Big Brush Creek

I was up there on Nov. 30, 2005 -- and though I was skunked, here are some details for the page:

THE BIG BRUSH SHUTTLE:

TAKEOUT is the first bridge the creek comes to once it's off the mountain. That bridge is on Oak Park Lane (I believe the name is correct). To get to that bridge, Take Hwy 8/111 from Dunlap, turn right on the last road before you ascend the long road cut. The road immediately T's, so bear left on Oak Park. First bridge is Little Brush Creek; you need to go to the second bridge for Big Brush. There is some sort of rock company just before it. [If you're coming down the road cut (from the put-in), this Oak Park Rd is the first left you can take once you've descended the highway road cut.]

To get to the PUT-IN, go back to Hwy. 8/111, and go up the mountain. Once you've ascended the plateau, keep going (and going). You know you're getting close to your turn when you finally pass a decent-sized gas station on your right. Keep a lookout for McCarver Road. There is a red-roofed cabin structure at the corner of this road and the highway. Turn right and follow it. When it forks (a very notable fork), bear right. Soon/immediately after this fork, you'll come to the first big gravel road on your right. It has a sign up on a tree about 50 feet about 'Illegal Removal of Minerals'. Turn right and follow this big (public?) road back for about 10-15 minutes until you reach the bridge over Big Brush. It has planks lined up under your tires and metal pipes as the hand rail. Lock your car and don't keep anything of value in it. Note: this unnamed gravel road has some bouncy, rough sections. 4x4s not required, but don't take a car with low ground clearance. Look out for semis carrying logs or rocks.

Time required for shuttle: about 30 minutes each way if gravel road is in good shape.

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GAUGE:

The gauge is at the put-in. The 'gauge' is the ladder in the middle of the bridge on the downstream side. The bottom rung is considered '1 rung'. You can check the gauge from the bridge. The rule is that 1-1/3 rungs is on the low side but doable. Not sure if this has changed, there are gravel bars at put-in so it could flux some. Look for a visual: Is there enough water to float over the rocks without coming close to scraping? Gauge used to be a piece of duct tape but it seems to have washed away (that was 12 years ago, though).

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LEVELS: (my best guesses)

If gauges are falling fast, then you should want to see Collins at 2,000 and Sequatchie at 1,800. Daddy's would probably be around 1,300 and dropping.

AW has the Sequatchie gauge accidentally linked to Collins, so here's the real Sequatchie gauge:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tn/nwis/uv?03571000

If gauges are rising, water table is up, and you've had a big rain event, you could probably see levels of half those or less and Big Brush will probably run. These gauges are down in the valley, far downstream from the creek parts of their rivers, so they respond slowly.

It's considered a Day-After-North-Chick run, but that's only if the water table is up. If water table is down, it's a day-of N. Chick run/immediately after N. Chick run. The run was formerly considered to hold water very well, but recent clear cutting in the area may have made the run-off drop faster.

Other options nearby if it's too low may be Cane Creek, Bee Creek, Caney Fork. If too high, check out Little Brush or Cain/N. Chick.

Enjoy, and if you run it, please post what you saw on the nearby gauges when it was running. Hopefully if we get enough data we can create a virtual gauge. Make this creek known; there once was a popular proposal for damming up the gorge, and I'm sure there are some who would still like to see that.