Tallulah

Park at the dedicated boater parking lot, and follow the directions of volunteers and park staff. 592 stairs with a heavy boat on your shoulder. The small platform serves two to three boaters at a time.

After sliding into the pool from the deck there is about 20 feet of flatwater before the first rapid. The first rapid goes about 30 feet before running into the cliff wall and taking a 90 degree left turn.

Its usually run by boofing off a three foot tall ledge in the center aiming between two rocks, then punching a pourover hole before getting typewritered to the left and punching another hole.

The first rapid is one of the more difficult on the river. Just below is a good cartwheel hole.

Just after the first rapid is a short pool, followed by a horizon line. The common line is the auto boof on the right. There is a center line that feeds into a large hole, but I have not seen this line run often since the first week of releases.

After landing the boof the river necks down thru a 10 foot wide slot.

Oceana is likely the biggest rapid most average paddlers will see or ever paddle, but as intimidating as it is, it's actually quite manageable and lapped safely and frequently (well and not so well) during every release.  A broken shelf mid way down the slide creates an intimidating plume of water called 'the thing' which can present a significant piton hazard.  The hole is deep and has an easy exit to the river left.  There are 3 primary lines: the standard left line, the more controlled right line, and the big air skip line.  Other lines exist for the more adventurous.  Scout and lap on river left, portage on river right.

Good cartwheel and loop hole.

A long convoluted rapid with some offset ledges and a nasty pourover. The general line is a little to the right of center, boofing off of the first ledge, then keeping it straight to punch the holes. The final move is busting the diagnol ledge/hole on the right and grabbing the eddy by the cliff. There is a piton rock after the first boof to be avoided, land flat. Too far left gets you close to an undercut. To far right and you might get typewritered into the eddy behind the pyramid rock and into the trees. Most people catch an eddy at the bottom right against the cliff before making the ferry over to the river left set-up eddy for Bridal Veil.

After peeling out of the river right cliffside eddy at the bottom of the Gauntlet, go to the right of the midstream stand of trees. Just below the trees is hole that keeps getting more sticky every year.
A few years back a boat without floatbags washed into the hole and never surfaced until the water was turned off.
Swimming out of the hole will probably lead to a swim of Bridal Veil. After the hole cut hard to the left to catch the Bridal Veil eddy. Its best to make sure there is not too big a crowd in the Bridal Veil eddy before peeling into this rapid - or you might wind up running Bridal Veil blind.

Bridal Veil is a good sized slide with an evil hole and is actually the exit to long Gaunlet rapid. When considered together, it could be consider one class V- rapid, but it's usually thought of as separate. It is scouted (and portaged) from the left bank. From the river left set-up eddy there is a small but sticky river wide hole to punch. While the top hole looks harmless, people have swum out of it and ended up swimming the entire drop. The standard line down Bridal Veil is to punch the top hole about 5 feet off the left bank, then hug the left bank and boof over the left corner of the hole at the bottom. While the middle line has been run, it is generally avoided because it feeds directly into the meat of the hole.

In case of emergency there is a trail out of the gorge at Bridal Veil on river right.

One of the most fun rapids anywhere!! After coming out of the Bridal Veil eddy follow the main current between the two large boulders, then cut to the left and follow the narrow channel back upstream. From there just drop into the narrow channel up against the river left bank. What you have is about a hundred foot long waterpark type slide that is maybe 4 to 5 feet wide. Big Fun!!

On the first decent Walt Lynch dislocated a shoulder here. Lynch's tends to separate a number of boaters from their boats. The top move is about a 7 foot boof, landing in some squirlly water with a major cross current and a good sized hole. After getting hammered here for years my preferred line is to boof right to left into an eddy behind the center rock, then peel out and run the rest of the rapid down the right. After the first boof there are three good sized holes to punch before the eddy above amplitheatre.

The top ledge of this rapid is the crux. Its not a tough move at 500 cfs, but at 700 cfs the hole gets a bad attitude. After the top hole the rest of the rapid is a wavetrain. There is a nice eddy river left that sets you up to play on two of the waves.

From a small leaky eddy you'll see a midstream rock. You can run either side of the midstream rock down a shallow bumpy sliding drop. On the bottom right is a minor hole.

Seen from above this drop is about 10 feet wide with a small rock bisecting the middle. Bang off the right side of the ledge, then go to the left of the trees growing midstream, from there work back to the right to catch the small leaky eddy above the next drop.

There is also a sizeable eddy on river left, but just over then next horizon line on river left is a pretty significant undercut.

At 700 cfs this drop and the next tend to become one rapid.

A flattish pool leading up to a horizon line spit by a shallow midstream rock.
The bottom left of this drop features a pretty nasty undercut.

Most people run right of the center rock for that reason. On the right side aim for the middle where there is a break in the hole at the base of the slide. At higher flows (700 cfs) the hole at the base of the slide gets pretty beefy. The break in the hole is still there, but being off line will lead to a surf. I've seen three boaters getting surfed in the hole at once. On Sundays there is a sneak far river right thru the trees.

The standard line is to run down the far right hand side, punch the holes, stay upright, and go for the eddy at the bottom. I've also seen experts catch 5 eddies in this rapid. Lots of people have gotten hammered at Toms. Tom Jackson for one.

The longest single rapid on the river. Most people tend to slide over a few small ledges to the river right eddy and boatscout. From there most head toward midstream and start down the slide. From the top you see a large midstream boulder at the base of the drop. That rock is not really a problem, you can go around either side of it, or if the river is over about 800 cfs boof right over it. What you can't really see from the top is the hole just in front of the rock. Its a big one!! The good new is that most of the time you'll be going so fast that you blow right thru the hole. Most of the time ;-)

A long wave train with a couple of holes hidden along the way. At the bottom is an S-Turn move around a boulder with a good play wave/hole below that.

Another big sloping ledge rapid, but blind from the top. The standard line is to start in the top right eddy, ferry across the top, cut over the top curler wave then ride the slide from top left to bottom right punching the fluffy hole at the bottom. Its sorta like a reverse version of Jawbone on the Chattooga.

Below this is another wave that sees some play.

The powerhouse features a low head dam. The hole is strongest on the right. There is a break in the hole on the left center side of the dam. Just below the dam is the USGS gauge. Most of the water below the dam splats into a vertical cliff wall. Therefore lots of boaters tend to splat the wall too!

A series of easy medium sized ledges just below the powerhouse. Its the last whitewater before the lake paddle. There is one hole of note, the entire river necks down and makes a 5 foot tall ramp into a squirlly hole. This one was knocking a bunch of people over recently. You can miss the hole by boofing off the ledge on the far right.

Paddle across Tugalo reservoir and take out on the right shortly before the dam.