English Story

Adam Hackenberg

Gambrell English III H

Autobiographical Incident

September 15, 2006A

Rainy Day in the World of a Kayaker

On Monday we got a ton of rain during the morning to afternoon hours. Some spots in Pickens got up to thirteen inches of rain. With many of the rivers in the area being over flood stage Dad and I decided we should go kayaking after he got off of work. At this point in the day most of the rivers had already spiked and where coming down but they were still really high. When we got to Pickens some of the roads where closed off due to Twelve Mile being flooded, so we took an alternate route which had a few other rivers at the bank bursting level and some past that but none on the road ruining stage at this point in time.. When we got to Little Eastoe it was at the highest water level we had ever seen it, and the water also smelled of poop. We scouted and looked at the river for a while then set up a shuttle. While Dad was running the shuttle I had a chance to suite up slowly going threw all the lines in my head, where to place each stroke, and which eddys, areas of low pressure behind a rocks or structures that cause the water to flow in the opposite direction of the main flow, to catch. With adrenaline already streaming threw my body I make the walk down to river, a short walk down a gravel road to a short and steep bushwhack down to the rivers edge. At the put-in spot I popped the sprayskirt over the lip of the boat then pushed off into the water waiting below me.
Being in the water I soon noticed that the water was more of an opaque than a transparent one with the deepest depth to be seen being no more than one inch. Looking back I saw that Dad was in the water and I headed down some easy water to just above the first drop, Chelie, there I told Dad just to go down center the next two rapids. While taking my last few strokes to the brink I doubted this was the right slide but on the brink I realize it was and slid down it slowly heading to the left to where a jet of flow came in from the left making sure to have a good right hand stroke and to lean downstream as I hit it. After that I caught a small eddy on the left after the rapid to make sure everything was fine, it was. I Peeled out of the eddy and headed to the next rapid Face Crusher, it really isn’t as mean as the name implies but I guess someone else thought so. I slid off of the three foot waterfall taking a stroke at the lip of it so I would land flat then into a small maybe eight foot tall slide which terminated into a hole, a depression in the water in which the water tries to fill the depression with backflow a hole can stop, hold, or even in extreme cases kill a kayaker, which I got over with a small stroke. I caught another eddy and watched my dad come down he ended up getting buried in the hole but got threw it none the less and came to rest in the eddy with me. There I briefed him on the lines of the remaining rapids.Once again I pealed out of the eddy and went down the short section of easy whitewater in which on every passing stroke my heart would beat faster until the climax at the brink of Truck Stop where the river becomes a closed in canyon in which the water ricochets off of the rocks which will stand there for all of a humans underestimated eternity as a gate for every drop of fleeting water making its voyage to the sea and at that point my heart beat ceased to exist. The first ledge is an easy straightforward drop that I ran on right and is just there to build up speed so it will hurt more if you hit the rocks on the next drop. A few more paddle strokes to stay river right and gain momentum and I hit the next slide which runs into a rock pile on left that is calling for you to piton into, a situation when the boat gets stuck in a rock and another good way to die, and some more rocks on the right. I went straight down the right side of the slide then used a good right stroke to keep my angle and leaned downstream to hit the strong push of water heading to the right, I kept my momentum and kept heading straight. Another stroke or two and I was over the next slide on the right side and picked up some more speed then a short break for the last drop of this rapid. I ran this one right again with a good right sweep stroke so I would have right angle that I used to bounce off of a rock on the right on this slide. Once at the bottom of this slide I used a micro-eddy to turn around to see Dad come down. He was successful at running the rapid right side up but he had almost flipped but he issued out a high brace appropriately and saved himself. I immediately peeled out so he would not spear into me. Here I noticed my heart was still gone but this time my arms had gone completely numb and I was building speed into the final slide also none as Green Wave. This final slide was the largest and fastest of them all with reactionary waves, waves coming from an object and pushing away from that object, pushing me away from the undercut and also trying to push me off my line so right strokes where in use to counter act the waves pushing me off to the right and trying to spin me. With one last power stroke I cleared the hole at the bottom and hit the river left eddy. Dad ended hitting the reactionaries wrong and spun out halfway down the slide. The hole stuck him and he was up for a short surf, the hole flipped him and he swam because he had the mentality that if he flipped it would be better to swim because of the fast speed of him, the slow speed of the rocks, and the shallowness of the creek. With the water, sun, and energy, quickly dropping we ran the Green Wave a few more times and then headed home satisfied from our afternoon run on the Little Eastoe.

Davidson River PFD

Went up to see if any one was at NFFB but no one was it was at -1

Headed to davy and saw Bird rock falls looks a good sized water fall with a center line.

Davidson looks fun above where the reg puttin is but you would prolly need atleast 2.5+
Decided to run it after checkin out whales back. ran whales back with an ok line hard to get a good line with the weird currents. BLD was fun with a right to left line. made good lines the rest of the way through.
Second lap: another ok line at whale back. Ran BLD right to middle which looks like a better line just make sure to stay out the brush. it has a small launch pad. At the rapid in which you have to go under a log I got in the channel and hit a small tree which stuck me and I couldnt move got stabilized and dad noticed and got out and got the tree out of the way. I stuck there for maybe 2 min. This time we took out at the lowhead dam which isnt as easy.
A lot of pushing but fun and something new.

Got to Looking Glass creek which still looks realy fun and checked out above the slide which looks fun too.

Davidson:1.35 and 1.3 (realy low)

Chattooga Sec IV, July 08, 2006

Found a pot hole in the middle of Ramsey Falls. The line on that may be left to middle, then over to right, then drop the last drop middle. Ran Chattooga from Woodall to the lake. Ran everything except the first part of Corkscrew and Crack in the Rock. Did the lake in a little over 40 min. Took somewhere under 4 hours.

Level:

1.17 internet

I guess a lil under 1 on th bridge.

Reedy Cove Creek, July 4, 2006

Hiked up and checked out the rest of Reedy Cove Creek. We sawed away some wood to run some rapids. All except Rock Jam are clean. There are a few long jams but easy portage trail for most of them.

Little Eastoe, June 26, 2006

On Monday we got a ton of rain during the morning to mid. afternoon hours. With flooding going on around us Dad and I decided we should go after he gets off from work. At this point in the day most of the rivers had already spiked and where coming down but were still really high. When we got to Pickens some of the roads where closed off from Twelve Mile being flooded, so we took an alternate route which had a few other flooded rivers but they were not on the road. There is a possible first descent on Meece Mill road which is a broken dam/slide thing. When we got to Little Eastoe it was at the highest water level we had ever seen it, the water also smelled of poop. There was a bit of water going in the small usually dry far river right channel. We scouted and looked at the river for a while then set up the shuttle (Dad running the shuttle). We got down the steep trail to the river, just passed the guard rail and just keep going straight to the river. We put in and ran the first drop, Chelie, in the middle, also can be run left, caught an eddy and the moved on to drop number two. The second drop, Face Crusher, we ran middle but probably be funner left or middle left, caught another eddy then headed down the river again. There is a bit of class II boogie between here and Truck Stop. Truck stop is 4 stage narrow channel, fast moving drop. The first drop of Truck Stop is best run on right. The next S turn drop should be run right, to avoid pinning on rocks on left, with forward momentum and a right hand stroke to keep from getting pushed into the river right rock, pretty much just keep on going straight because the channel takes a right hand turn. The next drop of Truck Stop can be run any where. The next drop after that is an S turn at low level but today you could just run river right over a straight slide, if you run on far right have some left angle so you don't pin on the river right rock, but don't run to far in the middle because there is another rock to pin into. At this point I caught a small eddy on river right and made sure my dad was ok, he was but almost flipped under the overhang rock (drop #3). There is some class III- boogie between Truck Stop and Green Wave. Green Wave has a few curlers that keep you away from the river left undercut. With a few correctional strokes, to keep you from getting side ways, and a strong stroke to get you over the hole you should be fine. My dad ended up getting sideways the hole stuck him for a few seconds flipped him and ended up swimming because he thought threw the rest of the river it's shallow and you should just pull your skirt instead of trying a roll because the river is shallow and you may hit your head, but where he actually did flip he was in deep water. We ran Green Wave 3 more times each with clean lines before going home. At that point the water was going down fast and the hole at the bottom of Green Wave started to look less scary.

Chelie: III
Face Crusher:III
Truck Stop:IV
Green Wave:IV

Level: Medium-high
3-4 in. in the morning
The river was much higher in the morning-noon but was coming down pretty fast at the time we got there.

Nantahala River, June 23-25, 2006

Went camping with my mom, dad, and little sister at Tsali. Rained a bit on the way up but not much. When we past by the Chattooga it looked pretty dry. Got there Fri. night and set up camp and went to sleep.
The next morning we woke up ate breakfast and all. We randomly saw a guy walking past our camp with a Wren soccer shirt (the school I go to). It turned out to be Coach Anh which we knew mostly by connections of friends. He had moved up to Boone and was taking down some students of his. He lives near us now and we'll have to go paddling with him. He invited us to come along on the trip, we did. Some of the people from Boone new the Pepers and the Rubacars (hopefully that's their names), friends of my sisters. We headed down the river with Steve Anh, Skyler, Kyle, Ginnet, John, and my dad. I caught as many eddies as I could and played on quite a few waves. Kyle did his first whitewater roll. Dad and I ran Lesser Wesser first while they watched. The we watched while they ran it. Kyle stern squirted flipped and swam, Ginnet swam and hit her head on some rocks (she was under water for quite a while), Skyler didn't swimming, John swam the whole rapid, and Steve ran the rapid right. I picked up Johns paddle and started paddling next to him in the shallow rocky part below Lesser Wesser. At one place he let his feet drop and his foot got trapped and his head was pushed under water, luckily I was right next to him and was able to just hold on to his PFD and keep his head above water and after a few seconds he was released with scraped up legs. I don't know what would've happened if I wasn't there. Steve grabbed his boat and pulled it to shore while I towed John to shore. That was a scary moment. Everyone else was ok.
Later that day Mom, Dad, Alli, and I checked out White Oak Falls. This is how I would run the rapid. The first drop I would run on right with a left stroke the second section I would run on right with a left stroke and some right angle to get to the right side of the final drop which is more like a big slide on right. If I couldn't get right I would just line up straight and try to put in a good boof stroke. I checked out the rest of the cascades which looked low but Big Kahuna would still be good to go.It rained quite a bit Sat. night.
On Sun. Morning we packed up to leave, ate breakfast at NOC and headed home. On our way home we passed by the Cascades and they looks a bit higher and good to go, I moaned and groaned as we passed because I was not able to boat the. When we passed over the Chattooga it Looked a lot higher.

The levels were: (show beginning of day end of day and changes in flow)
Chattooga: 1.08-1.1*Ft
1.1-1.27 Ft
1.27-2.00*-1.91 Ft
Cascades: 45-125 cfs
125-70*-55 cfs
55-125*-200-125 cfs
Nantahala: 640 cfs
645* cfs
665-742 cfs
* means I was on or at the river

Chattooga Sect. IV PFD, May 30, 2006

Ran Chattooga from the Bull to the Lake for my first time, with my dad, Mike, and Jeremy Sanders. I wanted to use my big blue hurricane today, just for fun. Ran the middle line at The Bull. Surf Rapid went as usual Jeremy caught 3 eddies in that rapid. Screaming Left as usual it can be fun to end this rapid on left with a little boof. Ran Rock Jumble on the Wautaga Rout and went just to the right of the rock that splits the Wautaga Rout. Dad pitoned for a sec with the center rout. I ran Woodall skirting the main hole on right (this line is good up to about 1.2) Jeremy and Mike took the Rooster Tail line which looked fun, and my dad took the sneak which barely has any water in it. Ran threw Bob's Hole, almost flipped below there somewhere but I braced. Scouted and ran 7 Foot Falls set up on the left side of 7 foot right side with an ok boof a little bit higher water level. And the boof would of been better. On this rapid you have to make sure to get away from the wall right after seven foot because it can flip but is not undercut. Stekoa Creek Rapid is a fun slide/boof that is ran on the right after Stekoa Creek comes in. It can either be boofed right into an eddy or left into a little slot move. Ravens Chute be run on river left with a nice chute moving right. Their are other lines at higher levels but they are undercut. Ran Little Woodall on river left threw a slot the main line would of been funner at this level. Ran Entrance in the middle with a little finger boof on middle left there is a rock underwater so a boof is necesary. My dad and Mike ran on the right which is an easier line. Walked half of Corkscrew on right and put in to run the last hole. Ran Crack In The Rock threw middle which is the only line at this level. Have to boof a log in the left of the crack I didn't really with my 10 Ft boat and didn't quite punch the hole ended up on the right side of the crack against the wall held the by the boil and the back flow scraping at the wall to get a hand hold with none to be found. Couldn't dig in with my paddle because I would flip if I did. Ended up upside down and then I was flushed threw and handrolled up. At Jawbone I caught the eddy on the left and scouted. Ran from the left side of the eddy and down the left of hydro electric rock. Ran Sock em Dog just to the left of the lauch pad which was not runable at this level. Ran shoulder bone on the left with no problems. Paddled 2 miles to the take out and ended the day. A fun day.

The levels were:
1 Ft at the bridge
1.26 on the internet

Chauga River and Ramsey Falls (Chauram Park), May 21, 2006

Hiked up to the starting of Entrance Rapid (II) ran that down the middle with a right turn at the end to miss a slitely undercut rock. Decided to run the Right Line at Pumphouse (III). This line is severely undercut on the Left and about 66% of the water goes into the undercut. It has a nice 3 Ft boof onto another drop that drops about 2 Ft more. The total drop is about 7ft. I have never run this rapid because of the pumphouse that sucks up rapid and scary looking trees around the pumphouse ) :. I did a roll at the sandy beach then headed down to the next rapid which I caught as many eddies possible on it. Can Opener (III) has 3 lines, the Left Line (slot) which can pinch pin boats, the Far Right Line a slide into a small boof, and the Middle Line (left of Can opener rock and right next to the boulder in the middle of the river). Both My dad and I both took the middle line with no consequences. Below here there is a great place to practice ferries with eddies on both sides and a very strong current in the middle. I ran Can Opener again. Then hiked up and did Pumphouse 2 more times.
I also looked at Ramsey Falls which may have a line going down the only flow at first then cut River Right into a small constricted drop with a shallow landing and no good place to boof off, then off the largest drop which may have a shallow landing two but a better place to boof.

The Chauga was at -7 at the gage in the park
The Chattooga was at 1.4 at the internet gage