Rocky Broad

American Whitewater and some partners attended a site visit to the Rocky Broad hosted by NCDOT. It was a sobering visit, with so much hurricane damage to infrastructure, people's homes and businesses, and of course the river. We learned about DOT's plans to rebuild the roads in the gorge. There are some sections of the river that appear to still have good whitewater, much of the river was diminished in quality by the flood, and a lot more of the river has been essentially channelized and simplified by NCDOT to accomodate their temporary road, and the permanent road. The temporary road will ultimately be removed, and the river roughly put back in some kind of shape, which may be followed by 'restoration' by the Army Corps. American Whitewater is advocating for restoration of the river during and immediately following the construction project. The river should be restored to a reasonably safe run of similar difficulty as before.

Maybe it goes without saying, but all of the rapids appear to be totally different.