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French Broad River, NC
Barnard to Hot Springs
(Section 9)
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Class
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Flow
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Â
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Gauge
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III (IV-)
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700 cfs (minimum to TO @ Stackhouse)Â
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Â
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The gauge closest to the put-in is the French Broad at
Marshall. This gauge is not available on the TVA's flow line
(800-238-2264) or flow page (TVA Streamflows), though
the French Broad at Asheville and the French Broad at Newport are.  The
level on the Marshall gauge is usually about half way between the levels on
the Asheville and Newport gauges, unless there has been a big rain upstream
whose waters have only just begun to move down the river.
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III (IV-)
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1,200 cfs (minimum to TO @ Hot Springs)Â
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III+ (2@IV)
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3,500+ cfs
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Character:
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Cruising, with good play and surfing at higher levels
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Scenery:
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Pretty, in a wide, forested canyon with only occasional obvious signs of
developmentÂ
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Distance from Downtown Asheville (to take-out):
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43 minutes
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Length:
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8.1 miles (4.1 to alternate take-out at Stackhouse)
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Season:
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Year round (best levels in Spring)
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Other sections:
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French Broad, Biltmore Run
(I-II), French Broad, Section 6
(I-II+), French Broad, Section 8
(I-II), many more
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Put-in:
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Barnard, NC
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Take-out:
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Hot Springs, NC
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Directions from Asheville (to take-out):
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43 minutes. Head north out of Asheville on US 19/23. Take the US 25/70
(Marshall) exit. Follow US 25/70 all the way to the outskirts of Hot
Springs (this will require making a left turn to cross the Big Laurel -- if
you are a typical paddler you will park after making the turn and check the
gauge painted on river left beneath the bridge). Just before crossing the
bridge into town, turn right, then left to go under the bridge and upstream
to the rafting outpost parking area.
Directions to the alternate take-out at Stackhouse:Â Head north out of
Asheville on US 19/23. Take the US 25/70 (Marshall) exit. Follow US
25/70 19 miles to State Road 1139/1319 (Stackhouse Road). Look for it
on your left shortly after you pass USA Raft. Turn left and follow
Stackhouse Road downhill all the way to the river.
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Shuttle:
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20 minutes each way. Retrace your steps back to the "T" intersection
after the bridge over the Big Laurel. Turn right with US 25/70 to
continue retracing your steps all the way to the State Road 1151 (Barnard
Road). Turn right onto Barnard Road and follow it downhill all the way to
the river (be alert, there are some twists and turns). The put-in is on
river right just upstream of the bridge.
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Other access points:
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Stackhouse, hike into Frank Bell's Rapid, others
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Camping:
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There are camping and lodging opportunities aplenty in Hot Springs. My
family and I like the Rocky
Bluff USFS Campground (828-622-3202;Â open the Rocky Bluff file
with the free adobe acrobat
reader). Open May 1 to October 31, this campground has a short nature
trail running alongside Spring Creek. To get there, take NC 209 South
three miles out of town, heading toward the put-in for Spring Creek.Â
Campsites cost $8 a night. To learn more, check out Gorp's
Rocky Bluff page. Other campgrounds include the Hot
Springs Campground, conveniently located on the river and the USFS's
Silvermine Group Campground (828-622-3202).
There are many, many rustic bed and breakfasts in Hot Springs. I know
several paddlers who have been married at The Duckett House, for
example, and another couple who were married on Max Patch but had
their reception at the Rock House. The most unique bed and breakfast,
however, has to be Elmer Hall's Sunnybank Inn (828-622-7206).Â
Extremely popular with AT through hikers, a stay at Elmer's includes a
family-style vegetarian dinner and breakfast and a chance to converse
with an extremely eclectic assortment of guests. In a former life Elmer
was a Methodist minister at Duke University;Â his library is extensive.Â
Most find the Sunnybank Inn through word of mouth. Here are some of
those words:Â
Google Search on Elmer and the Sunnybank Inn. And for the two of
you who are chomping at the bit for pricier accommodations, here are a
couple additional Hot Springs
lodging options.
Â
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Gradient
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Â
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Average:
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24 fpm to Hot Springs;Â 27 to Stackhouse
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Â
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By mile:
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8.1 or 4.1 miles:
16, 21, 39, 32, 20, 20, 26, 19, 10 fpm over last 0.13 miles
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Â
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Maximum:
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41 fpm (over 0.97 miles)
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Â
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Maximum half Mile:
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41 fpm
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Â
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Maximum mile:
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41 fpm
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Guides
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Â
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Â
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Online:
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American Whitewater's
French Broad Section 9 Page
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Â
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Print:
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Bob and David Benner's
Carolina Whitewater:Â A Canoeist's Guide to the Western
Carolinas
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Maps:
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Hot Springs Spa's Map
to Hot Springs
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Photos:
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NC, SC and TN Rivers
& Creeks Gallery
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Other:
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Frank Bell's Rapid is named after one of the pioneers of southeastern
whitewater. I'm often asked if we're related, and while he's someone I'd
love to be able to claim, to my disappointment we're not. Learn more
about this fascinating character by reading reading
Gordon Grant's 1993 Obituary for Frank Bell Senior.
Guess how Hot Springs got its name! Consider reserving yourself a tub
at the Hot Springs Spa
(828-622-7676 or 800-462-0933;Â see the price list in the preceding
link). The most private tubs are numbers 5 & 6. Most paddlers take
out at the rafting outpost on river right 1/3 mile upstream, but if you
timed it right you could paddle directly to the tubs on river left.Â
Retrieve the bottle of wine from the truck, change out of your river
clothes in a changing room, shower, and relax in a hot tub. What could
be finer? You can even reserve a massage!
Do a
Google Search on Hot Springs and you'll get a lot of interesting
hits. I've found the
Sherpa Guide to Hot Springs useful, and Hot Spring's
history interesting reading. Consider timing a trip to the French
Broad to coincide with the annual French Broad River
Festival.
Â
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Â
This is a great run for intermediate paddlers. Its greatest challenge
for those beginning to build their skills is its width. It is only
slightly harder than the Nantahala if one sneaks the two most difficult
drops, Kayaker's Ledge (III at all but high levels) and Frank Bell's (IV-
at all but high levels). Both are easily sneaked: they occur in the
channels on the river right sides of large islands. Run the left sides
of the islands and you'll miss them entirely.
Kayaker's Ledge comes at the end of the long, flat, relatively shallow
section of the river called Windy Flats. Windy Flats begins below
Stackhouse, about the point the railroad tracks cross Big Laurel Creek.Â
The island on whose right side Kayaker's Ledge forms is about 130 steep
feet high and occurs at a sharp right hand bend in the river. Scout
Kayaker's Ledge before running it -- it creates an obvious horizon line.
The pair of small islands on whose right sides Frank Bell's Rapid forms
are located about a half mile below Kayaker's Ledge and about a quarter
mile below the last of the series of small islands below the main island
at Kayaker's Ledge. There is a great ender spot at the bottom of Frank
Bell's, a good enough spot that in the days when enders were king we'd
sometimes walk our boats the 2/3rds of a mile up the railroad tracks from
the end of the road on the river left side of the river just to do them.Â
If memory serves, 1,000 cfs was the optimum ender level.
Section 9 varies significantly with changes in water level. Many
consider levels between 2,000-4,000 cfs on the Marshall gauge the most fun
because higher water begins to wash out some of the drops and lower water
can lead to a very long paddle through Windy Flats. Although this stretch
of river does not have an upper limit, with the increase in power and speed
that comes with very high water levels it ceases to be a good intermediate
run. Craig Stickney, who has paddled it about as often as anyone the past
couple years -- both in a hardboat and as a raft guide -- characterizes the
different levels as follows:
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Flow
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Level
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Craig's Comments
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300-700 cfs
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Super low
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Lots of rocks, and even the plants growing on the rocks are
visible. Interesting to see once or twice, but not a lot of fun.Â
At 300 cfs some rapids are very interesting just to get through
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700-1,300
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Low
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At this level, there are plenty of rocks and the rapids are
shallow. Don't bother going below Stackhouse from 1200 cfs down,
super scrapy (and even at 1200 cfs everything below there isn't
worth the paddle). Sandy Bottoms wave (next to FBRC lunch spot)
is nice and wide around 1000-1200 cfs, although rather short in
height.
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1,300-1,900
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Medium Low
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Good level for folks just learning. The rapids are all there.Â
Eddy lines and surf waves start to get fun, although the Sandy
bottoms wave is pretty poor at most of these levels.
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1,900-2,500
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Medium
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The rapids start to get fun. Many more surf waves form above 1900
cfs. Big Pillow is a cartwheel spot around 2000 cfs as well.
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2,500-3,500
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Medium High
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The river turns much more into wave trains than Rock Gardens.Â
Surf waves abound, although there isn't any eddy service for most.Â
The bright orange/brown water is freakish.
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3,500-5,000
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High
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Even whitewater snobs will enjoy the river from here up. Some
rapids start to get largish holes, but nothing to really worry
about.
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5,000+
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Yahoo!
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I've only done it a few times between 5000 cfs and 8000 cfs.Â
Really, Really fun. More like the New in West Virginia. Waves
of 6-8 feet. Zero technicality, just miss a couple of holes.
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For descriptions of the many runs in the Asheville area less challenging
than Section 9 -- including seven on the French Broad -- see Betsy
Mayers' Paddling Asheville:Â 28 Gently
Exciting Regional River Trips. This very well done guide for
those interested in paddling class I-II in Western North Carolina and
East Tennessee includes put-ins, take-outs, directions from Asheville,
landmarks by river mile, excellent maps and general comments. For less
detailed descriptions of every run on the French Broad from its
headwaters near Rosman, NC into Tennessee, see Bob and David Benner's
Carolina Whitewater:Â A Canoeist's Guide to the Western
Carolinas.
Â
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No rapids entered. If you know names, and locations of the rapids please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run. 
User Comments
Kayaker's Ledge develops a terminal hole above 10k but it had a good seam in the middle at 14k that
we had no problem with. It felt like Iron Ring on the Gauley, complete with a huge hole/wave combo
below. Can anybody verify the terminal hole at 10k, or is this urban legend? Thanks
below the bridge is nice and deep. Great for squirts, etc. || Big Pillow: Top right eddy has a
great right hand cartwheel spot that is deep and controlled. Top left pourover hole is a semi
violent ender spot that can give ends as well. || Sandy Bottom: Good surfing and big enders off the
top wave. Classic piroutte land. Roll fast. || Frank Bell's: Auto ender off the river right edge of
the bottom left hole. Some lefty cartwheel action as well. || Surprise: Head far left and you'll
find a non-descript slot that is really deep and can give cartwheels, enders, etc . || We couldn't
find anywhere that would give up the double donkey helix blunt matrix, but the takeout can offer
plenty of entertainment too. - Sam Edit
not positive on the name being walnut, but you should be able to find it. Just remember that 1151
isn't right off of the main road and you need to turn right onto another road first.
a very long, flat recovery pool afterwords), but it is an easy rapid.
other holes are not bad too. I also like the sandy bottoms wave at the bottom of the rapid.
is:
- Beginner's Rapid (Just below the put in railroad tressel) ~ class 2
- the Slide (long rapid, ran on river left, ends in a short, broken ledge) ~ class 2
- the Maze (an even longer rapid) ~ class 2+ or maybe 3-
- Turtle Rock (just below Jump Rock and it's big pool, ran on river left). ~ class 2-2+
- S-turn (Very short but a little tricky. A swim here can result in swimming Big Pillow rapid
which
itself tends to give long swims. Stroke hard for the river left bank if you have an out-of-boat
experience :-) ) ~ class 3-
- Big Pillow / Pillow Rock rapid (scout from the river left bank, shortest scout-trip you'll ever
do. Basically, stick your boat on the beach and stand up. Run the top hole ("Pillowcase") if you
like, or skirt on the right. Avoid the big rock w/ the pillow by going to it's left.) ~ class
3
- fun eddyline / weak surfing spot below Big Pillow
- Swimmer's Rapid (an excellent and Strong eddyline, raft co's have let their folks swim this in
the past but there are rocks in there and it can be a little shallow. A couple hundred years of
flat water is after this where rafters are known to swim) ~ class 1-2-
- Sandy Bottom (Often a big, fun surfing wave! If you flip, roll fast or tuck hard and get ready to
be run thru some meat grinder action. Run on river left. Makes for a great lunch stop. ) ~ class
2+
- the Ledges (about 3 significant ledges w/ what are normally mild holes. Look for good playspots
in here)
- Pinball/Pitstop (Look for Bumper rock in the center of the river. Nice eddy line around both side
of it and usually a small, glassy wave 15 years above it. Run starting far river left for Pinball
rapid (fun!) or run far river right for a milder rapid with nasty undercut potential that looks
really neat.) ~ class 3- for Pinball, 2+ for Pitstop
- Rebar Rapid (look for rebar in the center of the rapid from where a low head dam was years ago
(1920's?). Run left. Watch for big hole at medium/high flows (easily avoidable)) ~ class 2+
- Stackhouse Rapid (plenty of lines here. Watch for rocks.) ~ class 2+-3-
- Stackhouse takeout
- Windy Flats (thousands of miles of shallow, flat water. Class 4.9 for technicality and sheer
endurance needed to get thru this.)
- Kayaker's Ledge/Needle Falls (watch for the Needles on the mountain-island in the center of the
river. Go the right side of the island for Kayaker's Ledge. Scout from river left. I can easily
imagine this being one bad hole to be stuck in a higher levels. Run far right which works out well
if you clear the hole, or down the tongue which almost guarantees a quick run thru the hole, or
boof far left and land in that eddy. You can portage and even paddle back up to the "sneak" on
river left of the mountain-island. I often run this, then portage back up to run the sneak b/c the
sneak's so much fun! Big wave train!) - class 3
- Frank Bell's (now called class 4, I've heard some guide books have it listed as class 5. It's a
big rapid w/ some big holes. Hard to scout too. Run river left for a fun boogie water sneak and
watch out for crazy water below the rapid.) ~ class 4
Ledge: This rapid becomes terminal
at about 12,000 cfs and up. Also, for
anyone thinking of running it right now,
Kayaker's has what looks like a nasty
strainer about thirty to forty yards below
it in a section called "Lover's Lane".
The strainer is two large, poison ivy
covered trees that block the whole
channel. Just something to keep in
mind. Oh, and Frank's starts to wash
out at higher flows, but if you catch it at
about 10,000 cfs or higher, you'll see
"Seldom Seen", which is a massive
(I've heard as big as twenty feet)
reactionary wave formed by the
meeting of the two currents from either
side of the island. It's about fifteen
yards past the end of Frank's, if you get
a chance to run it this high.
these rapids can be avoided without portaging.