Toccoa, |
|
| Usual Difficulty | I-II (may vary with level) |
|---|---|
| Length | 7 Miles |
| Name | Range | Difficulty | Updated | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toccoa near Dial, GA | ||||
| tva-6124c | 300 - 10000 cfs | I-II | 54h55m | 525 cfs (rc= 0.0 ) |
Upper limit for best boatability uncertain. Please help your fellow boaters with a comment or report. |
||||
The Toccoa and the Ocoee are the same river; it is the "Toccoa" from its headwaters on the Blue
Ridge in Georgia until it crosses north into Tennessee.
This lower run (also see River Reach 509) is a pushy class I-II with a few II+
drops. It is an excellent choice for novices, cruisers, fishermen and those wishing a more
lesiurely play river. Look for 350cfs or above on the gauge; below that is boney and less fun.
The river comes up very quickly with rain; it can go from a scrapey 300cfs to a very fat 1500cfs
in the space of a few hours.
Sandy Bottoms is the official Forest Service access; there are camping sites, a pit toilet and a
developed boat launch area. The USFS charges $3 per car for parking. You will find a nice shoals
right upstream that lets you get a good warmup and some eddying, ferrying and attainment
practice.
Class I-II shoal-and-drop action proceeds to just upstream of Tilly Bend, where a long uphill portage will put you back out at the corner of Old Dial Road and Shallowford Bridge Road, from where it is a one-mile downhill walk back to Sandy Bottoms. This affords a strange river running opportunity; the 'shuttle-free distance run'. You can actually park in one place, run 6+ miles of river, and portage a little over a mile back to your car. Satellite photos tell the tale - this river reach is actually a big horseshoe bend around a low mountain.
A gauging station that reads in feet is on river right less than a mile from Sandy Bottoms - easily read from your boat. The first significant play opportunity is 'Training Wheels', just downstream from the gauge, a series of ledges that are ideal for learning basic moves: front surfs, back surfs, side surfs, flat spins.
The second whitewater feature of notice is called 'Anything Goes' since there are so many playable features, easier and harder. This is a good place for beginners to learn basic play moves. Approach is marked by the appearance of an island to the right of center. Pull out river right above the island or eddy behind the island to scout. The main chute runs left of the island and breaks left. There are two more drops below the first, both similar in configuration. Small play spots are riverwide. The iron bridge half a mile below Anything Goes affords another access possibility and features a snack bar. Toccoa Valley Campground's rafting take out is just upriver from the bridge on river left.
Another couple of miles downriver, Aska Road is visible from a few hundred yards upstream; you will see auto traffic going up and down the grade. As you approach the road, move to river left, eddy out in the rockpile, and climb out to scout the next rapids - 'One For The Road' aka 'Party Rock'. Be aware of the trespassing issue mentioned below. You may want to set a couple throw ropes on the boulders below the drops to rescue any swimmers before they wash into the lower shoals, a hundred yards of power eddy hopping through a constriction that is known as 'Little Nantahala' by some paddlers.
MARCH 2008 - THE PARKING LOT AT PARTY ROCK HAS BEEN POSTED AGAINST TRESPASSING BY THE LANDOWNER. There is a new owner who is actively seeking to restore to pristine condition this heavily-impacted area, which in the past has been a madhouse of beer-guzzling monster-truck rednecks in the summertime swimming the rapids with no protective gear, and they have served notice on the local outfitters to cease and desist pickups and dropoffs at this point. In other words - the party's over. Several violators have been ticketed for trespassing by local law enforcement. Please respect landowner rights, avoid potential legal action and DO NOT PARK your car here for takeout. If you must take out at this point, arrange for a bandit pickup by a designated shuttle bunny, preferably at roadside below Little Nantahala. Do not linger and as usual please, no nudity or overt substance abuse.
There are two more named rapids below Aska Road - 'Skippy 'and 'BFH'. Skippy is a short double
drop starting from far river right and cutting back to the left through the chutes. BFH is a
more serious double drop over a riverwide ledge in front of a Big FFFffffffrightening House
(BFH). The best chute is far river left in front of the house.
Continue another mile or 2 after BFH into the tailwaters of Lake Blue Ridge and look for a 90' bend to the left following a long, straight, wide flatwater section. You know you are there when you see a row of houses with boat docks on river right after the bend. Pull out on the right bank at the bend, clamber up the rocks, and scout for the trail up in the woods. Walk uphill to get back to the junction of the 2 dirt roads. It would be a good idea to scout out the trail first before making this run.
| Name | Range | Difficulty | Updated | Level | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toccoa near Dial, GA | ||||||||||||
| tva-6124c | 300 - 10000 cfs | I-II | 54h55m | 525 cfs (rc= 0.0 ) | ||||||||
|
Upper limit for best boatability uncertain. Please help your fellow boaters with a comment or report. |
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| When | River/Gauge | Subject | Level | Reporter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toccoa [GA] |
|
400cfs | Darien Fawkes | |
| 3y176d02h55m | Toccoa [GA] |
Party Rock @ 1800cfs
|
1800 cfs | Robert Butera |
| 5y212d02h55m | Toccoa [GA] |
First Drop, Last Rapid
|
310cfs | Steve Reach |
| Mile | Rapid Name | Class | Features (Legend) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | Sandy Bottoms | I |  |
| 1.0 | Training Wheels | I | |
| 2.0 | Anything Goes | II |   |
| 5.0 | One For The Road | II+ |   |
| 5.1 | Little Nantahala | II+ | |
| 5.5 | Skippy | II | |
| 6.2 | BFH | II+ | |
small ledge series with protruding rocks. good beginner practice for basic play moves.
A series of low rocky ledges. Multiple routes; several playable features. Most of the flow funnels into a chute slightly to river left, between 2 boulders. Angle left; there is a rock in the outflow of the chute that is submerged at higher water levels.
A double drop through a rock pile, followed by 100 yards of class II shoals. Park & playable; right next to the takeout parking lot at Aska Road. Swarming with boom-box sunbathing locals when the weather is nice. The first drop has a nice left-breaking curler in it and should be run hard against the right bank. Start from the scouting eddy and ferry across to the double rocks; turn a 180 and set a line where you can touch the right bank with your paddle. Angle left across the curler into the foam, then ferry left immediately past the large boulder to avoid the undercut on river right. Eddy left to take out or to set up for Little Nantahala below.
Constricted passage through large boulders. Excellent eddyhopping practice in class II+ current. Big fun to try and catch as many eddys as you can while ferrying from one side of the river to the other across the main flow.
'Big F. House'. A more substantial double drop over a riverwide ledge breaks left in front of an obscenely large house.
River Alert
State News
River Links
NWRI - Toccoa Sandy Bottoms to Tilly Bend (mobile)
User Comments
the rocks. The landowner actually painted an orange line on the rocks designating her property
line. Down stream from this line and the drainage pipe there is room to park cars and sit on the
rocks. There is about 200 feet of space downstream from the line where it is business as usual. On
5/26/08 I witnessed landowner tell folks sitting on her side of the rocks to move over to the other
side of her line. Tubing and kayaking outfitters still use this part of the pull-off to service
their clients. I rented a kayak from Jon Ron (about 100 yards upstream on Aska Rd) and he said he
leases the lower portion of the pull off and it's cool to park there. Edit
has posted the property and the sheriff's office is having a field day ticketing trespassers.
Proceed to Tilly Bend or have someone pick you up below Little Nanty. Edit
experimental (for example, if the power goes down at my house, the server will power off until I
reset it, so some readings may be missing) right now, but provides some sense of historical
information. The data is uploaded whenever modified (typically every 2 hours) to a tex tfile
located at http://www.butera.org/toccoa/gauge.txt
would hold out. Due to the drought, the lake was at below winter levels of 1662.5'. Flow was 270
cfs when we put on (at the Dial gauge) and about 230 cfs when we took off. At this lake level,
there is flowing water all the way to the takeout! Below BFH (where the flatwater begins at full
pool) the river becomes flat and shoal like, with lots of small/medium size rocks in mid-river --
it reminds me of how low-water snow-melt rivers look out west. This must be some sort of river/lake
effect, because after this very shallow shoal like section (which is a few hundred yards long), the
"normal" river returns -- as you get closer to the lake, there are fewer rocks and more mud/dirt,
and eventually the river channels through the sand/mud/dirt base, a lot like a marsh at low tide in
a coastal area. Also, the exposed dry river bed has a healthy growth of ground cover, since it has
been exposed since last June or July. The rapids in this section are all class II- or less and
nothing of note, though they all have a "slide" and "swirl" like quality to them, as if the river
hasn't yet made up its mind how the rapids should flow yet. Solid low-water-reading skills can save
a lot of time getting hung on rocks in this section. Be careful getting out of your boat at the
takeout -- you can sink into the mud halfway to your knees.
about 315 cfs on the TVA online Dial gauge. This is a good minimum for this run. Here are more
details on the section below Party Rock (takeout on Aska Road). Shortly after going around the bend
away from Aska Rd., there is about a 1/2 mile of large class I (easy II) large boulder garden
rapids paralleling the neighborhood known as Flat Creek. Lots of fun. The previously mentioned BFH
rapid needs a better description. It consists of two consecutive 3' or so river wide ledge drops.
The meat flows along river left in front of the house -- the drops are pushy and clean, and can be
paddled through by anyone who can stay upright. The meek can sneak on river right, where the ledges
become a little more slide like. After this we had about another 20 minutes of paddling before the
flatwater. The rapids below BFH are typically swirly and have a sort of slide-like continuous but
shallow gradient -- a mixture of river bottom sand and the occaisonal ledge. The feature I noticed
most were several gradual well-formed surf spots -- grabby but friendly to novices. Nothing more
than class II. As before, the paddle to the takeout was 15 minutes, and the takeout hike was 15
minutes (except for the person with the 17' canoe :) Based on what we saw and the obvious "lake
line" on the shore looming above us as we paddled, I would paddle this section up to a lake level
of about 1775'. For historical and current lake levels, go here:
http://www.tva.com/river/lakeinfo/op_guides/blueridge.htm
Reran this route early this morning to see how the rapids changes and how long the flat water
paddle is at a full lake level. Lake was full (elevation 1688) and river was at 357 cfs. Short
version: don't do it.
Long version: The lake backs up right up to the last notable rapid (BFH - one in front of Big F$%$
House). This rapid is less fun than in the winter as well, maybe due to less gradient. I estimate
that the flatwater section would have taken 35-45 minutes to paddle - luckily a fisherman with 3
kids offered me a ride so I hopped in his boat and gladly accepted. We had a hard time finding the
ATV trail to hike out at Tilly Bend, due to all the spring/summe growth (it's a lot easier to see
with no trees!) Also, the lake level at this point is almost up to the trail, not a long scramble
up granite blocks as in the winter.
In summary, I'll run this in the winter and maybe when the lake is half full, but I'll pass when
the lake is at full lake level.
BTW -- tons of debree from the local flood-stage conditions of last week sitting in the lake. The
fisherman who gave me a ride in his powerboat his a few floating limbs.
over 1800cfs this morning. I had never paddled it above 1200 or so, so I did a paddle from Sandy
Bottom to Aska Road. I told the family I'd be back soon - they were surprised how soon I was
back.
In a nutshell, at this level the whole river is class II boogie water -- few calm spots. It felt
like the Nanty, only faster, and there are no eddies or rocks to speak of - the only eddies I saw
were usually formed by strainers. Very pushy, and non-stop wave trains. The rapids above and
approaching Anything Goes were particularly squirrely boogy water, and anything goes was
transformed into a pushy series of drops into waves. I'd still call this a II+ at this level,
though if you swam you'd never catch up with your boat. Lots of surfable waves if you could catch
them on the fly.
Definitely stay alert - a few normally placid sections with mid-river rocks had holes created where
the rock should be.
The take-out rapid at Party Rock was a totally different creature. The top two drops (see my
picture) were washed out and replaced by mostly boogie water (still a drop to be made). The rapids
below were totally transformed -- what were normally the eddies all the way down on river right
each became a hole, and the line all the way down was a non-stop wave train. I'd rate this one a
III at this level due to the must-make lines below the first two drops that otherwise we'll get you
eaten by a hole.
While interesting, I don't think the river is the most fun at this level. I still like it best at
700-1200 cfs when there are still rocks showing causing river features and creating eddies.
May be dangerous at higher levels.
how to self-shuttle.
Welander/Sehlinger/Otey vaguely mention in their book that Class I/II rapids exist below the Aska
rapid when the lake level is low. I decided to find out. They are not quite correct -- there are a
lot of rapids, and I think 2/3 of them would exist at a full lake level.
Conditions today were 350cfs and the lake level was 1668', about 20' below the nomimal fulll
summertime level of 1688'. Some winters the lake is down over 30'.
Continuing downriver after the Aska rapids, the river turns away from Aska Rd. for good. At about
this point, the river is continuous shoals, rock gardens, and occaisonal ledges. This continues for
I suspect over a mile. All Class I/II, but a couple are definitely class II and likely deserve
names. These stretches are roughly in the area of two roads with private riverside residences: Flat
Creek River Road and later Trout Lane. Don't try to takeout here -- it is all private property. As
you advance down this section, the houses become larger and the No Trespassing signs more numerous.
The biggest drop of note I will name BFH Rapid, due to the monstrous sprawling house that overlooks
it (it is also notable by the 3 large rocks across the river) that mark this drop - it is about a
2+' ledge with a lot of options.
Shortly after the houses end, from here until the takeout you are alone -- not even the sound of
hunters. Around here visible signs of the lower lake level are evident (you can see the "true" bank
looming above higher and higher, with a large sandy beach on both sides of the river). Several more
I-II rapids and shoals continue here that are likely underwater in the summertime.
From the point the current stopped (due to the river basically becoming the lake), it was a less
than 15 minute paddle to Tilly Bend. This access point is closer than the Persimmon Creek mentioned
in Sehlinger/Otey (and much less flatwater to paddle).
Barring some minor butt scraping, all of which is avoided by sharp river reading, this stretch, in
my opinion, is just as fun as the "usual" section. Some of these rapids would be a LOT more fun
after a rain when the river is pushing 700-1500 cfs. For comparison, I would compare this entire
run to the Cartecay through DNR: there are more rapids here than the Cartecay, though most are of a
lower challenge than the named Cartecay rapids.
One final note: In 2009, Lake Blue Ridge is scheduled to be dropped 85' for dam maintenance. This
section would definitely be impacted, likely positively.
twice as fun, experiencing the rapids below the Aska road takeout. See my other post from today
about those rapids.
Park at the intersection of two dirt roads: Shallowford Rd and Old Dlal Rd. This is where you take
the right turn towards Sandy Bottom if running the usual shuttle from Aska road.
From this point, you can walk about 0.6 miles downhill along Old Dial Rd. towards Sandy Bottom and
put in when you get to river level, just after the USGS gauging station.
The takeout is a spot on the Toccoa known as Tilly Bend. There is a sharp bend in the river - you
will suddenly see houses with boat docks ater the bend. Take out before the stream that feeds in on
river right. There is an ATV trail above the river, and it is an easy 0.4 mile uphill walk back to
the aforementioned intersection. The trail at this point parallels the river -- walk downriver and
the trail will turn right and paralllel the aforementioned stream.
It is probably a good idea to take the 10 minute hike from the intersection down to Tilly Bend to
know what to look for. There are several trailheads near this intersection (including the Benton
McKay) -when facing the right side of the road, take the rightmost one that heads down, initially
paralleling Old Dial Rd. If you head along a ridge you've taken the wrong one!
The hike back up to the car was 13 minutes, and the flatwater paddle after the rapids stopped was
under 15 minutes. Total trip time from leaving the car to arriving back was 3 hours, including a 20
minute lunch stop and very little river play.
The hike back, while 0.4 miles uphill, is not steep -- easier than hiking out of Woodall on the
Chattooga, even if longer.
minimum level, though good river reading skills can avoid most of the butt scraping. Not much play,
many of the possible surf spots are wimpy and too shallow.
One item of note: the first drop at the Aska takeout gets a lot more squirrely at this level (even
though the entire run, IMHO, is overall more difficult @ higher levels)
cfs. At this level, the takeout develops a some nice surf waves. The first drop at river right
becomes a pushy current, while mid river (where the rocks usually are) a nice surf wave develops.
The chute at river right really slams into the partially undercut rock 30-40' downstream. At this
level, the entire run here (from the parking lot to a few hundred yards downstream) bumps up to a
II+.
bridge @ Van Zandt's store (by the old Dial Bridge) when heading from Aska Rd. to Newport Rd (over
bridge) to Dial road. Head right (upstream) on Dial with the river on your right. In less than a
half mile you will see an empty gravel lot right after a bunch of houses with parking for a few
cars and river access. This lot is at the edge of Forest Service land (after you put in, you'll see
a "Leaving National Forest sign" on river right). Expect 30-45 minutes of paddling along cow
pastures until things get a little more moving by Toccoa Valley Campground.<br />
relatively easy, but a lot more fun in the sections mentioned above. Some of the usual near-bottom
scraping sections flowed a lot nicer (like the mini-rapid/shoal by the green house lurching over
the river about a mile before the takeout). The usual rocks full of locals at "One for the Road" at
the takeout were mostly underwater. The first drop felt easier at these water levels (less of a
drop to it).
Forum: BoaterTalk
Date: Mar 28 2004, 18:59 GMT
From: will_gosney
Thanks to GCA Steve for the invite and Jack for leading a great trip. Kudos to all the rest for a
super day.
The toccoa is a really nice class II run. It felt like a step back from the Nanty, but with almost
a continous series of easy ledges with lots of little waves to surf and holes to play in and eddies
to catch.
There is a rapid just past the iron bridge in the middle of the run that has a log in the left
side, so run just to the river left side of the island on river right till you pass it
Just after the parking for the takeout, there is the most signifigant rapid of the run (II+ maybe
III?), it is run by starting very close to the right bank through the drop and then working your
way down the center. Daniel ran a little too far center and was flipped. I ran the hard part ok
then flipped in an eddy line behind the big rock n the middle, while attempting to set up to aid
Daniel. I think I was just too tired from 5 hours of surfing and catching eddies to roll up. I gave
it up after three tries and punched out. As soon as I did, someone who was coming over for a rescue
got me in the face with the boat. All was well though as he then retreved my and Daniel's paddle
while making a great move through the hole below. I emptied my boat, got in and seal launched off a
rock and promptly flipped again. This time the roll worked and I ran the rest without incident. I'm
off to roll practice this afternoon to sharpen up the roll some more.
Directions (from Steve):
Toccoa Valley Campground, 11481 Aska Rd, Blue Ridge.
Go like you're heading for the Nanty.
In Blue Ridge, pass the McDonalds (on the corner where you would turn left if you were going to the
Ocoee). Go another 2 lights (about a mile) and turn right at the KFC.
That road goes about a hundred yards and T-bones onto Old Highway 76. Turn left, go down another
hundred yards or so, and turn right on Aska Road. Drive for a very long time. Think it's 14 or 15
miles. At about the 7 or 8 mile mark you will see the river off on your left; that's the take out.
Keep going past the Riverside Restaurant, up hill and down dale until you see an iron bridge on the
left, then another couple miles, and look for the campground on your left after a long
downhill.
The campground will charge you a couple bucks to park and can also be persuaded to shuttle if
necessary.
SYOTR
Will