2010 Large Burn Review

So far, I’ve taken the boat down the Tellico Ledges @ 1.7 , Little (Metcalf to Y) @ 2.7, Linville from Cabin to Conley @ 2.0, and Upper West Prong @1.55. My most recent frequent creek boat was a gus with significant time in a Jefe, Everest, and a little time in and old L burn. I'm 6' with super long legs and weigh in at 180ish. The boat is about the perfect size for me, although I had to add a little foam to the seat to deal with the high cockpit / short torso combination. I don’t think I would want to paddle the large if I weighed much less, but you could certainly be quite a bit heavier and I’m sure it would perform well. I would say it definitely felt bigger than the old L burn while still feeling substantially smaller than the Everest.

Curtis Elwood boofing in the 2010 Burn L on the Tellico. Photo: JJ

At first, I had some serious trouble adjusting to the boat. I was used to the tracking of the gus, which meant a small correction stroke in the gus was resulting in a huge turn in the burn. However, by the end of the first day, I had adjusted to the snappy feeling and was making super tight moves with relatively little effort. I think this is probably the snappiest creek boat I've paddled. Just super reactive to slight edging and small strokes. I'm excited to get more and more used to it.

As far as speed, I would say it is slower than the everest or the gus, but significantly faster than the Jefe.

Even though Linville was pretty low, there were a few good holes to plug out there. It punched them extremely well and resurfaced in great control. I think the smooth and in control resurfacing of the boat is one its greatest features.

Getting back right at Wheelie to avoid the pocket hole. Photo: Tony Robinson.

As for boofing, I thought it was great. It's gonna take some getting used to for me, as I'm not a good rock boofer, and that's a lot of what we have in the SE, so adjusting to the planing hull on the rocks will take a little effort, mainly in being aggressive with the edge
switching. Water boofing was great, and the plane out upon landing was super smooth (not the mush of the kick rocker of the Jefe). One thing about the plane out is that if you’re running super continuous water (like UWP), you’ll be getting to the next drop faster than expected, but that’s just something I need to get used to.

I can’t say much about rolling, other than the one time I’ve flipped in it so far, I rolled back up in a rowdy and crucial section of the West Prong.

I think my only complaints hinge around the outfitting. The hip pads will not allow someone with skinny hips, such as me, to add enough padding to get tight in the boat, so some customization was necessary there. Also, I had to do make some minor changes to the seat and thigh hooks to increase stiffness, but I’m one of those people who really likes to feel locked in, so I would guess most people won’t need to do anything in those regards.

So far, I’m loving the boat and can’t wait to get more and more familiar with it.

Jim

Team Pyranha

And just for good measure a little Linville Eye Candy:


Steve Krajewski at Babel Tower. Photo: JJ.


Steve not getting right at Wheelie. Photo: JJ


Tony Robinson at Jailhouse. Photo: JJ.


Cave Falls Boof. Photo: JJ.

Sorry, I broke my lens mount seal launching below Cave, so no cathedral gorge photos.

The Best Run in the Smokies that Never Gets Done

When I first moved to Knoxville, two years ago, the middle prong of the little pigeon above the trailhead (commonly referred to as hike up Ramsey) intrigued me as much as any of my soon to be back yard runs. A brief write up on AW described one of the highest quality runs in the Smokies with the best boof in the Smokies. Yet, I never heard of anyone doing this run regularly.

So I had to check it out. After pulling into Knoxville late on a Friday night and starting Saturday off with a quick run down the Big South Fork, I decided to go check out hike up Ramsey for myself. Now, it's always difficult to tell exactly what a run will be like when seeing it with no water, but what I saw looked like the best bolder gardens I'd ever seen. Suffice it to say, I knew I would be coming back to confirm my suspicions.

Unfortunately, I moved to Knoxville in the middle of the drought, and it would be over a year until I got to see how good hike up Ramsey really was. After a midday thunderstorm last July, we rallied a group to hit the West Prong after work. The first sign of high water was having to take an alternate route to the Smokies due to the normal route being underwater. After some detouring, we arrived to find the West Prong at 2', higher than we felt like dealing with that day. So after a short debate about the Road Prong level, we headed over to Ramsey.

After a quick hike up, we sped down the first hundred yards of boogie water. Howard and Caleb were parked in a eddy on the left, so I followed Tony down the first fifteen foot ramp, then boofed left over the nasty little ledge hole, before turning right and off a huge ramping boof. While this might not be the best boof in the Smokies as claimed on AW(it's hard to make this claim when caveman is just over the mountain in NC), you will definitely have the permagrin on after this one.

Hitting the first boof just after sun up. Photo: Tom Janney

From there on, it stays high quality and high intensity all the way down to the takeout. Think West Prong, except steeper, more channelized, and more unique rapids. The run is boat scoutable the whole way down, but be careful for the sieve rapid, which fortunately has a great sneak down a slide river left. Basically, for those one and a half miles, hike up Ramsey offers the highest quality class V bolder gardens in the Smokies.

One of the mellower stretches, but still oh so good. Photo: Tom Janney.

Boofing the entrance to a rowdy double drop. Photo: Tom Janney

Finishing over the big hole at the island drop. Photo: Tom Janney.

All photos are from a return trip in January I made with my brother. After a week of boating some of the best stuff in the SE, including Horsepasture, Linville, West Prong, Henderson, and Raven Fork, we made it up there for a dawn patrol mission just before Tom had to return to Colorado. The gage at hwy 321 read 3.25 ft. that morning, while my other runs have been at 2.75 ft. and 3 ft., although the 3 ft. level was the highest on Ramsey due to Porter’s Creek lack of contribution. When we finished, Tom agreed that hike up Ramsey holds some of the best super steep bolder rapids around, and added that it may have been the hardest run he'd done all week. So be careful up there, it's spicy...