Rain didn't arrive until Friday dark-AM so we knew we were taking a chance at not having enough water to go creeking. The original plan was to go to Fires Creek in far Western North Carolina, but when we arrived, Steve Smyth's tree root gauge didn't look high enough. It was running but Steve assured us it would not be a fun level so instead we headed over to the Upper Tallulah River, to paddle the II-III section that starts at the confluence with the Coleman River and paddle to a bridge on Tallulah River Road where there is a tiny pull-off next to someone's driveway adjoining USFS property.
The level was definitely good and after winding our way into National Forest property a ways, we were able to scout most of the II-III stuff roadside. We actually decided to launch a bit upstream of the junction with the Coleman River because it is no more difficult and gives you a bit of time to warm up before you hit the lone class III on the run. We started off well, but it was a bit continuous and there was some wood. I was a little nervous as usual because it was a new run to me.
We dodged rocks and found the tongues through some easy stuff until we suddenly came up on the class III. It's a gorgeous little rapid, nearly all the water in the river channels over to river left and goes over two separate drops that lose maybe 4 to 6 feet of gradient over 25 feet of distance. The river left bank is a shear rock wall and river right harbors two dump-truck sized boulders separated by a dynamic eddy. The second drop is split by a big nasty rock that was just slightly submerged with a pretty good hole on the other side.
We had scouted the drop from the road on the drive up so we had decided to take the line down the left side, right next to the rock wall, avoiding a small wave hole on the first drop and charging hard left to slide past the submerged boulder in the second drop. Steve went first and styled it. Brian peeled out next because I didn't quite have my mojo up at first and he did fine. I finally peeled out high and paddled into the rapid. There are a couple of dynamic eddy lines that form toilet-bowl like whirlpools and I hit one with the stern of my H3 and had to turn a power stroke into a brace to keep from flipping. Fortunately this wasn't much of a problem and I easily paddled into the left line to avoid the bad-looking rock in the middle of the second drop.
We were all stoked and smiling at the bottom of the drop. If the banks hadn't been so steep, we might've walked back up and run it a second time. Next time I'm there I'm going to catch the large dynamic eddy between the two gigantic boulders on the right and go to the right of the rock in the bottom drop. It's a picturesque pool-and-drop, boulders-and-bedrock drop and is a lot of fun to run.
After the class III, we continued on downstream to hit a few more technical II and II+ type rapids. There is one drop that is a river-wide stopper hole . . . and I do mean river-wide. The hole goes from one bank to the next and I don't think you'd escape if you didn't paddle hard and keep your boat pointed straight downstream. If you remember what the hole at the Quarry Rapid on the Nanty used to be like before Hurricane Ivan then this hole is similar in size but was probably more retentive and could not be escaped either right or left. Paddle hard downstream! I boofed the hole and Brian and Steve punched it but everybody had some speed up.
After a few more easy drops we came up on the last decent rapid. It was a messy class II+ ledge that didn't have a clean line through it. Almost all of the current drives into a rock shelf on river right at the bottom too. Somebody got turned sideways and windowshaded in there and got a cold swim. He said something about hitting rocks while trying to set up for his roll. Good thing he was wearing his bibs instead of the usual board shorts or it would've been a cold swim indeed!
After this, the river moves out of the FS property and turns into a long class I and I+ paddle. We were disappointed with the abundance of houses, cow pastures, and rusted cars in the riverbed. What had started off as a good forested run in the National Forest ended up with miles of flatwater through backyards.
After we headed back to the put-in to retrieve Steve's truck, we decided to drive upstream and see what we could see. We quickly determined that we should've launched another quarter of a mile upstream at the takeout for the Upper Gnarly section and probably should've take out at just below the II+ ledge where the swimming occurred. This probably only makes for a mile or mile and a half of II-III but maybe you could run it twice.
Side note: The Upper Gnarly section of the Tallulah is incredible. I couldn't believe there were so many hairboaters up there running it and nobody even died. It is a true class V boulder-choked stretch of giant undercut rocks, log jams, and sinister sieves. I don't think I'll ever be running that.
