Cullasaja

Wood Update November 18, 2006 5.5 ft

The middle is go to go but the Lower is a different story, we hiked down to the first 4 drops (down to eclipse) and only one had a clean line, every other drop has horribly placed wood. First falls has a big log in the entrance, and eclipse has an easily removable tree blocking the whole river above first boof. Enjoy

Tim on his 1st run down lower Cullasaja.

running the double boof, probably one of the safest
rapids on this river, unless you count the possible
sieves and that it's above the big mama that is
Eclipse
Cook fires up Eclipse after dealing with the screw
up rocks at the top that seem to be new since '04
summer floods. Look for trouble from the entrance
at this level.
If you're a little too eager on the first drop, you'll
rush the padded wall, spin and drop the second
part backwards .... no worries, just enjoy the view
up the rapid instead
A look down the pit of Next Time -- use the lip
visible in this pic to get your nose up. Rock on left
(just underwater), big undercut on right, shallow
landing area even when you're on line.
This is about as good of a paddler's eye view of
Next Time as you'll get w/o hucking it. It lands in a
channel about 4 feet deep, with a barely covered
rock on your left, big undercut on your right.
Here's the full view of Eclipse. There might be a
narrow line for a sneak on far left if you can keep
your nose off a rock at the bottom -- since the
floods in Summer '04, the portage of Eclipse is
easier (but still not easy).
A fast sluice with a drop and funny water in the
middle and another drop right at the end. Don't end
up left at the bottom of final plunge; as of 11
-2004, it washes into a bunch of logs. The old
boat-breaker rock in the landing zone is gone
thanks to the 2004 hurricanes.

Eclipse - done right.

the entrance to eclipse has changed due to flooding, several ill placed boulders will make it a challenging new line. double boof, aka trash can is no longer a go. at 4.8' all the water still pushed right into an undercut sharp protruding rock. a mandatory portage for anyone who doesnt want to get slammed. portage river right. the lead in to whale tail is cleaner than before and still good to go. be careful out there.

The Cullasaja ... New

Forum: BoaterTalk

Re: cullasaja -- update... unipaddle New

Re: lower cullasaja BSK New

Date: Sep 28 2004, 0:39 GMT

From: ugadelta98

The Cullasaja is broken into three distinct sections (for whitewater boating): the Upper, Middle, and Lower.

Upper: 3 Big drops at the beginning, several portages (including Dry Falls), some flatwater, a little class III/IV, and then some solid V/V+ stuff from Nemesis and Bricklayer down to Cosmic Crunch (which is realistically a VI).

Middle: Some Class IV boulders garden stuff below Cosmic Crunch, some class III boogie through semi-tight slots, one small drop, two 8 foot drops (both IV's above 4.5), some Class III boogie, T-Bone (a Class IV+/V) multi-tiered drop, some more Class III boogie, a mile or so of flatwater, a small gorge with Class III+/IV moves (above 4.5 it is Class IV, and only gets tougher as more water comes in), then some ledges in front of the rock shop; there are 3 more Class V rapids below the rock shop, and directly above the big falls, but very few people run them- if you screw up and swim you could end up flushing down over Cullasaja Falls (over 200 ft multi- tiered drop).

Lower: put in at the base of Cullasaja Falls; you have many Class V/V+ rapids for over a mile. The famous ones are Double Drop, Eclipse, Next Time, and Whale Tale, but there are many more stacked in there. It is a serious creek run. The takeout is the Peeks Creek Bridge.

I grew up in Franklin (live away now though), and have been paddling the Cullasaja for about 8 years, so I am very familiar with the majority of the run. I have paddled alot of the Upper, all of the Middle (many, many times), and from below Whale Tale down on the Lower (we hiked in from Peeks Creek- I'm not a good enough creeker to even consider the rest of the Lower still). That river is beautiful, powerful, and dangerous, so be careful on it; I see alot of people posting on here about it these days.

cullasaja -- update... New

Forum: BoaterTalk

Date: Sep 27 2004, 21:42 GMT

From: unipaddle

this might have been posted already. many changes on the lower of mention. trees in 1st rapid. new ODDLY placed boulders above ecliipse. jerry curl has adjusted its 'jerry curl'. most of all TRASHCAN! this is now the ugliest rapid on the river. 5 foot sloping drop into pinny pillow area with all the water washing to the right of the large boulder sending you towards a jagged, overhanging, undercut, jaw snather of a boulder @4.1. it will probably be passable @ 4.5 and above. wash out of trashcan leads directly into whale-tail with very few eddies in between. the nasty reputation of the lower cullasaja just got worse.

Our group ran this last Saturday (9/11/2004) at somewhere around 4.6' on the USGS gauge. We've run this section down to 4.0' and all of us agreed that 4.6' is the best level we've run it at so far. Everything is a little more padded out. There is a small stick in the right side run out of First Drop since the rainfall from Hurricane Frances, but it is easily avoided. Be careful on this creek, though, because it is sick.

At 4ft Eclipse is very scrappy.
Right slot on 1st drop.
This is what you have to look foward to if you want the Lower, Middle, or Upper Cullasaja.

Lower Cullasaja

Forum:BoaterTalk

Date: Mar 21 2003, 01:08

From: Bergen

The tree below Whale Tale is gone.

There is wood on the bottom right below first drop (only a problem above 5').

The second rapid below Next Time has a tree just under the water. Ran it today @ 5'3' not visable.

ok, so on March 3, at 4:30pm, peeks creek was reading a foot, usgs was around 4.0 or 4.25; and the gauge on the downstream bridge piling at route 1620 (where the USGS gauge is) was reading 6.9

Visually i thougth the level looked moderate on the upper and the middle, and stomping on the lower.

bradley

From Clay Wright on the Perception website:

Posted - Dec 12 2001 : 22:00:14

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So much rain, but . . .

Tried for Raven's but low water alternative Cullasaja proved a technical roadsite treat.

The put-in one of the most spectacular in the SE: just off the highway but down a steep, spray-swept trail to the base of a 70+ foot unrunnable waterfall. Action starts immediately with a nasty s-turn into a reverse Sunshine style left boof. Lots of impact, though everyone who ran it said it was 'fine'. Beautiful double boof left next, then Eclipse. Another Sunshine-esque rapid, Eclipse ramps 8' into a visible piton-rock. Only a tight right boof allows you to miss most of the rock - enought ot soften the impact. The remaining technical slots should be scouted well, too. Next in the memory was 'Next Time' which at this low flow comprised of a mandatory right to left boof into a shallow, narrow corridor. Sweet boof, all aces. Several fun boofs and a whale-tail later we were scraping through class 2 boulders looking for the bridge. Cool run. Short, steep, sharp, sweet.

For added amusement, we drove upstream to the lake and ran the top cascades. This awesome series has been on my list since the Wayne Gentry days and it lives up the videos for sure! The first drop slides 10' but the 2nd 20' flume is only a boat-lengh away. You try and aim left or drag your left blade as you rocket out of this one, cause a low wall off the right bank sends all the water (any you, hopefully) into a 90 deg. left turn leading a 45 deg right turn down a 15' bounding cascade. No video shot this trip, but Daniel D, Al G, Nate E, Tommy H, Pat Keller, Jason Hale and I sessioned it so many times we could've used a time-lapse. Daniel's handpaddling runs were far better than mine. nuff said.

Anyway - another cool roadside class 5 off my 'to do' list. So many more . . . but rain on the way!

Clay

4.25' on the USGS gauge is probably about 3/4' on the Peeks Creek gauge. Wouldn't go any lower.

WARNING- 11/25/2001

There is a stick across the bottom slot of the first rapid. It looks like you could run the right channel if you had more water than we did (3/4' at peek's creek bridge). There was also wood blocking the top of the sneak at Eclipse and across a small drop just below next time.

From Brad Roberts of Boater Talk:

Very hard, dangerous, class 5-6.

We break up the run into three sections.

Upper is from the lake to above the unrunnable falls.

Middle is from below Nemesis to above the 200-foot unrunnable falls. Don't miss that last eddy.

Then there is the lower. 600 plus feet a mile. 10-foot pools followed by 20-foot drops. Its from the base of the big falls to the bridge two miles downstream.

Don't do the lower until you are bored on the Green Narrows.

Be especially careful around the drops called Eclpise (similar but worse than Sunshine) which has nasty siphon/undercut in it, and 15 feet downstream the waterfall known as Next Time. After the first 6 drops it eases up a little. To hard class 5, that is......

Be careful out there.

Eclipse is the third rapid on the lower Cullasaja. The rapid consists of three vertical drops that are back to back. The first drop seen in the photo is usually boofed hard on river right, off the right bank. There is a nasty sieve in the photo under the boater in the eddy. Boats and boaters have flushed thru the sieve. For more great photos and videos check out Lelands Paddle Page.