Clear Creek
4. Lilly to Nemo (Clear Creek Gorge)
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportWas paddling potters Ford to obj @700 CFS (awesome level) when I dropped my paddle getting out of my play boat to scout a rapid. If anyone hears of a camo Werner Sherpa found in the Obed let me know @931 252 7843.
Thanks
March 17, 2022 run in the Star Slice cataraft at approx 430cfs. This gave enough water to run down to the Obed without any problems with shallow water. 400cfs will be my new minimum flow for this section in the Star Slice Cataraft.
Using the Oakdale gauge 1000 is low but doable, 3000 is plenty, a lot of the Clear Creek rapids start washing out.
Using the Lilly gauge, 200 is pretty low. If it gets over 1200 you will be running something else.
430 on the Lilly gauge is nice class III.
Clean run on 2/27/19. No wood to speak of. Easy intermediate run at med/low water.
Yellow OC spotted pinned under Camel Rock today (March 23rd) around 7pm. Pinned boat is not in the way. We didn't try extracting since we were running short on daylight. Hope owner is fine.
There is a hike out option for emergencies or 'with permission' short day runs called ''Canoe Hole'' which is park service road / property BUT the road is impassable except by 4wheelers and the road goes through a farm and the last parking is someone's front yard. We asked Mr. Hardwick and his dog Bear for permission to park outside his house at the end of Hardwick road and it was granted. This gave us a 1 mile shuttle to Lilly Bridge, a paddling trip to rocky beach at the end of a long pool 2 rapids below the confluence and a steep / rocky 30 minute hike up to our cars.
If you use this option, be respectful and remember this is the Bible Belt! Do not change clothes in his front yard (there is no where else to do it - so we drove shuttle in fleece) don't let your dog out to chase cattle, drink beer, drop cigarette butts or gas receipts etc. He asked that we stay on the road around his field rather than cut through - which seemed obvious but might have been an issue in the past. We looked for trash to pick up for him and there was NONE.
Lower Clear Creek into the Emory Class 2-4 (listed on AW as Clear Creek - 4. Lilly to Nemo).
- Minimum flow is 200 cfs for canoes, 600 cfs for Avon Ranger on Clear Creek at Lilly bridge near Lancing, TN.
- Max flow is about 2,000 cfs.
- Run is 7.5 river miles.
- Downstream of Lilly Bridge, the river flows through Jacks Rock, Camel Rock, Wootens Folly, Rock Jumble, and Focus Falls. These are all pool drop class III rapids with long recovery sections in between.
- Once you reach the Obed River confluence you will be on a medium volume river. Here you will encounter four more class III rapids. The last two are keep right and widow maker. You can find some good surfing waves in this section.
Trey Barrow on Clear Creek
The DeVoe's punching the hole at Jacks Rock in high water
open boat on Jacks Rock
We (Christy Johnson, Owen Simcoe, and I) paddled Clear Creek/Obed from Jett to Nemo yesterday, and was it ever cold! No more than 45 degrees in the broad sunshine, and more like 40 most of the time in the shade. A comment about Jack's Rock Falls: don't run the left side of the rapid! It looks boat-scoutable, but what looks like a cute little slide from the top is actually a hole that munched Owen and me before we figured out that you really don't want to run that line. From the top left eddy, you want to ferry across to river right, above the rock that protrudes from the top of the drop, in order to get lined up for the cute little slide. I don't mean to imply that the rapid is super tough, or that the move is hard at all; it's just more fun to know the right (right) line, so I hope some future rookie on Clear Creek will read this and avoid the left (wrong) line. We found Wooten's Folly to be anticlimactic after the adventure at Jack's; it just seemed like a fun class 3 drop, not the scary monster we were preparing ourselves for, because you can see the line more easily than you can at Jack's. Overall, a very fun run; too bad you can't eliminate some of the flatwater after the Obed confluence. There was one big wavetrain, though, that reminded us of Double Trouble on the Ocoee -- nice big rollercoaster waves with absolutely nothing else to worry about. I can't wait to run this stretch again when it's warmer!
I will try & get this page looking better soon. I brought my camera last trip, but battery died b/c I left in cold car so no pics! Anyway, thanks to Billy Bob Scarborough we now have GPS Locations for
Jacks Rock: N36 05.969', W 84 42.803'The location is on the river left bank just upstream to entrance of rapid.
Wooten's Folley: N36 05.846' W84 42.550 The location on this one is also on river left, at the start of the trail to the rock on the river left bank above the 2nd drop & right below Wooten's Folley slot
SYOTR
this one starts off great, however once you get on the Obed the run has very long sections of flatwater with few rapids being more then just wave-trains. I never saw a class 4 rapid on this section, Widowmaker??? where, the big 3 in Clear Creek Gorge where much better. Water level was around 550.
'Wooten's Folley' was named for Dick Wooten, a TSRA member / Explorer post leader who canoed all over the SE w/o using flotation.
No 'h'
C
Trip with the Hoofers to the Obed watershed.
Gordon is taking the boof line. Most people go right of that first rock then working left
At 10,000 cfs at Lilly Bridge, this run is among the most exciting around. There will be 20 foot waves at wootens folly. No death holes, but no eddies either. Don't swim. Your voice will be hoarse from screaming.
775 CFS at Lily
3300 at Oakdale
750 cfs on Clear Creek guage
You got to see this in person.
2700 cfs on Emory Oakdale gauge
Photo of unknown boater at Jack's Rock, courtesy of Julie Keller ( www.JulieKeller.com).
Clear Creek has some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere. A true Tennessee Classic.
Jim Wei on line.
Todd Bilbrey goes straight up the gut on the first rapid of Clear Creek.
Below Camel Rock and above Wooten's Follow.
The first in a great opening set of rapids below Lily Bridge.