Davidson River Road (FR-475) is now open again.

From Boatertalk:<br /> Depends on flow New <br /> <br /> Forum: BoaterTalk<br /> Re: Question for anyone who has run the Upper Davidson... jvernon1235 New <br /> Date: Sep 02 2004, 20:15 GMT <br /> From: canoeman <br /> <br /> I tend to think of it as class III+ to easy IV. It is shorter and easier than the North Fork but it as at least three significant drops on it. Whale Tail, the first one below where a major creek comes in, stern squirted me one time at high water. That wouldn't be such a big deal except I was in a 12-foot open boat. Not far downstream is Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. At high water I would say that rates Class IV, although it is pretty straightfoward. There are lots of other interesting rapids. Should be good to go today from what I see on the guage. Watch out for strainers. It is a micro creek and they can go all the way across. <br /> <br />

On 2/6/04 the davidson was running at 4.5 ft. on the USGS gauge after 3 inches of rain. Myself along with Ned Steadman put on a rougly 3:30 and ran from the first brigde on daniels ridge trail to the above the lowhead dam. The whole run was runnable except whalesback which looked like it could swallow a school bus. At flows around 3- 3.5 whalesback is runnable on the far right but the hole looks quite stiff. At 4.5 the river is pumping all the way from the start to the finish. There are mostly large holes and powerful chutes and low hanging limbs/trees. Whalesback, Whalestail, and BLD should and all be scouted. If you swim hold onto your paddle or kiss it goodbye. At these levels the river becomes solid IV. Portaging is hard in most places at these levels. BLD is almost impossible to portage at this level. <br /> Alex

Date: May 07 2003, 13:14 GMT <br /> From: tallman <br /> <br /> So we guess it was at least 4 feet. Went to the upper Davidson instead, found it at 3.65 feet at 6:30p. Got in two runs. What a fun little section! It's roadside &amp; short, much more of a micro creek. There are a couple of rapids that might be about class IV: &quot;whale tail&quot; &amp; &quot;breakfast, lunch &amp; dinner&quot; the rest of the run is just super continous boogie water. Excellent looking water quality, excellent scenery. There were five in our group: me, davidson, micklouie, shannon &amp; (a very nice local, originally from Hungary... sorry I forgot your name!) ~ Great evening on fun water. <br /> <br />

Good technical run for creeking. Starts off with a quick drop into a hole,will grab yah but hang on will flush out. Next drop scout river right,big rock in middle of river to look out at. Big whale tail rock to slide off of,keep right into an eddy to set up for final run. Peal out and hang on for a fun river channel run down to bottom. Rest of river good drops. Boat scout, if you want to scout can be done on river right. <br /> Good level 2.0 on gauge on USGS <br /> Check gauge at bridge at Hwy 280 and entrance to Pisgah Forest. <br /> <br /> If you want any more info please feel free to email me. <br /> micklouie@aol.com <br /> Mike