Little Tennessee

In October 2020, having kayaked for three decades+ three of us decided to take our cataract, NRS Star Slice, on 5-6 miles of the Little Tennessee downstream of Franklin, but well upstream of Fontana Lake. The AWA information and old guidebooks all referred to the section of the Lil Tennessee directly upstream of the highway 23/74/19 bridge over Fontana Lake. We had only one car, two humans and one dog and we did not want to mess around with the gravel Needmore Road, on river left. We drove to Iotla, NC and examine a large, dirt pull-off parking area on river right at the NC hwy 28 bridge, but then continued north on NC28 looking for a different spot to launch. A few miles downstream from that bridge, on river right. we parked a conservation area, created and maintained by the Mainspring Conservation Trust (based in Franklin, NC). It was very close to the river, had parking for 10-12 vehicles, and interpretive displays for old Cherokee Indian Nation cultural history, Cowee Mound. We launched there, floated several miles through occasional class I ripples, floated under a concrete bridge at Rose Creek Road, and then had about a half to three quarters mile of extended class I shoals before reaching a large island, Dean Island, which was our navigation reference for our takeout just downstream, river right of the island. The takeout was another Mainspring Conservation Trust area, this one called Queen Branch. Dirt/grass parking at the takeout for 8-10 vehicles, interpretive display, and a cut grass 90 yard walk to the river itself. Water level was about 1100cfs which was enough for our Slice cataraft to not have any issues with running around, although the long series of class I ledges mentioned previously required a certain amount of maneuvering skill. After finishing the run we went to the Mainspring website and saw that they have created several other areas similar to the 2 that we used which could create other opportunities for different length runs on this river. As well as cooperative efforts between this group and AWA for things like river cleanup, protection, etc. Hopefully other beginners looking to float the Lil Tenn can use this post to mix and match a variety of different trips above and beyond the section closer to Fontana. I phoned Mainspring Conservation office and spoke to someone, mentioned AWA (which they'd never heard of at all) and suggested a few ideas about collaboration on overlapping interests. I told them AWA HQ was just a few miles away, as the crow flies.