Little (Fr.Broad trib),

3. Along Cascade Lake Rd. (Below Cascade Lake)

Usual Difficulty	III-IV(V) (may vary with level)
Length	1.25 Miles
Avg. Gradient	44 fpm
Max Gradient	200 fpm

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Difficulty	Updated	Level
DAVIDSON RIVER NEAR BREVARD, NC
usgs-03441000	1.20 - 5.00 ft	III-IV(V)	01h11m	1.54 ft (rc= 0.1 )
	Upper limit for best boatability uncertain. Please help your fellow boaters with a comment or report.

River Description

The puttin is on private property and is posted so this run is probably best done with only one car. The most legal/best way to do this run is to drop the boats off at the dam and place the boats outta site or start bringing them down to the dam while you park at the meeting of Hart and Cascade Lake Rd. where there is a small pull off and a small fisherman\'s trail down to the river. Then take a jog back up the road and start heading down to the bottom of the gorge, which is a feet in itself and is helped along by using a good bit of rope especially where the rocks are slick.

An alternate takeout is just below the powerhouse where the road coming from the powerhouse meets Cascade Lake Rd. at a local dumping spot recognized by the piles of wood chips and trash behind these chips. It is also posted but I haven\'t run into any problems. This takeout cuts out the mile of flat water a the end of the run. This takeout is very recognizable from the water because of the picnic table and by the sandy beach cut into the bank. From there follow a small trail branching out left from the road that the picnic table is on. While leaving try to pick up a bit of trash from the dump.

There is no good way of getting down but what worked for us is to drop down near the dam to the wooden pipe. Follow the wooden pipe for approximately 200 ft. then drop down to base of the gorge using a conveniently placed stump to drop down the last 10 ft. drop. It may work best to get one person down to the bottom drop all the boats and gear down to him first.

This may seem like alotta work for a quarter mile of whitewater and 50 ft. of gradient and it is so this run really is only worth it if you feel like a mini adventure and if you are going to run the falls below the dam a few times (which is a whole lotta fun). It also is in a very pretty gorge even with rebar and dead fish at the bottom of the dam.
Below the falls there are 3 class III to IV rapids and some nice playful boogie. The way to run these rapids is, in order, right, right, and right to center. At the powerhouse just after the last major rapid there is a very good play hole/wave at around 1.6 (Davidson), with good eddy service which is wonderful for 360\'s.