looking log, but the rest of us didn't think it was worth the risk. There was another log further downstream in the runout.
Further downstream, Fires Creek becomes so continuous that there are virtually no eddies large enough to hold multiple boats for very long stretches and Steve just led the group straight downstream, pausing every 1/4 to 1/2 mile for a breather whenever a large enough eddy appeared. We all had a great time in this stretch, although the controlled descent became almost impossible through this area as the group got strung out through the sequences of hundreds of yards of eddy-less whitewater. I was near the back of the group at this point and I struggled to keep the paddlers in front of me in sight while still keeping an eye on Edward in the sweep position behind me.
There is a nice looking play spot right at the Leatherwood Picnic area. This is where Jen joined the group.
Leatherwood falls at the picnic area. We saw another big sliding waterfall further upstream but it was not possible to get a picture.
Eventually we arrived at the Leatherwood Picnic area, and Jen joined the group for the remaining three miles down to the Hiwassee. At this point the gradient starts to drop off and the creek becomes a class II playboating run, similar in character to the Nantahala, only about 30 feet wide. Fires Creek also flows out of National Forest property in this area and houses and cabins start appearing on river right. The main hazards to be aware of in this area are a raised driveway for residents to drive across the creek which acts like a low head dam, and still more logs. Most of us portaged a slightly submerged log and we ran the driveway although there was a little mishap there that resulted in a swim. The swimmer got out quickly but the boat was washed a ways downstream due to lack of eddies. At higher levels I think the driveway might form a terminal hole and would not be safe to run. It is possible to car-scout this feature on the way to the put-in so we knew it was safe on this particular day.
The creek then gets channeled in between dense Rhododendron jungles and there was one mandatory portage where a tree had fallen all the way across the river. Some more wave trains followed along with some friendly-looking surfing spots and then we were on the Hiwassee. A short paddle downstream led to our welcome cars on river left. It was a cold day and we were happy to get back into dry clothes as soon as possible.
I think there were a total of 4 portages for me on the day but I might have gotten back in my boat and run one of those. All were due to wood as there are no extremely difficult individual drops on this run. Despite that, I would say that this run really requires the ability to paddle solid class III due to the extremely continuous nature of the whitewater and the presence of a LOT of wood, and very few eddies. You MUST practice controlled descent if you try to run this creek, or the outcome could be bad. That said, Fires Creek is probably my favorite run and I can't wait to go back again.
Additional Photos: Some canoes...
...and some kayaks.
Steve scouting the sequence of log-choked braided channels. Steve visits in the summertime to cut out much of the wood and keep the stream bed clear. Thanks Steve!
