Paddlin’ Ed

Secton 9 of the French Broad was runing around 2,000+ on Saturday Feb. 9th.  At this level the river has excellant play.  Well padded, some push but not hammering, its a really nice fun level.  The day was promising to be mid to upper 50’s which was excellant for a mid-winter run, with sunny skies and the five of us, (4 k-1 & 1 oc-1) opted to run the shortened run from Benard to Stackhouse, an excellant winter run.

Four of our group,  Robbie G. k-1,  Sue A. k-1, Ricky B. k-1, and Paddlin-ed in k-1, met up in Statesville and traveled to Asheville NC then turned north to the French Broad section 9 also know as the whitewater section.  After driving down a twisting back road to the takeout at Stackhouse first, to meet up with John H. oc-1, dropped cars, dressws out, and loaded our boats together for the ride to the put in at Benard.

Once at Benard we where quickly on the river around noon.  After a short warm up surfing at the ledges just out from the put in we where off downstream.   We where all just glad to have nice day in the sunshine and decent winter temperature to enjoy a day on the river.  We all played our way down through the 1st long rapid of any size, weaving and bobby from eddies,  catching ferries and surfing a bit here and there and re-grouping at the bottom.  From there we worked on down throught the diagonal ledges section, a long section of ledges running downsteam at a bit of angle, tiered in places and intermingled across the river, with many chutes, routes.  Slowly playing our way down we enjoyed working the diagonals, and hydralics off the many ledges, surfing across holes here and there, a nice area to just play and just enjoying the run.

Down below the diagonals we moved imediately right through a short rapid that at this level is mostly open from right of center to right bank, with some nice eddys to catch over on the right of center side, and few small wave to surf from on eddy to another for nice little run.  Below this after a big pool we enter the 1st of a series of three large rapids in a row.  The 1st rapid of these three, is at this level is run primarily down the left of center with a line of huge boulders down both river center and left bank forming a neckdown at the top and opening up down further into the rapid.  I ran in just left of center and worked down through the rocks and ledges in the neckdown, moving to far left just off the boulders, and catching a eddy behind a massive boulder off the bank just where the neckdown begins to open up in to the lower portion of the rapid.  Robbie G. came down pretty much the same route and joined me at the eddy.

Ricky B. and Sue A. chose and worked their routes down. Robbie G. left the eddy and ran down the left side and finally out right a bit to clear the bottom of the rapid.  Meantime Sue A. had come down and joined me in eddy hopping back and forth down the rest of the rapid.  I finally eddied out near the bottom behind a huge low rock off to river left, then peeled out, turned and surfed across the back side of a hole, worked down a couple of eddies behind a series of rocks at the tail out of the rapid below, and joined the others.

From there we paddle a open area to just above S-turn rapid.  Here again the river sets up a neckdown with a series of boulders on both sides, only this time the constriction is at the lower half of the rapid and focuses you into a final chute through a series of manuvers requiring an S-turn through a maze of cross-currents and eddy lines.  Ricky B. head down and worked over left of the boulders to the left of the neck down and Sue A. worked down the center then over to an eddy amoung the boulders on the right of the neckdown.  I started down, running right of center into the neckdown just off the boulder line.  Ricky B. moved across through an opening on the left boulder line from far river left and came across the neckdown into an eddy near Sue A. as I came down and moved from right to center.  Sue pulled out just ahead of me and grazed through the eddy to the left just above the final chute on far left side at the bottom of the neckdown outlet.  I followed Sue,  working through the backwash of a couple of eddies behind the rocks on the left side to set up for the chute on far left outlet (the center and right side of the outlet drop you into a very large hole).  Robbie G. came down behind from above and ran out the chute after me.  John H. picked his way down too and ran out the far left chute followed by Ricky C.

From below S-turn your just a short boiling pool at this level above Big Pillow rapid.  I held below S-turn in some rollback below to make sure everyone came down ok,  then lead of into Big Pillow with Robbie G. just behind me.  Hitting the opening just right of river center where most of the river is pushed to the left side by house size boulders down the right,  I enter moving toward left of center missing the “pillow” hole just to my right and catching the end of the hydralic backwash off the ledge running from left of center to left bank.  Riding the backwash in an upstream ferry I worked over to the eddy out on far left.  Robbie joined me followed by Ricky and Sue.  John ran down moving over to the right side of the main flow.  I moved up high and ferried across to just below the “pillow” hole to the boulder line out center and into the high eddy just below and to the right of the hole.  Robbie, Sue and Ricky peeled out on down to the eddy behind the huge boulder below on the right.  I peeled out of the upper eddy and joined them,  then we all ran out the bottom on far river right.

From Big Pillow we played the ledges and surf spots down to the last ledge before the long pool above Sandy bottoms.  At this ledge Ricky did the right line,  I worked over to an eddy on far left for a creeky move off an diagonal tougue onto another tougue coming straight down and surfed out center below.  Robbie and I think Sue did this move too, followed by John H. who move a tad low in his OC-1 and had to turn and got pushed and bounced a bit along a rock to his left, coming off the ledge, shall we say braced well over.  John worked that brace hard and made 200% effort to brace out and roll up, alas John finally decided to survey the relative variation of the water to air temperature for us.  After a brief respite for John to review his findings along the bank just  below and re-implant himself in his canoe, we head off down to Sandy Bottoms rapid.

Down at Sandy Bottom,  we all ran it out and eddied just right of the main flow on river left.  No one was really into surfing the there big surging wave there this day, with cold water and some wind gust occasionlly.  Some of us did briefly moved over to the nice low surf waves below on the left between Sandy bottoms and the bend below and do surf.

Rounding the bend below we came up on what to me is probably the best overall play area on this section.  You can see features all the way down what is a good long section of rapid below you where the fall or drop of the river is significant, clearly visiable, and constant.  Down this section are numerous waves, surf spots, holes, hydralics, ledges, moves to be made, etc. back and forth across the entire width of the river.  So we all played our way down,  I caught an eddy or two and snapped a few shot of the group along the way.

Down below, after a open area the river divides around a large island right of center, with creek lines to the right and a short but intricate rapid with good fall and, lots of features  with ledges interspered to the left.  Sue and Ricky lead off, and we all went river left.  Starting left of center on that side of the island and quickly stepping down through boulders and eddies moving to far left just below the top, then turning in a bit of roll back below a boulder near the left bank we each in turn worked back right down through various rock features and ledges, surfing over chutes etc. back toward the right, then turning and running out the last ledge drop where we chose angled back right.  With clean runs for all we gathered up below and headed on.

Just below here there is a narrow long island with a huge rock slab face just upstream of it on river left, this marks the entrance of the re-bar area just below.  From here down to just above Stackhouse rapid we keep working right to avoid the large iron rods that extend 2/3 across the river from the right bank, left over from catching logs for local saw milling many year ago floated during spring floods.  Visiting these bars is not generally considered healthy to boat or paddler!!!

Down below the re-bar field, Stackhouse comes into view, with the old railroad inn marking the area below.  This is beautiful old Victorian railroad inn from the days of Steam Locamotives, well preserved, stands on up hill along the right bank,  with the takeout below.  Upon seeing the inn you know your just above Stackhouse rapid, which is as series of ledges and chutes,  funneling downstream a various angles, with rather sharp and ragged rock in many places.  Due the rock being rough through here we all worked our way down carefully looking for clear channels and ferrying etc. from chute to chute and eddy to eddy down and out to the bottom pool.

Once in the pool below, its just a paddle over to the right band to the take-out.  We all had an excellant day, beautiful weather and good water with only a few big gusts of wind along the way.  Great time had by all.

SYOR – Paddlin-ed