Cane Creek

12 / 18 - 6'' great level - clear of wood through Trade Center / Twin Towers and Corner Pocket but after the lull, watch for new wood in rapid right above Airplane Turn - you'll be boogie class 2 and see the gradient coming and a big tree on right but you can't see the one in the hole of the class 3 so I put flagging tape in a tree above on river left. Big obvious log below Airplane can be missed. Big obvious log in runout was sneakable river right at this flow. Smooth sailing - wide open from recent high water down below. Cable Trail harder, as more trees gone at the steep so it's hard to balance even one boat while you climb through. Consider having short rope ready to clip boats on with and spreading out on the way down.

Cable broke and trail closed temporarily as of April 4th 16.

The photos on here claiming 2'5'' by robert maxwell are the lowest I've ever seen it and likely co-ordinate to -6'' on the closer red gage.

Friends ran it at -2'' (took out at -4'') in April of 16 and it looked low medium.
clay

1/2/13 Red gauge at 1' today. Fun run down Cain. No portages due to logs. Definitely a mid-to-high water level. Calf killer gauge was at 1510. Great falls dam inflow around 8500. Most beautiful run we've done this year. :-) Did portage twin towers due to ferocious looking hole (and our first run down).

Put-in gage upstream of falls and dam, look left off swinging bridge....7'' was a fluffy, 3'' a good medium. More important is red take-out gage: -2'' minimum or you'll hike down a few islands.

New Wood 1/2 mi in can be snuck via far left crack.

New wood in Rear entry's right crack - get left or get out.

2 runs today at 0'

New red gage at takeout on r right: 0' today and

I'd say that's a good minimum to paddle out.<br

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Put-in: New red gage below swinging bridge

upstream of falls and dam (across bridge from

Cane Falls parking) - read 0' too.

All logs avoidable. Walked 'Rear Entry' since left

sneak hard to enter. Remarkably more

channelized in runout. Pushed across the last

braided area (L then R) but otherwise bumped

through fine. One bad log within sight of

takeout

Collins 1200, Calfkiller 950

1/9/05: 2.5 was a medium level - new gravel bar makes gage read higher (2.7 yesterday looked like 2x the water). If the shoal upstream of the bridge is scrapey, the last miles will be too. No log portages required - remarkable clean. Rangers friendly. Calfkiller was 5.8, collins 3000, Caney Fork 1.7

The link for the Calfkiller gauge is this:

<a href=http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tn/nwis/uv?

03419800 target=_blank>http://waterdata.usgs.gov/

tn/nwis/uv?03419800

Sounds like you should see 5.7 or above on Calfkiller

before heading to Cane

Here are some numbers I just crunched:

Falls to Piney Creek - 2.2 miles at 172 ft/mile

Steepest mile - 220 ft/mile from mile 0.3 to mile 1.3

steepest stretch - 250 ft/mile for 0.4 miles (second gorge)

Piney Creek to takeout - 4.8 miles at 42 ft/mile

Piney Creek to hikeout - 1 mile at 75 ft/mile

total length and gradient - 7 miles with 580 ft of drop

There

1/9/05: 2.5 was a medium level - new gravel bar makes gage read higher (2.7 yesterday looked like 2x the water). If the shoal upstream of the bridge is scrapey, the last miles will be too. No log portages required - remarkable clean. Rangers friendly. Calfkiller was 5.8, collins 3000, Caney Fork 1.7

Finding the put-in trail is easy. From the Cane Creek Falls Nature Center and Overlook parking lot walk back to the stop sign, hang a left and cross the bridge over Rockhouse Creek. Immediately on your left will be the trail. Its kind of hard to miss with a big sign like this.
The trail to the river is one you won't forget. Its 1/4 mile long and drops over 70 feet at a 75% angle. The day I ran it, we set up a three rope belay to lower the boats.
Once you've found the trailhead and climbed down the cliff to the river, this is what awaits you. Cane Creek Falls....and no, this 80 footer has not been run.....yet.
The gage for Cane Creek can be found on the Hwy 30 take-out bridge. Its on the upstream edge of the river left support. Best seen from the river right parking area. A gage can tell you a lot, including that Phillip loves Kim and apparently his bong.
Here's a nice shot of Twin Towers having its way with Milt Aitken. Its a pretty big hole that can stop a 14 foot open barge in its tracks.
Here's Marshall Fox making Airplane Turn look easy.
Rear Entry changes from time to time as its rocks shift and settle after flooding. Here's Milt Aitken taking the far left (sneak? prudent?) line.
The beauty of Cane Creek's put-in is unmatched in the southeast. The falls to the left are Rockhouse Creek Falls. And of course, the big one is Cane Creek.
Geoff Kohl running the entrance drops of Twin Towers.
Milt Aitken inspecting what remains of an aluminum canoe on the paddle out. Look in Milt's eyes; you can almost see how much he wishes he'd been there to video the carnage!
The first rapid is just around the corner from the put-in. Pine Tree Falls is most notible for the house size boulder on the right and a pine tree that always seems to be somewhere in the drop! After Pine Tree the fun begins.
Kevin Thomas running one of many slots on Cane Creek.
Hallway Falls is aptly named: After running the falls, you paddle through a hallway of boulders. It feels tighter then it looks in the photo. Here's Kevin Thomas about to run the falls.
Geoff Kohl doing a nice boof in one of the countless unnamed rapids.
The cliffs along the paddle out are honeycombed with caves and sink holes. If the water table is down, most of the water coming from upstream drains into the sink holes, turning the 'paddle out' into a 'hike out'. This day, the water table was full, so there wasn't a problem. A good rule of thumb is,if there's enough water to paddle at the take-out bridge, there's enough for the paddle out. This is a shot of my group waiting for Milt Aitken to come back out of the cave he decided to explore.

Checking out the landing
- you can paddle behind it on the right -
breezy
Checking out the landing
- you can paddle behind it on the right -
breezy
Lane flies through
The 'sneak' to rear entry has a pin/piton rock
that's difficult to miss. Angle right or left,
cause your bow may go under it.

See more of Cane Creek, including a larger-sized copy of this one, at [http://www.alexjharvey.com/Tennessee.htm#Cane Creek](http://www.alexjharvey.com/Tennessee.htm#Cane Creek).