Green, |
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The Green Narrows is the southeast's most famous steep creek. It epitomizes a low-volume, boulder congested, pool-drop character, with a couple of slides thrown in for good measure. Unique in the fact it is dam released and runs nearly 300 days per year, it still retains the feel of a wilderness creek due to the depth and inaccessibility of the gorge, the decent water quality and fabulous landscaping, and the .6 mile walk downhill with your boat to get to the put-in.
First run in it's entirety in 1988, and long after remaining a holy grail for whitewater enthusiasts, the Narrows has been eclipsed by a series of other now commonly run creeks of greater difficulty. Nonetheless, it remains the bread-and-butter of the Asheville area Class V paddling scene, and is still a mighty big sandwich to bite into. Most of the rapids are tight and technical, requiring precise boat control to run smoothly. Many of the boofs are not just fun, they are mandatory. Boaters with strong Class IV+ skills who walk the Big Three have been shown down successfully countless times now, and yet boaters with strong Class V skills still get hammered here on a regular basis. Sadly, the river is the site of two fatalities and countless other minor and major injuries. It is not to be taken lightly. The 100% release level, with minor differences between 7-9 inches, is "the standard". While a couple rapids get easier at 200% -- and there's nice padding at higher water -- most rapids get harder. The time between rapids also gets much shorter, and the penalty points add up quick.
Although running the Green is staple food ---a happy meal--- for regulars just trying to shut out the noise and stay safe, it is also the daily training ground for many of the country's elite creekboaters, and the annual Green Race is a most revered and hotly contested affair. Held at high noon on the first Saturday in November since 1996, it draws huge crowds and even a grilled cheese sandwich and/or hot burrito sales program. Another more recent event, Jerry's Baddle, a paddling & bicycling biathlon fundraiser held each Spring, is now in its fourth year and hugely successful as well. Both events have a homegrown, homemade kind of feeling, and reflect the strong and diverse community that has built up around the Green. You hear it all the time: "...man, I LOVE the Green".
Saturday, October 31st, 2009, will be the first appearance of a triathlon competition called a "Baddlun" on the Narrows. Bike, Run, Paddle. For more information: http://grbaddlun.blogspot.com/
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Release Schedule
Chris Bell's Green Flows
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Green Race Information Page
History of
Access, Parking, & Releases
Chris Bell's Green Page
(includes camping info)
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The Narrows is wholly located within the Green River Gamelands, a rugged tract of more than 10,000 acres along the Green River in Henderson and Polk Counties. Owned by the people of the State of North Carolina, the primary purpose of the Gamelands remains wildlife conservation and management. The 16 miles of trails are for foot travel only. River otters, bears, deer, snakes, turtles, fish, and all manner of birds share this beautiful place. Arguably, the Green's water quality has been going down over time thanks to the increase in development upstream in the watershed. Following heavy rains the creek runs browner now and carries more sediment from poor erosion control measures. See this picture of Toilet Bowl to learn more.
Although topozone.com no longer offers free access to their USGS topo maps online, the Libre Map Project does. To view the USGS topo map covering the Green Narrows, click here for their North Carolina listings, and then scroll down and choose the "Cliffield Mountain Quad". I was able to download and open the TIFF version using Windows Photo Gallery. If you have not looked at a topo map of the Narrows area, then check it out. There is also a blown-up version covering just the Narrows that I linked to in the Sunshine rapids description.
Click the "Rapids" tab at the top of this page for descriptions and pictures of all the Green's famous drops. In that section, several alternate pictures are shown and different lines are described, yet no attempt has been made to describe everything. There are "race lines", "200% lines", several hazards left unmentioned, and a myriad of little cul de sacs made for good or ill. More detail and better pictures will come with time. Feel free to find me and pass along any suggestions you care to....it's a work in progress. --- John Pilson (12/6/07)
| Timing The Watercourse Way |
| Water to Put-in = 2.5 hours |
| Water to Take-out = 4-4.5 hours |
| (a) River empties faster than it fills... |
| so latest sensible put-on is 1 hour |
| after turn-off.... Paddle w/o delay. |
| (b) "Dawn Patrol"....if release goes |
| to midnight, they won't turn if off until |
| at least 7 a.m. the next day. |
The Green Key Way: ...In order to access the Narrows by parking at the end
of Gallimore Road, you need to use a gated and locked parking lot which is rented by
the Green River Access Fund. Keys for the "Gallimore Creek Access Area" (the parking lot)
cost $60 each, and this year there is NO discount for turning in last year's key, as agreed
upon in the last public meeting of the Access Fund. The cost for camps and commercial groups
is $200.
The keys run annually, with the normal program being from April to April. New keys will be required starting April 1st, when the lock will be changed from the 2008 key to the 2009 key.
Keys are available at Green River Adventures, the new outfitter near the top of the road at Fishtop. Call GRA at (828) 749-2800 for more information. Current Spring hours: Tues.-Sat 10-5. T-shirts for key purchasers are available for $12 each, and $20 for non-keyholders. Sorry, but keys and T-shirts are not available via mail order, and are not available through Liquid Logic. GRA only, and in person -- sorry, but that's how it rolls this year.
Key Rentals -- New for 2009, and designed for folks not living in the Carolinas. Key pick-up and drop-off at GRA, with the cost being $10. Contact GRA for more information.
Use of the parking lot is for keyholders only, and is self-policing. There are NO other parking spots at the end of Gallimore Road, save for two that are reserved explicitly for hunters and fishermen across from the lot. You are subject to ticketing and towing if you park there as a boater. At this point, there is no visitor parking, and no "put the $5 in the mailbox" day-use honor program that existed in the past. It didn't work. Woody Callaway at Liquid Logic is the leaseholder, paying the rent, not making a dime, and all Green boaters who plan to access the river at this point by using the lot need to pony up the funds to support the continuing use of it. Cheap entertainment. Keyholders are reminded to lock the gate behind them each and every time they come and go, and to not let in people without keys. Until a more permanent -- and owned -- lot is found that allows us to park and walk down the public trail to the put-in, then this is the deal we got. People are working on better options all the time. Key purchases and other donations are tax deductible.
The No Key Way: ...If you don't paddle the Narrows enough to warrant buying a key, and you are not getting dropped off at the end of the road and parking back up on Big Hungry (apparently legal), then you must paddle the Upper Green first to access the Narrows. Alternately, to perform the Gentleman's Poach, drop your friends and gear at the put-in trail and drive down to Fishtop, getting a ride back up as "just a body".
For further information about the Access Fund, contact:
Green River Access Fund, 1437 Dana Rd., Hendersonville, NC 28792
Just hit #2 on your speed dial.... or call (800) 829-5253, followed by prompts 3-2-1, to hear a daily recording from the Tuxedo Hydro Plant --- usually out by 7:30 a.m. and now often updated for three days as well. Releases are shown and historically tracked on the Green River Flows Page, with the options being 60%, 100%, and 200%. The standard 100% release reportedly delivers about 216 cfs of water into the gorge below the hydro plant --- which you will wait 2 1/2 hours for, and 4 Megawatts of electricity to the people of North Carolina --- instantly.
| Season | Release | Level | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | 60% | 2-3" | Highly suboptimal |
| Winter | 60% | 4-5" | The bare minimum |
| Summer | 100% | 7-8" | Normal minimum |
| Winter | 100% | 9" | Happy dogs |
| Summer | 200% | 14" | Good dogs |
| Winter | 200% | 16" | Bigger dogs |
The Gauge: Installed in 2005, and located a couple of minor rapids below the confluence with Big Hungry, there is a stick gauge affixed to a rock on your right. This gauge supplants the well-known "gauge rock" which was pushed out of the way by the hurricanes and high water in the Fall of 2004. Recent rains will add to the flow from a series of small tributaries, with the lion's share coming from Big Hungry Creek. You can check the local rainfall for Henderson County (Gauge #1841, Dana, being the closest). Also, be aware of lake levels and their impact. Attempts are made to keep Winter levels around 95' and Summer levels around 98', with levels over 100' indicating water flowing over the top of the dam. Understanding lake levels and trends can help with the risky business of predicting releases ahead of time. By following the lake level time stamps reported on the Green River Flows Page, one can see the lake drop during the day or overnight, and bets can be placed accordingly if they fail to update the phone message. A 100% 7a.m. - 3p.m. release can drop the lake .3 -.5 feet.
| Mile | Rapid Name | Class | Features (Legend) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | Bride of Frankenstein | IV |   |
| 0.5 | Frankenstein | 5.0 |  |
| 0.6 | Pincushion | IV | |
| 0.6 | Whale Tail | III+ | |
| 0.7 | Boof or Consequences | IV+ | |
| 0.7 | The Squeeze | IV+ | |
| 0.7 | Go Left and Die | 5.1 |  |
| 0.8 | Reverse Seven Foot | IV | |
| 0.8 | Zwick's Backender | 5.0 | |
| 0.8 | Chief | 5.0 | |
| 0.8 | Gorilla/Pencil Sharpener | IV+ | |
| 0.9 | Gorilla/The Notch | 5.0 | |
| 0.9 | Gorilla/The Flume | 5.2 | |
| 0.9 | Gorilla/Scream Machine | 5.0 | |
| 0.9 | Gorilla/Nies' Pieces | 5.0 | |
| 1.0 | Power Slide | 5.0 | |
| 1.1 | Rapid Transit | 5.0 | |
| 1.1 | Nutcracker |  | |
| 1.1 | Groove Tube | 5.0 |  |
| 1.1 | Sunshine | 5.2 | |
| 2.4 | Toilet Bowl | IV | |
| 2.5 | Hammer Factor | 5.0 | |
First off, about the links found throughout the Rapids Section below... Right now, because of AW's new Wiki formatting, if you click on a link and then later hit "back" you'll get taken back to the main front page for the Green and NOT this section. Until I get 'em all changed to "Open in a New Tab" then I recommend you do that yourself. That's the habit I've gotten into when in this section (same goes for clicking on a picture).
Also, many of the pics showing below now have "Can't tell for sure" as a level --- for some reason co-opted from the level I (jokingly) picked for the topo map found in the Sunshine description.... Guess I'll make up some numbers for the others if we can't get that error fixed back to the original levels. Sorry 'bout that. Thanks -- JP
After putting in 100 yards above the confluence with Big Hungry Creek, there's an easy half-mile plus of class II-III warm-up.
Then the walls close in......the bottom drops out......and the fun begins. Check out a gradient chart of the Narrows for an idea of where this gravity sport is about to take you.
Enter Bride by going either just left of the right flake, or going left of that flake and the rock to its left from the start. After the first drop of about four feet, proceed down toward the second drop, a smaller pourover which makes for a good playspot. Use some good left-hand angle and momentum going off the top drop so you don't end up in the undercut on the right.
The "Traditional Line" is to catch the set-up eddy on the right, but don't wash into the far right channel directly below where the trees and undercuts of the "lobster trap" await. From this setup eddy, ferry into the entrance slot with some good upstream angle and catch the eddy straight ahead on the left. Then ferry back into the current looking for a triangular-shaped rock you need to go right of. You can boof center or right into the eddy on the right at the bottom, then ferry your way back out of there. However, watch out for the undercut directly below and don't blow your line with the top eddy here, or you can end up pinned going left of the triangle rock. 
The "Race Line" has a smallish double-boof then squeezey entrance. Stay right and slow down after that to feed back left into the race line boof finisher (shown in photo). Super fun to run clean! Below Frankenstein, there are multiple lines through a six foot drop and some Class IV boogie water before the next major rapid.
After the short stretch of Class IV, you come to the next drop, Pincushion, a four foot drop with a blind entrance flowing into a pointy rock below and left of center. Enter the top slot on the left, line up and go right around the rock at the bottom. An alternate line is to take the bottom entrance and run to the left around the pincushion rock, but this requires more a bit more water than a low summer release to run clean.
Below Pincushion is a two-drop Class III+ rapid with multiple routes available.
Whale Tail begins with three different entrance slots and is a beautiful little slide with a two-foot drop at the bottom. Do not go over on the far river left side. A couple of small holes later and you're in the set-up eddy for Boof.
The main line is to stay with the flow leading in, wiggle through some squiggles, then bank right for the first drop. Turn left for the bottom drop without getting pushed too far left or right (into an undercut or pin potential, respectively). The "back door" entrance to the main line is sometimes done by people to get a better handle on the main drop if they haven't done it much.
For Boofer's sneak on the right, eddy out at the top and look for the slot just to the right of the midstream boulder. The line involves sliding through the narrow slot, dropping about six feet and dodging an undercut. Re-enter the main flow for the final drop, and eddy bottom right.
In May of 2008, a new drain opened up, sending less water going through the main line. The majority of people began running the sneak line through the Fall of '08, but the drain has largely filled and the main line is now nearly the same as it ever was. At low water, however, it is pretty easy to sent too far right towards the undercut below the main drop.
Squeeze is the name for the Go Left Sneak. From the eddy below Boof, hit the first drop going right, squeeze through the narrow slot and then pencil down four feet into a little pool. Cruise down the final slide of about ten feet where you'll need to head left to hit most of the flow and avoid a glorified seal launch --- especially at low summer flows (not a problem at this spooky level).
After the pool below Squeeze and Go Left, there is a sweet little left-hand boof on the right-hand side of the main flow out. I used to think that this boof was about where you entered Polk County. But not any longer...
The County Line: A Welcome Center Just for You?
This next tidbit is pretty remarkable..... Careful viewing of the Polk County GIS aerial photo map reveals that the Henderson County/Polk County boundary line (as also seen here on this USGS topographic map) crosses the river exactly where the log is in Go Left And Die --- thus making the hole there at the base of the drop perhaps best called the "Polk County Welcome Center". A tip of the hat to GIS sleuth Paul Bartholic for this one.
Go Left is the first of the Green's "Big Three" (the others being Gorilla and Sunshine). Here, proceed down the same as Squeeze but head left instead of right. You then boof over a log and power left across a six foot drop aiming for the extremely narrow slot at the bottom on the left. Watch out and tuck tight if you flip....it's really narrow.
Missing your line and hitting the right slot at the bottom is a good way to pin. I'm sure you've seen lots of carnage here courtesy of the folks over at LVM and those training for the Green race.
A few kernels of history about the naming of Go Left can be gleaned within this 2007 thread of Boatertalk posts from and about some of the early players on the Green. Orange juice squeezer, baby.
Normally (and easily) scouted from the right --- even Adirondacks boaters might want to have a good look-see at this one... "Boys, welcome to Polk County".
At the end of the next little pool is Reverse Seven --- named because it looks similar to Chattooga's Seven Foot Falls, though a bit smaller and, of course, reversed. If not running direct you can catch the eddy on the left below Reverse Seven to get ready for Zwick's, immediately downstream. Running direct has the advantage of placing you in the flow towards Zwick's already moving, and sets up well for success. It's also more fun.
If you are going to scout Zwick's, most get out on the right before Reverse Seven Foot to do so, but you can also sneak into the back of the Reverse Seven Foot eddy and get out easily to scout Zwick's on the left. Worth doing if you haven't.
For many people, this is the first place to get worried. Zwick's consists of two real features: the top hole, as seen in the photo on the right, and the drop into the bottom hole shown here. Enter the top center-ish with a little right angle and a big left stroke to power over and beyond the hole. Bank left and ride down the shelf following the main tongue of green water, taking a left-to-right boof at the launch pad over the bottom hole. If you get blown left at the top hole, stay left and run the bottom hole on the far left, not in the seam.
Don't underestimate Zwick's. Lots of good boaters have been hammered here --- as well as this author, who spent considerable time "back in under", which a zero release picture shows the potential for. What can compound a bad time at Zwick's is the fact that Chief lies in wait just 30 feet downstream and is in the outflow from the bottom drop.
Chief is one of the most dangerous rapids on the Green and is the location of the Narrows' first kayaking fatality. There have also been a number of near misses here, so it's a good idea to exercise extreme caution. The main line is center-ish off the top drop, pointing right and then heading down the main drop on the right side of it with a bit of right angle. Underneath the outflow of the main drop lies the infamous pin rock. A "no release" picture gives you a good handle on the bad program at Chief. Do not go off the drop sideways or angled left. Running left at the bottom will most likely engage you in a pretty suboptimal undercut cave-like situation, followed directly by an out-of-boat experience and then beer and television.
At levels higher than ~8", a right-side sneak is available. However, many believe that the sneak is much riskier than the main line, since it involves banging off a shallow shelf onto the rock that seperates the sneak from the main line. Hitting this rock the wrong way could send you backwards toward the pinning potential, which is exactly what happened during the drowning. If portaging Gorilla, catch the eddy on the left just above Pencil Sharpener.
Pencil Sharpener is the top drop of Gorilla. Many people run far right here, down a small slot that drops about eight feet. Others run a race line off the center or the double-drop "Flying Squirrel" on river left. Eddy out right or left to get ready for the next drop...The Notch! You can see the "Birthday Eddy" in the left foreground of this picture.
Like many rapids, Pencil Sharpener can be sobering to look at with no water.
The Notch is by far the toughest part of Gorilla. Although the flume is photogenic, The Notch is the crux move of the rapid. Here, the entire river drops through a four foot-wide slot with a big undercut ("the garage") on the right, a boiling eddyline and the main drop of Gorilla ten feet below. Catch the river right eddy and set up for the main drop. The consequence of this move is Gorilla, so don't flip or swim here like one prominent local boater captured on another prominent local boater's homemade Green video. For some perspective, check out this great view of The Notch from river right, and this one of a hand paddler.
Talked about, dreamt about, feared, respected, loved, and well-known the world over, Gorilla is a signature rapid like perhaps no other. And this Monkey raises the bar.
Many great pictures from interesting angles can be found in the thumbnails at the bottom of this page and elsewhere on the web such as this best ever video clip from LVM. The main drop of Gorilla is sometimes called "the flume." From the river right eddy in the Notch, peel out and not too many strokes later you'll be in the breaking wave and off the main drop and into the Speed Trap. Aim to be about two or three feet away from the river left wall for best results at Gorilla. Although the flume itself isn't a 5.2, the entire rapid, from Pencil Sharpener through Speed Trap certainly merits it. Over about 10", watch out for the Speed Trap. The flume gets easier and the Speed Trap gets tougher.
After landing Gorilla, it's not all fun and games until you get to the speed trap, as (1) you can't see, and (2) the "face breaker" protruding rock is 3/4 of the way through the run-out on your left if you're upside down. People huck themselves off the Monkey all the time, but the chances of something going wrong here are very real.
If you're walking the Monkey, you can re-enter our beautiful Rio Verde via an epic seal launch, sliding at a good clip down 30 feet of bedrock and dropping 6 feet back to the water-world just below the Speed Trap. Don't forget a boof stroke at the lip.....you're landing in about 6 inches of water, with Scream Machine immediately to your left. Above about 12" on the gauge it becomes increasingly difficult to get right enough to avoid the hole in Scream Machine, so some people will pass on the seal launch and continue walking to the bottom of Nies' Pieces.
The first of four slides, Scream Machine is a ten-foot drop below Gorilla. You'll want to ferry to the right at the top, but the current will blow you left, and you can end up right in the sweet spot in the middle-left. At levels above 11-12", the hole at the bottom left gets pretty beefy.
If you catch the little eddy at the bottom right, look up and see a great hemlock growing right out of the rock wall. But you wouldn't have time at this level.
Here's a great shot from behind the paddler during the 2007 Green Race.
At the top left of Scream Machine is a tricky little pot hole called the "Rock Star Eddy".
For a minor discussion about the trees in the picture on the right, go here.
The final drop in the Gorilla sequence, run it either to the left side or right side of the big and slanted mid-stream boulder below Scream Machine. It consists of a double drop/slide on the left, or a big single drop on the right with a tricky boof (and a grabby hole at higher water). Probably more than half the people run left at Nies', with a bit of right angle to avoid the wall at the bottom -- and it can turn into mayhem during the Head-to-Head portion of the Green Race. If you run right, you "can't get far enough" up against the right hand wall for the boof.
Both sides of Nies' Pieces are shown in the background of this photo, and here is a good look at the river left side with no water.
Power Slide is a fun 30-foot slide with a beefy hole at the bottom. The standard line is to run center to center-right here at normal flows, breaking through a curler before turning left and down -- avoiding the meat of the hole.
Get further right on Powerslide at higher water, and at even higher water, YOU make the call...
Also, there's a nice hero eddy at the top left of Power Slide. It's easier to get into smoothly than out of smoothly.
The long-standing tree lodged at the base of Powerslide, in the outwash and occasionally in play for the errant paddler, was finally blown mostly-out-of-play by some high water in early December 2008. But it still lurks there, just further under the surface, about where it used to be.
A couple of short pools later comes Rapid Transit. Rapid Transit is the final and largest slide, but consists of broken ledges, a wall on the right, and a large undercut on the left if you drop off early over there. Enter center down a shallow tongue of green water and punch the diagonal curler at the top, avoid the crack along the wall on the right, and slide down either a bit left or right of center...having a fun, bouncy, kidney-bruising and boat-cracking experience, or something more sensible....depending.
The left line: dropping off the left side of the mid-slide fist rock pointing about 10 o'clock left, facing nearly square-on the overhanging boulder before boofing right, can lead to a super-smooth line some are calling "Subprime Loan", but it is a little tricksy and not without the hazards of possible foreclosure or rate adjustment.
A higher water alternate entrance at the top left also exists --- feeding you in just below the diagonal curler --- and can be seen in the middle of this wicked nice clip from the LVM boys: Do Not Feed To Cattle.
This is a big rock jumble and usually portaged, unless the left side sneak (which comes and goes) is open for transit, or you're game for one of two other more sketchy sneak lines, the river left-most of which is called "Pin Practice" --- you get the idea. Portage on the left, but if carrrying both Groove Tube and Sunshine, then portage on the right from the pool below Rapid Transit.
Enter Groove Tube left and slide down the entrance into a twelve foot drop with a shallow landing. Don't wipe your face on the rocks along the left wall going down. Check out this picture of the left line from behind the boater. And this one. Other lines here include a nice center-right auto-boof (pic #1, pic #2) which lands you in the current heading towards Sunshine. If you are not a Sunshine regular, take your seat in the second eddy below Groove Tube on the right to portage or scout. Sunshine is directly below and pretty easy to wash into. Be sure you know where that eddy is!
Hiking Out: The one trail out of the gorge is located on river left at Groove Tube. It is very steep for the first 200 yards, then turn left at the top of the steep section where it T's into the Pulliam Creek Trail. From there it's a mellow 2 mile walk uphill to Big Hungry Road, where you turn left again for civilization as we know it. Don't run the Green without knowing about this trail. Also, three rapids below Sunshine, at "Triple Cracks", the Green Cove Trail terminates on river left, and using it to go downstream 3.5 miles to below the take-out is an option, but longer than the Pulliam Creek Trail. The map, which does NOT show the short steep drop-off trail section to Groove Tube, is here in a pdf file.
Sunshine is the Green's most difficult rapid and one of its most consequential due to the river pounding over a 12-15 foot drop onto a broken rock shelf. Here's nice angle on the drop, taken from the portage route on river right.
Poor lines through Sunshine have caused countless injuries, including paralysis. So be careful. Start your run of Sunshine in the river left setup eddy. From here, you will want to ferry across and with a great boof stroke, power yourself into the river right eddy below. Depending on how things go, you'll either catch this bottom eddy, with possible cave time, or feed back left into the bottom drop.
The alternate line here is "Sunshine Left". It's very tight, scary to look at, and not done by a whole lot of people. Here are two excellent shots of the left line, from the top.
A careful observer will notice why Sunshine is named Sunshine, but here it is if you weren't paying attention.
The Lower Section: After maybe taking a little break at Sunshine, there are no major rapids until the Toilet Bowl/Hammer Factor combination at the end. It's just fun Class III and IV, with a couple of long shallow stretches, and you'll be sure to enjoy all the tricky eddies, fun boofs, and alternate lines on this stretch of easier rapids. Some have names, and in order those are sometimes called:
On Any Other River This Rapid Would Have A Name
Triple Cracks
Colonel Dick's ...or... West Prong Rapid (picture)The Boof That Hurts ...or... Stupid Boof --- (including a secret sieve of pure evil, on the left, midway)Green River Rodeo Hole
All American Boof
Naked Lady Boof (picture)
Blackwater Falls
Baby Sunshine (picture) / Baby Hammer Factor
After the long pool following Baby Sunshine, there's a nice Class III lead-in with multiple lines and a couple different ways to run Toilet Bowl, which sports a pretty big hole. Some people run top left and boof back right through it, but most probably boof right after angling down the main tongue feeding the bowl. With more water a far right line with a double rock bounce or one big boof works wonders. If you're not linking Toilet Bowl and Hammer Factor together, eddies await you on the left and right.
Sometimes the Toilet Bowl gets dirty.
Hammer Factor has an intimidating look to it with the huge looming undercut boulder on the right side, but is pretty harmless at normal release levels. There's a small set-up eddy that gives you a chance to look at most of it, and the eddy can be entered a couple ways, including a fun boof (levels above 9") when using the left-most slot. From there, the standard deal is the enter on the right, ride the curler to your left and get up on the shelf. The more shelf-life the better, as it skirts you around the worst of the hole. Here's a nice shot from the bottom of the rapid at 11", and another one at around 30".
At higher water it becomes more important to square-up to the hole once dropping off the shelf. Many people are spooked by Hammer Factor at high water, as stories of swims, and tandem swims, abound. The alternate line -- which looks harder than it is -- is the "right line", and starts from the river right and rattlesnake infested pool directly above the drop. Enter by boofing over or just left of a finger rock and aiming straight for the left wall, then continuing with the same shelf-life program as before. At the end of this video clip there are a few examples of the right line.
As an aside, in 1906 a pair of overly ambitious civil engineers from Spartanburg, SC (Ladshaw and Ladshaw) proposed building four dams on the Green instead of the one we have today, and used a name apparently common at the time -- "Fish Stop Falls" -- for the rapid we know as Hammer Factor. Friends, let us rejoice that their plan was not chosen.
Game Over
After the nice Toilet Bowl & Hammer Factor back-to-back combination, that's it. There's a couple hundred yards of Class II, including one little thing called Bitch Slap, and you arrive back at Fishtop. Take out on the small rock beach there, or run another stupid little rapid and enter another world.
For those interested in hiking up the 1/4 mile or so from Fishtop parking to Hammer Factor, there is an easy trail on river left that isn't too hard to find --- and then with some modest clamboring about one can wind up on the boulder overlooking the drop (above right).
Be careful with your sports beverages at Fishtop --- they are illegal in the parking lot. Indeed, they are illegal anywhere in Polk County within 50 ft. of the river.
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User Comments
and I kayaked most of the upper Green. We put in at Tuxedo Power Plant, and took out on Green Cove
Rd. To my knowledge, the only other party to attempt that entire section was the Georgia Canoe club
in the early 70s. They reported portaging more than paddling. We paddled Perception 12' Quests and
Mirages. It was constant scouting below Big Hungry Creek, but we did run everything down to
Squeeze/Go Left and Die. Frankenstein was easier then because you could paddle straight through the
cave. We cheated Chief on FAR river right, pinballing off boulders. Except for running a 6' ledge
at the end of the slides below Gorilla, We protaged everything from Chief to below Sunshine. Gary
pinned in a drop further down, but wrestled free without rescue. I had the only swim of the day
(uneventful). The only rapid with a name back then was Fish Top Falls, now known to paddlers as
Hammer Factor. Like several other 70s boaters and tubers, we had run it previously, carrying up
from Green Cove. At the time, we 3 agreed it was a class V river, and the drops now known as
Gorrila, Rapid Transit, and Sunshine would never be run. I returned to the Narrows in 1991, having
heard that guys like Woody and Psycho were paddling the entire Narrows. Frankenstein had changed
for the worse (I protaged), Woody and his crew did a few sneak lines, but they ran every rapid.
Just watching someone run Gorilla was adventure enough for me. Myself, I acutally portaged more
that day than I did in 1979. Edit