Cullasaja

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.