French Broad

I wish I had something to read the mileages from, but the rapid itinerary as far as I know is:

- Beginner's Rapid (Just below the put in railroad tressel) ~ class 2

- the Slide (long rapid, ran on river left, ends in a short, broken ledge) ~ class 2

- the Maze (an even longer rapid) ~ class 2+ or maybe 3-

- Turtle Rock (just below Jump Rock and it's big pool, ran on river left). ~ class 2-2+

- S-turn (Very short but a little tricky. A swim here can result in swimming Big Pillow rapid which

itself tends to give long swims. Stroke hard for the river left bank if you have an out-of-boat experience :-) ) ~ class 3-

- Big Pillow / Pillow Rock rapid (scout from the river left bank, shortest scout-trip you'll ever do. Basically, stick your boat on the beach and stand up. Run the top hole ('Pillowcase') if you like, or skirt on the right. Avoid the big rock w/ the pillow by going to it's left.) ~ class 3

- fun eddyline / weak surfing spot below Big Pillow

- Swimmer's Rapid (an excellent and Strong eddyline, raft co's have let their folks swim this in the past but there are rocks in there and it can be a little shallow. A couple hundred years of flat water is after this where rafters are known to swim) ~ class 1-2-

- Sandy Bottom (Often a big, fun surfing wave! If you flip, roll fast or tuck hard and get ready to be run thru some meat grinder action. Run on river left. Makes for a great lunch stop. ) ~ class 2+

- the Ledges (about 3 significant ledges w/ what are normally mild holes. Look for good playspots in here)

- Pinball/Pitstop (Look for Bumper rock in the center of the river. Nice eddy line around both side of it and usually a small, glassy wave 15 years above it. Run starting far river left for Pinball rapid (fun!) or run far river right for a milder rapid with nasty undercut potential that looks really neat.) ~ class 3- for Pinball, 2+ for Pitstop

- Rebar Rapid (look for rebar in the center of the rapid from where a low head dam was years ago (1920's?). Run left. Watch for big hole at medium/high flows (easily avoidable)) ~ class 2+

- Stackhouse Rapid (plenty of lines here. Watch for rocks.) ~ class 2+-3-

- Stackhouse takeout

- Windy Flats (thousands of miles of shallow, flat water. Class 4.9 for technicality and sheer endurance needed to get thru this.)

- Kayaker's Ledge/Needle Falls (watch for the Needles on the mountain-island in the center of the river. Go the right side of the island for Kayaker's Ledge. Scout from river left. I can easily imagine this being one bad hole to be stuck in a higher levels. Run far right which works out well if you clear the hole, or down the tongue which almost guarantees a quick run thru the hole, or boof far left and land in that eddy. You can portage and even paddle back up to the 'sneak' on river left of the mountain-island. I often run this, then portage back up to run the sneak b/c the sneak's so much fun! Big wave train!) - class 3

- Frank Bell's (now called class 4, I've heard some guide books have it listed as class 5. It's a big rapid w/ some big holes. Hard to scout too. Run river left for a fun boogie water sneak and watch out for crazy water below the rapid.) ~ class 4