Barker Camp Rd. to Bowater Parking lotClass IV-V
6 Miles
Enter Vortex
Enter Vortex Photo of Eric Ralston by Daniel Talley taken 97ish @ .7 Gauge Information
Cain Creek
River DescriptionIf it is running no doubt someone will be there. A new gauge is located just upstream of the bottom parking lot brought to you by the master T. Robinson. I forgot the suggested levels, but I think 2 ft+ is good. The put in is a trail on the right off of Barker Camp Road. You will hike this trial for about a half mile before reaching the small stream below. When you get on the creek, remember to look at the gauge at the first bend to the right. There you will see it nailed to a hemlock. Six inches is about the minimum. The rapids start with several class III ledges and slides. 'Mandatory Portage' is the first significant rapid on the creek. Yet, despite its name, it is run quite frequently. The drop is a boulder choke about five feet tall and on river right. Scout atop of boulder on river left. Take note of the undercut immediately following to drop on river right. A fun s-turn slide follows this rapid to the confluence with Mossy Creek. Mossy Creek doubles the flow. When the creek takes a large turn to the right be prepared to make some tight moves at the next rapid left of the island (scout it) or a portage (on river right). After following a few drops on river left, one has to catch the right eddy before going into the sieve. From this pool, you can scrape you're way on down to 'Big Splat'. 'Big Splat' is a ten foot river wide drop. The best line is just left of the rooster tail with a slight right hand angle. The landing is extremely shallow, but whatever you do, try not to pencil in with no momentum. It will hurt. Next is the mighty class V 'Vortex'. Run left and slide down the sandstone "finger" with a hard right angle. Punch a few holes and you have done it! Portage with help on river right. Verticle lines open up on river right with high water, but are not suggested for the slabs of sandstone that tend to grab boats. Continue through the mini-gorge that ends with a four foot creek-wide ledge which can become sticky at high levels. T he next turn holds an excellent series of rapids called 'drainpipe.' Eddy hop your way down several s-turns following the main flow of water. Make sure to note the large eddy on river left that you will need to catch before the last drop, which is around eight feet. Boof hard with a slight right angle. Check out the huge cliff you are now under...watch out for falling ice! The rapids from here to the confluence with the North Chickamauga are mostly class III+ with several class IV to run as well. North Chick is probably the largest watershed on Walden's Ridge, hence the longer runable window and it's large river-like characteristics found in its last miles. Excellent class III-V drops, depending on water levels, will be encountered below the Cain confluence. The most memorable of which is North Chick falls, portage left, run it, or run right side of island. Some great holes will be found downstream and downright excellent class IV's.StreamTeam Status: verified
Last Updated: 2008-03-19 19:54:23
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There are three gauges presently in place for North Chickamauga/Cain Creek. The first stop is checking at the take out. Upon entering the parking lot at the Bowater Pocket wilderness, take your first left and go to the lowest parking spots available. From here, take the trail to the right that follows to the gage. The trail is blazed with small orangs markers on trees and goes upstream about 50 yards. It ends on a couch sized rock with the gauge right below you. Minimum for the Cain Creek run is in the 1.8ft range. Max is up to you.
When you put on Cain Creek from Barker Camp Rd., notice the gauge at the first 90 degree bend to the right. This is a detailed meter gauge on a hemlock tree. 0.5-0.6 is the minimum. Above 1.4 it becomes hard to portage Vortex if you are planning on walking it. Max not know. Have heard of people getting quite trashed around 2.2.
Optimal levels from the USGS gauge are between 600 and 1000 cfs.
North Chickamauga Creek near Montlake [ TN ] |
Current Conditions
Station Graphs |
| Level Legend: | Running | Below Minimum Recommended Flow | Above Maximum Recommended Flow | Unknown |
| State | River Name/Section | Class | Level | Rel. Level | Updated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TN | Cain Creek— Barker Camp Rd. to Bowater Parking lot | IV-V | 4 cfs | low | 10/11 15:30 | |
| TN | North Chickamauga Creek— 1. Double Bridge to put-in for gorge run | II-III | 4 cfs | low | 10/11 15:30 | |
| TN | North Chickamauga Creek— 2. Walden Ridge to Soddy-Daisy | IV-V | 4 cfs | low | 10/11 15:30 | |
| TN | North Chickamauga Creek— 3. Bowater Parking Area to Hwy 27 | III-IV | 4 cfs | low | 10/11 15:30 | |
| TN | Rock Creek— Retro-Hughes Road to Leggett Rd bridge | III-IV+ | 4 cfs | low | 10/11 15:30 |
| AW Gauge ID: | 10223 |
| USGS Station: | 03566525 |
| HUC: | 06020001 |
| Latitude: | |
| Longitude: | |
| Class: |
User Comments |
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2008-03-30 11:09:28 (195 days ago)
There's only one problem with this description of access to the Rock House. You can no longer drive into the clear cut. This is now TN State Park property. There are signs as you enter the clear cut that say "no vehicles". This includes bicycles, 4-wheelers, and especially cars/trucks. You will be ticketed if you park there. You can still enter the clear cut, but you have to drag your boat. Since this is a fairly new change, they are patrolling regularly, and the rangers now when the creek is running just as well as we do. Beware.
Use this gauge: waterdata.usgs.gov/tn/nwis/uv?03566525
Cain/North Chick is usually runnable from the top when it registers 7.2 feet. At lower flows down to 6.8 and probably even lower, put in below the "Rock House" which is below Vortex and Drainpipe. To get there, go out of the Pocket Wilderness takeout turn left, go up Montlake, left on Poe, left on Grant, left on Barker Camp, left at the next gravel Y, and go past the normal parking area for Cain. Keep going to the clearcut through the gate that is normally open and go as far as you can. Whether you have 4WD may determine this. Follow the right Y in the road, and WATCH ON YOUR RIGHT for a dirt/grass path (for ATV use). Park, and follow this trail out of the clearcut and down to the timbered creek corridor. There will be splits in the ATV routes, but just keep going down and to the left. Follow the most obvious route, but do not turn right. Soon you will be paralleling Cain Creek near Vortex and Drainpipe, and you will find yourself at the waters edge below the Rockhouse (which is the huge overhanging rock below Drainpipe). Edit
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2004-07-02 22:53:38 (1561 days ago)
Sutton Bacon
I dont see any directions on this page, so here goes -- from the Bowater takeout, go up the mountain and turn left on Poe Road. Go down Poe, around a righthand turn with a guardrail, and take the next left onto Grant Road. Grant will then turn into Barker Camp, a dirt road on your right. You'll see a pulloff area and most likely other cars there. Hike right down into Cain.
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2004-02-21 22:32:26 (1693 days ago)
Brad Roberts
From Mark Cumnock:<br />
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Cain Creek is on Milt Aiken’s first “Tales of the Paddlesnake” series videos. The big rapid here is Vortex, which was first run by Jonathan Clarady and myself. The trick here is to run the dry rock in the middle, then slide into the meat of the drop. The wash-out is similar to Gorilla. This is probably the fastest rapid you will ever run, the first time we ran it we were not expecting the fast pace. We went up to the edge and then … it was too late. <br />
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2003-02-01 22:06:39 (2078 days ago)
Brad Roberts
From the Cain/Chick confluence its 6.9 miles to the Bowater parking area, at an average gradient of 110 feet per mile.
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From Cain Creek Road to the Cain/Chick confluence is 2.4 miles.@ 102 feet per mile.
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2001-12-20 15:13:50 (2487 days ago)
Brad Roberts
From Tony Robinson on Boatertalk
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" New stick gauges were recently installed on Cooper and Cain creeks. Last Sat. when Cain read 6" on the traditional gauge, the new gauge read 1.5'. This gauge is located on a bridge over Cain 2 miles upstream. It is located 1/2 mile down a newly graveled road on the right .9 miles past the Cooper creek bridge. There is a yellow sign advertizing land for sale. If you pull down to the right, you don't even have to get out of the truck. Six inches is a minimum level on Cain, so if you are concerned Cain is too low, check the upper gauge first. Another use would be to know if Cain was too high before you hike all the way down to the river and paddle down to the gauge and have to hike back out, but there is no info on how a max level would coorelate.
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The new Cooper gauge is located at the Barker-Camp Road bridge. Cooper was run last Fri. at 2.3' on this gauge, a reportedly beefy level(N. Chick was 3.6'). I'm guessing 1.9 would be a good minimum level. Speaking from experience, the best way to run Cooper is to not put in on Cooper, but rather to run Cain/Chick down to it at a big level then hike up the last 1/4 mile of Cooper. Since all the good rapids are located in it's last 1/4 mile before emptying into N.Chick, you get to do all of them plus Cain/Chick at a great level. The Cooper trail starts at a large dead pine tree on river left 30 yards upstream of it's confluence with N. Chick. The trail is on Cooper's right side and takes you to the top of upper Cooper Connection. It's a rough trail, but clear.
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Gauges were also installed on Big Soddy, Falling Water, and Woodcock creeks. The Big Soddy gauge is located on the Back Valley rd. bridge at the takeout. The Falling Water gauge is on the first bridge upstream of old Hwy 27. The Woodcock gauge is on the first road bridge upstream of Hwy. 127. There is no info yet on how these gauges coorelate to levels."
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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. 
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