Upper Creek

From top to bottom Upper Creek is one of the most exposed and difficult creeks to paddle in North Carolina. It ranks on a difficulty level on par or harder than the Toxaway or Raven Fork due to the number of class five rapids, huge portages and must make moves in the run.

The Put-in is at the intersection of Ginger Cake Acres and Highway 181. Seal launch off the road! The creek doesn’t have a visual guage but if it looks floatable at the putin its running if it’s a wave train its too high. The Creek wanders through a neighborhood at first so be respectful and don’t walk around on the bank too much. As the river gains momentum it drops away from the road and civilization into the first gorge which includes several substantial rapids. If you can’t see the next eddy SCOUT.  Upper creek falls will sneak up on you and it isn’t at all survivable. Portage river left around Upper Creek Falls. Put back in where the trail comes close to the creek. This is the start of the “Never Ending Slide”.

At the bottom of this monstrous multitiered rapid portage the sieve pile and begin sorting your way through the next gorge. Almost all the rapids have been run or seal launched into. Rapids in this section include Fight club, Drain Pipe, Car Wash, jack hammer and several more class five rapids that will need scouting or portaging. The river slowly starts to tame down to class 2 after this section for about a mile then things pick back up starting with a ten-foot sunshine right type of move into an eddy then a slot move followed by a nice 5 foot ledge boof!

The river meanders through beautiful class 2 for about 10 minutes until you arrive at the Ravens Cliff Gorge section marked by a horizon line where all the water flows left and off a 4 foot ledge with a hole at the bottom. The next rapid is a 6 foot ledge with a rock in the center-right side. Directly after that is “Skip Jump” Falls. There are two lines of varied consequence/difficulty. The easiest and most fun is

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