Since some rain fell late in the week, it seemed like a good time to paddle some free-flow on Saturday. A last minute change of plans sent me over to the Clayton area to run tributary Warwoman Creek and three miles of Section 3 of the Chattooga River with Steve Smyth, and Augie and Betsy Westerfield. We got a late start after some us underestimated the drive time required to meet friends near Blairsville, and then stopped in at the Hole-in-the-Wall for some late morning breakfast.
After some debate and a review of the run using books and maps we decided we still had time to complete the run before dark and drove to the river, setting a car at the Sandy Ford take-out on river right. Note that your small Ford wagon will have to drive through a small creek to get there:-o No problem . . . just kicked up a little bow wave. Fording in a Ford, hah!
The Chattooga was probably around 2' on the USGS gauge so we knew we would be pushing our luck on the water level. The minimum for Warwoman is listed at 1.80 on AW but that might be little too low. When we arrived at the put-in for Warwoman, we found enough water to paddle, although just barely, so we launched anyway.
Things went well for a little ways and we had plenty of time to warm up on some narrow class I and II stuff before the creek pulls away from the road and the gradient picks up. The first big drop you come up on is obvious enough to see without blundering into it. Mattress is a big class III slide with a couple of rocks to dodge around in the entrance, a bouncy line on river left, and a smooth surface all the way down on the right. I got out to look for wood at the bottom of the drop before we ran it. The first two went down the left and I saw the bouncing they took so I opted to paddle aggressively to make it over to the right. The result was a looong slide down through the hole at the bottom. One paddler decided to carry it. Note that walking this rapid might be a pain in the neck at high water, although it probably will be possible. The book write-ups indicate that the creek drops 10 feet here but it seemed slightly less than that at low water. It's still a pretty big drop by my standards.
There are a few rather nice class II or II+ drops through the mini gorge below mattress. I had fun eddy-hopping my way down. I think this entire mini-gorge probably becomes one big rapid at high water. The gradient continues to be good for the next mile or so and you get several class II to II+ drops including a sweet little slide with another hole at the bottom. It was easy at low water.
I don't know the names of all the rapids but there is one other rapid that seemed to me to be a class III. The creek drops several feet through a series of ledges and boulders with multiple channels. There were two inviting lines, one that was a staircase down the left that wrapped blindly back to the right behind a giant boulder and another channel that started right of center and wrapped blindly back to the left behind the same boulder. Obviously we needed to scout.
We could see a log sticking up that we thought was probably blocking the right-of-center line. We couldn't tell anything about the river left line other than that most of the water was going that way. After some debate and an examination of the density of the Rhododendron lining the banks, I finally decided that there was an eddy part of the way down the left side that I could catch to see if the river left line was clear of wood (and still be able to climb up the bank if necessary). I stayed far left to keep out of the pushy flow, scraped over a couple of rocks and landed in the eddy. I could see that there was plenty of flow dropping over a broken ledge into some foamy water and that there was no wood in it. I launched out into the flow, bounced over some more rocks, and finally splashed down into the pool at the bottom. I signaled with my paddle to those above to go left. The log we had partially seen from upstream in the right-of-center line was completely blocking the slot over there.
Eventually the gradient levels out quite a bit and you end up paddling a good bit of flat water that is punctuated by the occasional class I rapid. There was a neat little rock garden that might have been a class II at one point. There is also an isolate ledge that drops four or five feet shortly after a road crossing (not a bridge mind you, it's where the road actually goes through the creek). It's straight forward enough but due to low water we had to take a slide down the right that was right next to yet-another-pine-log that looks like it is going to put out an eye if you accidentally go too far right.
Did I mention that there was a lot of wood in the run? The further downstream we went, the more trees, branches, sticks, and outright log jams we encountered. A couple of these were dangerous even with the low water level. Several others would be terribly dangerous at higher water. As it was, we crossed over a number of low lying logs using a technique we called the "log boof." We also were able to duck under and through some strainers and log jams but if the water had been pushier, this might have turned into a fatal game. We avoided portaging but only by clawing our way through a couple of strainers that we probably shouldn't have messed with. If you go to Warwoman Creek when the level is up, you'd better be ready to portage due to wood.
Finally we reached the confluence with the Chattooga just above Warwoman Rapid. It was a relief to have plenty of water after the shallow and scrapy creek. We went on down and ran through some flatwater and easy class I and II drops before coming up to Dicks Creek Ledge. The only time I came to section 3 before I had walked it, so I was determined to run it this time. Steve Smyth showed us the proper line but I started too far out in the middle of the tongue, scraped my paddle on the rocks futily and finally flushed into the class IV line. I could hear myself saying "Oh my god," as I dropped into the tight, chaotic slot with a little waterfall in it. I'll call it "Plan B." It wasn't as bad as I had feared, although I am very glad I didn't flip. "All's well that ends upright," as I like to say. One other paddler blundered into it also and we both came through without bashing in our faces. Thank you, God!
Section 3 is a wonderful place. It is pool-and-drop with some very long flat pools in between, but I never get bored, even in the flatwater. As in the past, I was struck by the serenity of the place. You can definitely experience some peace just by drifting along, looking at the wilderness, and enjoying the total absence of people, houses, power lines, and roads. Like Augie Westerfield says, "It even smells beautiful." The scent of pine and hemlock needles filled the air.
After this there are a couple of rapids that I had little memory of from my first trip but they were definitely more like class III at Saturday's level than I remembered. It was good wave train splashing, hole dodging, hole punching action. I'm an Ocoee local and I would describe this stretch as Ocoee-like. I had a great time with it although I almost flipped when I hit a twisting toilet-bowl hole. Note that a couple of these holes are pretty big around 2 feet. I was glad to have dodged instead of trying to punch through a couple of times.
We finally arrived at the takeout just before sunset and everybody headed into Clayton for some spicy Mexican food. It was an excellent trip that I'm still replaying in my mind. The highlights were Mattress on Warwoman Creek and running Dicks Creek Ledge the hard way. I'm definitely coming back to the Chattooga watershed again.
