Nantahala

Teacup rapid middle line

Teacup rapid, middle line, hard but do-able landing

Lining up Teacup, paddle HARD!

Ran left line Teacup Rapid above Horns of God, tight!  Don't piton

09/25/2022: Cascades/upper Nantahala scheduled release, Sunday Release:

Connor (Wave Sport Project56) and I (LL Alpha 90) paddled upper section ABOVE the Cascades, putting in about 1-2 miles above put in for Cascades, about 1/4 mile above large rapid (locals said: 'Champagne'?), probably high Class 4 middle line, LEFT line definite Class 5 and ugly.

Then paddled down to larger rapid near White Oak Creek confluence (the rapid that everyone can see when they park to put onto the Cascades, locals said: 'Teacup'?).  Video posted online (FB), unable to get images to appear here.

Ran that pretty clean in middle. There was a 12ft 2-person raft ran right line, VERY sticky hole. Class 4+ down middle (pin potential) and right line Class 5 (ugly hole, ?undercut). We have cell phone video from bystanders, will attempt to post photos.

Put in was great, just creekside, lots of boogy water, only those 2 big rapids, took about 30-40 mins to paddle to Horns on the Cascades. Not much wood.  Lots of small campsites along the river, lots of poison ivy as well.

Really loved extending out the run, the 2 big rapids nicely engaging, and made the Cascades lap all the better with that sort of warm up. ALSO, the parking was a LOT easier!

Ben Huneycutt

Braaaping to the Future on the last day of GAF.

September 2008

September 2008

Dwight Nalbone running the Horns

bottom of horns of god

Here is some video of the first schedule release for the Cascades..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPpIR3XefU&feature=plcp

Tail end of the GAF release in 2012

Dwight Nalbone running the Big Kahuna

Dwight N. lining up to drop into Chinese Feet

Final Drop of Big Kahuna around 500 cfs

Huston Pope Runs the right line at Chinese feet

500 cfs

Winter time boating down on the Cascades flow was around 350cfs

there is a race on the 10th,tuesday sign up at 10 am race statrs at 12, hosted by daniel young

Just below the Horns of God on high water run.

Be careful of the hole at the top of the big kahuna slide. It is more retentive than it looks and is tough to get out of right side up.

The Cascades can be run MUCH lower than most people think and still a good time. great intro to creeking with a technical but relatively forgiving and roadside environment... A good alternate put-in for those wanting more action is just above Whiteoak Falls on Whiteoak Creek.

There's nothing like firing up a big drop first thing in the morning.
I was sleeping in my van down by the river as the rain fell, and fell, and fell somemore. I woke up to find that the scene had changed quite a bit. Not a bad way to start a Friday.

Wayner boofing the right side at Horns of Satan on the Nanty Cascades

Boyd in Big Kahuna with 'no water'...about as low as it gets. Still fun though.
this is one of the sloty ledges between The Horns and Big Kahuna at the extremely LOW (DRY) summer-time-level. It's not hard to fit through any of it at all. The Tightest is probably Junkyard at this level.

550 cfs is just an approximation by a local boater. The Nantahaha at Rainbow Spring gauge was 900 cfs at time. Both horns were covered by a few inches of water.
550 cfs is just an approximation by a local boater. The Nantahaha at Rainbow Spring gauge was 900 cfs at time. Both horns were covered by a few inches of water.

Here is an article by Kevin Colburn about the Cascades Test Flow Study:

Boofing Into the Future: A Flow Study on the Cascades of the Nantahala.

In 1989 I opened the AW journal to a photo of a guy named Forest Calloway running a big stompy drop on the Nantahala River. This article was titled 'Nantahala's Upper Cascades, Not Where NOC Holds Roll Clinics', and was my first introduction to creek'in. I was thoroughly intrigued with the Cascades and with creek'in in general. Some girl named Risa wrote the article, 'hmm', I thought, she must be a rad boater. I was 13 then and now that rad girl is my boss and making sure that river flows is a big part of my job. American Whitewater is currently helping to drive the process of ensuring a balanced flow regime on all sections of North Carolina's famous Nantahala River.

The regular flows on the Nantahala that we all know and love are the product of a hydro project that diverts water around a 10 mile stretch of river that lies dry most of the year. This section of river holds the class 4/5 Cascades and the class 3 Upper Nantahala and is virtually dry except when White Oak Creek flows big. Perhaps not for long though. Just after Gauley Fest 2001, American Whitewater worked with Duke Power to pull off yet another controlled whitewater flow study in the Southeast. Surely this was one of the most successful flow studies yet, largely due to the characters that showed up.

Local boater of NOC fame, Bunny Johns, was Duke's consultant and did a great job at arranging all the logistics and working with AW in study design. John Wishon, whose family has lived in the Upper Nantahala watershed for generations, was one of the folks representing Duke Power. The Lunch Video Magazine crew was there to shoot the video that is a critical part of the study. They did a wonderful job that will help us show what a great resource the Cascades and Upper Nantahala are.

The unofficial Western North Carolina Resource Agency Rafting Team were laughing and swimming their way down the Upper Nantahala. Adventure Quest was there to learn about river conservation and to paddle as part of the study. American Whitewater volunteers and regional boaters were there to paddle and objectively describe their experiences for the study. The many boaters that showed up to paddle that were not part of the study were incredibly respectful and waited to put on until after the study groups had finished their runs. And most importantly, no one got hurt!

I slept in a gracious boater’s basement and awoke before dawn for the study. I arrived at the powerhouse groggy and might have helped give an introduction speach. I was still asleep when I noticed the ice coating my boat and slid into the steaming lake-warmed water. We ducked through the vegetation and did cheesey boofs, not to be confused with cheesey poofs, off the first 6 footer. We rounded the bend to the V crack, a seldom run 10-foot vertical U ledge. We all tried different things with similar outcomes, meltdowns through light warm foam. Just after the slot we rounded the bend and lined up on the true cascades below the confluence of White Oak Creek.

The Cascades drop wicked steep through a roadside canyon and were still shrouded in thick fog. In groups of six we launched off the 12-foot boof at 'The Horns of God,' flew down the slides and off the 10 footer at 'Big Kahuna,' skipped over the hole at 'Junkyard,' and threaded our way through 'Chinese Feet.'

Another group of paddlers put on the Upper Nantahala and made their way down that stretch, through the fog. Many of the paddlers from the cascades study continued down the Upper just for kicks. We did four progressively higher runs and as the levels got higher the Upper got more fun and the Cascades changed in character from precise creek’in to a big water romp. The last flow was great for the Upper but was juicy enough on the Cascades that we decided not to study it due to safety considerations. Folks still flocked to it for fun runs though, and there was a great deal of carnage. There was carnage on the Upper too, at least one of the rafts dump-trucked and dumped out some Duke Power folks and members of the previously mentioned rafting team. Those guys have too much fun with their jobs.

All this wonderful creek'in over 2 days was interspersed with filling out surveys, having discussion groups, and meeting with AQ and the various other groups there to talk about the process of dam relicensing. By the end of the second day the focus groups nailed down the optimal and minimum acceptable flows for both reaches. The data is still in the mill but the group felt that 250 and 350 cfs offered two unique and good flows for the cascades. The 175 cfs flow was runnable but below optimal and the 500 cfs release was fun but would exclude a lot of boaters. The group felt that 350 was a likely optimal flow for intermediate boaters to enjoy the Upper Nantahala, and that people would paddle it at 250. The 175 release was too low and the 500 release was not significantly better than 350.

American Whitewater would like to extend a big thanks to everyone involved with the study, and also to all those that avoided paddling the cascades those days to ensure a positive outcome of the study. We could not have pulled it off so well without you.

me at the top of horns of god

Photo courtesy of and copyright by Julie Keller.

The cascades are a pretty fun run even at dry summer-time flows. There seriously needs to be an extreme race held there from the Horns down below chinese feet with actual flow... it's too good and too roadside/accessible not to.

Summer release on the Cascades.