Hometown Class IV Weekend with some Kick Yer Dog on Top

After having a great beginning to the winter season, things really slowed down here in the southeast. February was not exactly stellar in terms of rainfall, which made life easy on me, as I was nursing a dislocated rib suffered off the river in the end of January. Fortunately, once March hit, the rain came gushing back and we were once again chasing water all over. After some local midweek boating, we managed a full weekend of the super convenient Horsepasture Big Creek double followed up by a day on the not-so-classic Guest River. The Guest was fun as we had good water (lil' over 2'), but that is one of the most jumbled river beds I've ever seen.


Joe Keck firing into Vortex on Cain Creek in late January. Paddling with a Dislocated Rib was Painful.


Chas Lemley cleaning up on Corner Pocket.


The Carnival that caught up to our small group on the Horsepasture.

Now to the true point of this, paddling all the classic Knoxville class IV in a weekend. I cleaned up at work early on Friday and headed for the park for Tremont, the class IV version of the West Prong. As it was warm and we had plenty of time, I decided to hike up Lynn Camp and give Kick Yer Dog Falls a go (KYD is not class IV, but is a great way to start a low water Tremont run). It was good to be up there with the right amount of water (Tremont around 1m is about perfect) and some witnesses, and it went smooth as butter. After banging back down to the Tremont put in, we bombed down some steep Smokies class IV. As always, despite it's diminutive size, stop sign delivered one of the best boofs around. Despite serious rain rolling in and a lack of motivation from the crew, I headed over to the headwaters of the Little and hike up Elkmont section for a solo session. Despite getting hung up in traffic heading back from Cades Cove, I was able to knock out a run in just under an hour including the hike. It was sweet hiking up in the heavy mist while watching the river rise from the recent squall. This run is just pure class IV bliss. Not super hard, but just incredibly clean and aesthetic.


The main event of KYD on Lynn Camp (Photo: Mark Newton).

The next day, local Knoxville runs were the only things going, so we decided on a relatively obscure one: Abrams Creek out of Cades Cove. The shuttle on this thing is a beast, and we clusterfucked it at every opportunity. We were supposed to meet at the takeout at 9:30 and didn't put on until 12:45. Fortunately, Brandon's wife Carrie was awesome and drove shuttle for us so we didn't have to retrieve a vehicle from the zoo that is Cades Cove. While Abrams may not be a total classic, it has great scenery, a good class IV section, and the best waterfall close to Knoxville. And, despite the recent Tornado damage, there was only 1 wood portage in the whole 10 miles.


The Ultra Classic Abrams Falls (Photo: Jeff Moore).


It's super soft so boofs like this are just fine (Photo: JM).

After finishing Abrams, I talked Caleb into some Kick Yer Dog and we were headed back up to Tremont. After coercing a shuttle, we geared up and were joined by Kentucky's own Clay Warren. Again, we all had great lines at KYD before heading downstream for an aerobic workout on the way back to the institute. Tremont just goes so much better once you get that non-stop rhythm going.

Caleb finishing off the KYD lead in, which starts above where you can see in this photo.


The sluicy main event. Shortly after this moment the white out sets in.


JJ launching the touchy part of the lead in (Photo: Clay Warren).


This hole is terrible if this thing is high, but not too bad on this day.


Clay finishing his first KYD run.

The next day, the other side of Knoxville got the rain and we were off to the plateau. Most of the usual suspects were out on the Obed overnighter, so while there was discussion of Little Hurricane, we stuck with the Obed standard fare. It didn't look like Island got any rain, so we dropped a truck at Nemo and headed up for the classic Little Clear to Clear to Obed run. LCC was running a solid 2.75 (some might call this more than solid) and we were able to make it through with only a little action at triple drop. After finishing the sweet boof at Oh Yeah, it was on to Clear Creek canyon at 4000, which is great class IV big water, followed by the Obed. I was in my Molan and there was definitely some great surf to be had. When we got to Nemo, Kemper informed us that Island was still 1 ft (we didn't even check in the morning cause I was convinced it wasn't going), so we hit up 2 laps on this sliding classic. It's hard to beat bare backing Island with good water, watching the bedrock through the pristine water as you slide away the miles. Finally since we had to run back to LCC to get a truck, Casey and I put on at a more pedestrian 2.1 so he could get his redemption at triple drop. Note, Novacaine has gotten significantly nastier now that the wood pile blocking the undercut/tree combo is gone. All in all a great day running around to all the Obed classics, to round out a weekend of great class IV. There you have it, the best class IV runs within an hour of the house (minus Crooked Fork, which we got on Monday) jammed into 1 weekend.

Compound Fracture on Island Creek. Out of character for Island and one of very few photos from a day that was too good to stop (Photo: Kemper Begley).

Winter Update... It's been good

This winter has been the warmest and wettest since I moved to the Southeast, a distinction that has led to some excellent kayaking. To top that off, my shoulder has finally come around to where I've been able to visit some old friends I haven't seen in years like Linville, Raven, and the Bear. I haven't been at my most diligent when it comes to getting good photos during this stretch, but I've snapped a few decent ones. If you've made it this far, I'll spare you any further drivel.

The classic cave falls of the Linville Gorge.


The Tony styling one of the nasty spots at low water (The hole in front of him feeds under the rock to his right). This might be my favorite spot on the river.

On an aside, how are other creeks of similar difficulty so much more popular than the Linville? About a month ago I did a Raven-Linville weekend with low medium flows on both. There were 40 people at Raven and 2 of us at Linville. Not that I'm complaining, I'll take all the solitude I can get in the most spectacular paddling location the east coast has to offer.


Low water Daddy's is great way to spend a sunny day.


It even has some river level cliffs.


We spent New Year's Eve on the side of this gorgeous creek in the Balsam's.


And did some more obscure hiking in the Smokies. Unrun Glory Boof?


I had run the last 3 miles of Bee but had no idea how beautiful the upper Gorge is.


Knoxville crew in a geologically unique plateau canyon. Non-horizontal bedding?


Bee gets down to business at Squeeze Play.


And continues with great rapids for a good while. Kirk about to bash a good hole.


Joe Keck getting a feel for what the Raven Fork is all about.


My little Bro blasting through the top of Razorback. He was in town for 5 days and we managed to do Daddy's, Tellico, West Prong, Raven, Bear, and Crooked Fork. His Go Bro Video is linked below.


Yeah, it's that good.

Tom's Go Bro Video from the trip. We had great levels: WP at 1.8, Raven at 10, and Bear at 20.

South East Quicky from Tom Janney on Vimeo.

Let's hope the good times just keep rolling...

Tis the Season

Creeking season has arrived in the Southeast. Many years, there's a lull between the warm predictability of damn release season and the frenetic variety of creeking season. Fortunately this year they overlapped with the first good fall rain arriving before the final Tallulah release weekend. And, while the damn releases are great runs, the repetition just makes one yurn even that much more for some honest adventure.

It's the gorge that makes Tallulah Special (Photo: JJ)

The Amphitheater from Above (Photo: JJ)

And with short days and no shortage of water, the cup of adventure is easily filled and often overflows. The past few weeks have featured great quick runs of Hike Up Elkmont and Island Creek with darkness looming as well as a failed attempt at Sam's Creek (I never thought I'd see it too high, but it was a fun hike burdened by carrying a 40 lb piece of Tupperware) and a near epic on Wildcat Creek (We finished but it was too high, too full of wood, and too dark and a smarter man would and did hike back out).

Which brings us to this morning. Tight work schedules forced a quick mission and with extremely high water from a few days of rain we decided to give Bruce Creek a quick look at dawn. Even with all the rain, I fully expected Bruce to be too low. How does a creek with a 1.5 sq. mi. drainage hold when it hasn't rained a drop in the previous 12 hours. Still, it's less than 40 minutes from the house, so it was worth a look.

I arrived late, as usual, and ran up the flooded trail to have a look at the main event, a clean but stacked set of waterfalls going about 12', 16', 22', and 8'. Note that these waterfalls are not a geological wonder, but rather a gift from TDOT, who decided to blast clean lips and nice pools when rerouting Bruce Creek to make room for I-75's climb up Cumberland Mountain. Before I even got a good look I knew we were on from Ohman's excited whooping (folks don't whoop for nothing before sunrise). The level looked good. Maybe a little low but the lips were clean and pools aerated. After all, how much water do clean waterfalls require?

So back down the trail we go, quickly gearing up and returning. After a little discussion of the small tree we'd be boofing through on the biggest drop, we decide holding a right stroke should block the tree away from face contact, so I head up to drop in. A quick warm up and 4 boof strokes later and I'm at the bottom, having avoided potential tree to face contact and loving life. Now Ohman heads up and is quickly loving life too with 4 boofs and no tree action. The rest of the creek back to the car was a little scrapey except for the 12fter above the culvert (we didn't have time to mess with the culvert, but it looked good). After a quick departure, I rally to work on time with one hell of a way to wake up behind me.

A Boof I've been Thinking of for Years (Photo: Ohman)

Ohman had never heard of Bruce 12 hours earlier (Photo: JJ)

Dog Days to Another Missed Green Race

After Quebec, things really wound down around K-town as the dog days of summer kicked in. We had a few good days here and there (Juicy Crooked Fork, Thunderhead into Tremont), but in general it was Ocoee and mountain biking time. I even had some time to sneak a few good hiking trips in there.

Acadia National Park from Schoodic Mountain.

The Smokies have some great creeks.

This unpaddled one has plenty of bedrock.

Smokin' Steve Rappin' through an Impressive Place.

Since I hadn't paddled with my brother in forever, I decided to kick off September with a quick hitter to Colorado. The 4 day trip yielded Gore, the Black Canton of the Gunnison, and Bailey before I had to hop right back on the plane. A few notes from the trip:

- Gore rocks and makes me wish the Pigeon Dries would run again.
- Whether or not you run the super gnar, the Black is good for the soul.
- The portaging and hike out of the black are much more enjoyable with fully functioning lower appendages.
- Coloradans carnie as much as southeasterners do on predictable damn releases close to town.
- While gear dries much faster out west, the gate area in the Denver airport is still suboptimal for rapid drying operations.

Trying to Avoid having my Balls Crushed (Photo: TJ)

Gettin' my stomp on before gettin' my portage on (Photo: TJ).

Rolf droppin' into next gen, which was sick above 1000, although it's sick under 1000 as well (Photo: TJ).

TJ styling the move that led to my torn MCL in 2009 (Photo: I don't know)

When I returned home it became evident that the dry southeast I has left had since been saturated. Unfortunately levels receded quickly as the parched earth soaked it up like a sponge, but CPac and I were able to sneak in an after work West Prong as flows dropped out. It was even better that both the upper and lower were portage free other than major wood residing in big tree. The rest of September on in to October continued to deliver with runs on the Blackwater, Gauley, Green, Gragg Prong, Wilson, Russell Fork, and Tellico (never even took the camera though).

Unfortunately the last Sunday in October I tweaked (tore some scar tissue?) in my surgically repaired left shoulder in Boof. I was still able to complete the run and another race pace run, but come Monday the pain and swelling kicked up. After a week of going easy on my shoulder rehab work, I got to test it the day before the race on an after work low water Lilly to Nemo run. The results were not promising and after waffling for too long I made the smart decision to miss my third straight green race with an injury. Demoralized by the decision and not being much of a spectator, I decided to push myself in a different way: by hiking from Sugarlands to snowy Mt. Leconte (about 22 miles round trip with 5200 ft. of gain). The views were spectacular from Myrtle Point and my only advice is wear good shoes or your feet will hate you.

Looking down into some of the best creeking on the east coast.

Gotta love those Smoky Mountain Vistas.

Quebec Day 8 - Adirondack Classics on the Way Home

From the Rouge, we made a quick drive south into the northern Adirondacks, poaching a nights sleep near the Racquette shuttle road on some county forest land. The plan for the day was to hit the Racquette release early before heading down for a low water scrape down the Moose, which was running due to a power plant problem. I'll spare the details as these runs are well known but suffice it to say it was good to be back at the old stomping grounds. These runs are still great fun and the Racquette still makes me nervous in a few spots. One thing to note is that the entrance to Colton has changed and the runout of the boof was a little faster than I remember. We all had a great day in the Adirondack sunshine with all the Southerners getting to see two of the New York classics for the first time. From the Moose it was only a short 15 hour drive back to Knoxville and the daily grind.

Overall it was great trip. Water levels worked out pretty well and we were able to get a lot done. The runs we did were mostly top notch and the only complaint was the terrible bugs. I think the only thing we missed out on was the Malbaie, which was too high almost the whole time we were there.

The Fellas after a Nice Wake Up Call at Colton Falls (Photo: Jeff Moore).

JJ Flying Down the Right to Left Line at Fowlersville Falls (Photo: JM).

Tony Enjoying My Favorite Spot on the Moose River (Photo: JM).

JJ Routing Down the Only Low Water Line at Shurform (Photo: JM).

Stomping at My Old Stomping Grounds (Photo: JM).

AZ can Stomp Some Crystal as Well (Photo: JM).

Since We're Dorks, We Took a Team Photo. Notice the Contrast Between Bare Back and Drysuit (Photo: JM).

Big Thanks to Jeff Moore and Alex Zendel for all their photos. I reduced image size for faster loading, so if you're interested in additional and full res photos, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffgmoore/collections/72157627049572633/.

Quebec Day 7 - Riviere Rouge

The goal for Friday was to make ground back towards the states and do a little boating on the way at the Rouge River, which was running a little over 80 cms about an hour north of the NY border. After lots of driving from the Mattawin area, we made it to the Rouge in the early afternoon, paying to park at a little campground on river left where the Rouge meets the St. Lawrence. We headed upstream and found a rafting outfit where former guide Smokeless Steve schmoozed it up and got us a put in and a little beta.

After some continuous class II-III we reached the first rapid, Elizabeth's. We all grabbed a quick surf up top before dropping through a powerful but flushy hole, good stuff. A little more boogie water and the rapids were picking up to good big water class III-IV which was super fun and not very threatening. We rounded a corner and things steepened a bit. Some us stayed in a river left eddy while others scouted from river right. After getting a few signals, we surfed some nice waves (note to self: this is a great playboat run) before spinning and dropping into some pushy curlers as the river bounced off the right bank. After the left turn, thing went back downstream for a great big water hole punch. It was powerful and fluffy, but super fun and not too threatening. A little more class III with a nice wave or two brought us to the seven sisters.

Supposedly this stuff is good from 20-50 cms, but we all took a quick look anyways. 1 and 2 were big time, with life threatening holes but a definite line. 3 looked to be a great big water falls, but 4 into 5 looked to be the real terror (although it's probably survivable if you're into russian roulette style jedi-plugs). It didn't take long for the tales to be tucked and the portage to commence. We found a nice seal launch under the new highway bridge and headed down to check out the final sister. This one was top notch: a big chute into a powerful hole that wasn't too sticky. Just a great way to finish up a chill big water day. A couple hundred yards of moving water and we were walking up the hill at the campground to the truck.

Surprise, surprise. The Rouge also exceeded expectations and was a great big water day. It's not quite as classic as the Tewksberry, perhaps only due to the portage at the sisters, but the play was super fun even in creek boats and I wish I had been to this one long ago as it' not far from Western NY and runs all summer. One more note, when leaving the Rouge buy your beer in Quebec as you'll have a tough time finding any in Ontario.

Smokeless Steve at the First Nice Hole Bash of the Rouge (Photo: Jeff Moore).

After Some Nice Big Water Boogie You Come to this Beaut (Photo: JM).

Mr. Zendel Getting In Up to His Head in the Finish to the Previous Rapid (Photo: JM).

I Don't Think Anyone was Looking Too Seriously, But You Could (Photo: JM).

It Probably Does Suck Birds Out of the Sky (Photo: JM).