Doug Cameron -- I walked from the shelter to Sycamore Falls to photograph the ice. Between the Blue
Hole (the first 8 foot falls) and the Monkey, there is a good deal of wood in the creek due to
recent heavy winds and rain. I've got a good deal of wood in my pants too. Be careful, and now if
you'll excuse me I'm gonna go make my wang beg forgiveness. Edit
If you are willing to bushwhack upstream from the trail, there is a large slide that terminates
into a vertical drop. In 1998, it was completely blocked by a tree that would have been dangerous
to move. To my knowledge, no one has run that drop and not many know that it exists. Post if you
run it. There is also a little known 8-10ft ledge about 2 miles from campus, near the Four Seasons
restaurant, that is fun for park and huck. We started scouting the Gizzard in 96/97 based on the
stores of Doug Cameron and Steve Pucket. Shortly afterwards, the hemlock blocking Monkey magically
disappeared. The diagonal hole at the lip can get stiff at high water and spun a friend into a
backwards descent that was scary but fine. The overhanging wall is not as bad of a problem as we
expected. Don't be surprised if you go deep. BTW, the SOPs come-along works well when needed.
Steve Puckette, Van Nall (senior), and I ran it in January of (I think) 1980. Soon after, Carrie
Ashton ran it with some students. We all carried "The Monkey" just below the confluence of Big and
Little Gizzard (the creek that goes straight is Little Gizzard -- Big Fiery Gizzard comes in from
the right just before the Monkey. I know because we fought the dam there several years ago), but
students regularly run it now that the hemlock trunk does not block the drop. We started just below
the picnic shelter and took out at the natural gas crossing below Sycamore Falls. It goes
underground soon after that. Needs to be caught just after a heavy winter rain.
Lower Fiery Gizzard (in the valley below the old trout farm) has also been run several times by
Sewanee students. It's Class I-II with strainers here and there, depending on level.
Ran the old rio yesterday with el se�or Reid. Was TOO low but still fun. There were a few notable
wood issues as well (keep your eyes out on this run at high water). Yesterday's run shows that 0.7
in of rain is not enough to really get this creek going even after a fairly wet week (0.3 in of
rain a few days earlier). Still, be sure to check this one out if it rains 1+ in. Though some (such
as V.V. Stein) say this run is too dirty (see "WARNING"), I stand by this creek with its cool
slides and old growth Tsuga.
Ran the gizz today, also "Little Fiery Gizzard" I think the names are reversed on the topo map. The
level was sweet-the highest I have ever seen it, quite continuous and fairly pushy. It only rained
~1.5 in last night but the water table was so high from previous rain that it didn't take much. As
V. Horton stated it is imperitive that one runs little fiery gizzard if the level of BFG is high.
It rained 2.5 inches the day before pointer took those pix. Then it rained about that much more two
days later... I must be living right. Anyway, when it rains that much, one should check out little
fiery gizzard, which runs in right above monkey... about seven tenths of a mile of bedrock slides,
mostly class four-ish
I paddled this run at a reletivly medium flow on nov 24th 2004 with a local fire fighter from
mcminnville and Had a great time the run is great for people just learning to creek with an 8 foot
drop that is great to learn to boof off of and for the more advanced paddler it is also fun to
freewheel off of. you can also paddle behind this falls and paddle through the curtin. It is very
easy to run this drop multipul times because of the hiking trail that follows the river. I thought
that was as good as it was going to get until i came up to the monkey. This is your clasic south
east drop maybe 15'vertical in about 4' it looks alot like Gorrila on the green. There is a huge
undercut on river left that looks bad when being scouted from river left but if you climb across
the log above the drop and look at it from where you would set safty for the drop you realize that
th roof is quite high maybe 3' still not a great place to be but not near as bad as it looks from
river left.
User Comments
Hole (the first 8 foot falls) and the Monkey, there is a good deal of wood in the creek due to
recent heavy winds and rain. I've got a good deal of wood in my pants too. Be careful, and now if
you'll excuse me I'm gonna go make my wang beg forgiveness. Edit
into a vertical drop. In 1998, it was completely blocked by a tree that would have been dangerous
to move. To my knowledge, no one has run that drop and not many know that it exists. Post if you
run it. There is also a little known 8-10ft ledge about 2 miles from campus, near the Four Seasons
restaurant, that is fun for park and huck. We started scouting the Gizzard in 96/97 based on the
stores of Doug Cameron and Steve Pucket. Shortly afterwards, the hemlock blocking Monkey magically
disappeared. The diagonal hole at the lip can get stiff at high water and spun a friend into a
backwards descent that was scary but fine. The overhanging wall is not as bad of a problem as we
expected. Don't be surprised if you go deep. BTW, the SOPs come-along works well when needed.
Ashton ran it with some students. We all carried "The Monkey" just below the confluence of Big and
Little Gizzard (the creek that goes straight is Little Gizzard -- Big Fiery Gizzard comes in from
the right just before the Monkey. I know because we fought the dam there several years ago), but
students regularly run it now that the hemlock trunk does not block the drop. We started just below
the picnic shelter and took out at the natural gas crossing below Sycamore Falls. It goes
underground soon after that. Needs to be caught just after a heavy winter rain.
Lower Fiery Gizzard (in the valley below the old trout farm) has also been run several times by
Sewanee students. It's Class I-II with strainers here and there, depending on level.
wood issues as well (keep your eyes out on this run at high water). Yesterday's run shows that 0.7
in of rain is not enough to really get this creek going even after a fairly wet week (0.3 in of
rain a few days earlier). Still, be sure to check this one out if it rains 1+ in. Though some (such
as V.V. Stein) say this run is too dirty (see "WARNING"), I stand by this creek with its cool
slides and old growth Tsuga.
level was sweet-the highest I have ever seen it, quite continuous and fairly pushy. It only rained
~1.5 in last night but the water table was so high from previous rain that it didn't take much. As
V. Horton stated it is imperitive that one runs little fiery gizzard if the level of BFG is high.
days later... I must be living right. Anyway, when it rains that much, one should check out little
fiery gizzard, which runs in right above monkey... about seven tenths of a mile of bedrock slides,
mostly class four-ish
mcminnville and Had a great time the run is great for people just learning to creek with an 8 foot
drop that is great to learn to boof off of and for the more advanced paddler it is also fun to
freewheel off of. you can also paddle behind this falls and paddle through the curtin. It is very
easy to run this drop multipul times because of the hiking trail that follows the river. I thought
that was as good as it was going to get until i came up to the monkey. This is your clasic south
east drop maybe 15'vertical in about 4' it looks alot like Gorrila on the green. There is a huge
undercut on river left that looks bad when being scouted from river left but if you climb across
the log above the drop and look at it from where you would set safty for the drop you realize that
th roof is quite high maybe 3' still not a great place to be but not near as bad as it looks from
river left.