Deep

I ran the rapids below the dam a couple of times at what I'd consider medium high water. Waves are fairly large at this level, around 3 ft in spots and holes easily avoided. I wouldn't consider it a whole class higher than what is listed, but I know I would have been intimidated as a beginner and likely flipped. I didn't see a whole lot of play waves at this level, but I stayed mostly left of the far right channel and then ran the middle channel. River right likely has some good play holes since it does starting around 2.5 ft on the gage. Because of the breach, most of the water goes river right, but the middle channel had decent water too since water was coming over the dam. There is supposed to be another access going in at Moncure Pittsboro rd soon, making a 1.5 mile run, but it was gated. I took a look at the portage area above the dam to see what current would be like had I done the full run and it looked like one could safely get out river right at the normal take out just after the dam warning sign. The breach itself was a sight to see at this level and I'm not aware of if it's possible to be run at this level, but it looked like it'd result in serious consequence from my perspective. It will be interesting to see how everything changes when the Lockville Dam is removed. My guess is it will require 2.5 ft on the gage as a minimum since that's about the level needed for the rapids upstream to start to be interesting.