Abrams Creek

We paddled this stretch today. The Little was between 4.1 and 4.2 feet. A big storm had rolled through yesterday. The Little peaked at 7.5 feet and The Tellico peaked at 9.6 feet. The Tellico isn't a good indicator for flows in Abrams, but I'm posting its flow just to illustrate how out of control yesterday was.

Check out the photo of my run at the falls in May 2013 - when the Little was at 3.9. The rock that's protruding from the lip of the falls river left of my line was underwater today. The hole at the bottom of the falls looked potentially lethal if you ran anywhere left of right of center. Matt Devoe (OC-1) was the only one in our group to run the falls today and he had an absolutely beautiful line. He boofed hard off a flake on the right and said the landing was soft. We had three wood portages today -- there were none in 2013. The last big rapid on the run (Sidewinder?) was fluffy and pushy, but manageable. But it was undoubtedly solid class IV today- with waves breaking over my head. The rapid upstream (Boulder Sluice?) was also juicy but manageable.

Some rainfall history: There had been 3.3 inches at Newfound Gap about 32 hours before we put on. And about 1.9 inches at the Cades Cover rain gauge (http://rainpursuit.org/rain\_gauge.php?id=771) in the same time frame. Git u some Abrams. The long ass shuttle is worth it, but it's best when the falls isn't so scary looking