Coker Creek
Highway 68 to Hiwassee River
| Difficulty | III-IV(V) |
| Length | 5.5 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 80 fpm |
| Gauge | Tellico River at Tellico Plains, Tn |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 1.24 ftbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | April 12, 2024 |
River Description
Directions:
Putting in at Highway 68 yields a fair amount of flatwater, though there is quality scenery. There is an alternate putin that starts you right at the top of the good stuff. Coming from Tellico Plains south on 68, make a right onto Monroe County Route 628 a couple of miles after going through Coker Creek Village. After just under a mile, bear left next to a cemetary, then after half a mile, veer right at the Y. Go 2.5 miles, then make a left onto Forest Road 2138, which drops a mile to the putin. For the takeout, go back to the previous intersection, make a left, and go a few miles untill there is a turn on the left, which will lead down to the takeout almost at the Hiwassee Dries. To not miss the takeout while on the river, simply takeout below the bridge where the John Muir Trail Crosses and hike up on river right.
The first drop is a 4 foot boof followed by Coker Creek Falls twenty feet later. At about 18 feet, the falls is best run with a right to left motion, catching a kicker 10 feet down, and landing close to flat and sideways at the bottom. Following are some scrapy ledge features, then another cascade which can be run on right or left, depending on flow. This one is about 12 feet high. A hundred feet of bang and scrape later is an interesting drop. Called turkey tail, this rapid drops through a miniature notch, then fans out over a domed ledge dropping 10 feet and then going right or left. Left has a submerged pin rock that can be an issue at lower levels. The right is good to go. At higher levels the hole can be pretty nasty.
Aftewards is an 9 foot waterfall that lands on rocks on the right. Maybe with enough water it will go. On the left is a narrow groove that can be run, though some Mountain Laurel will hit you in the face. There is a rough, troughy small slide following, and then scout the slide. The slide starts with a 5 foot slanted drop onto a low angle slide for twenty feet into a big curl on the lef
...River Features
Put In
Coker Creek Falls
Run driving right to left, waiting for the bounce half way down. Let it keep you flat and angled left.
First Drop
this is a straight forward 4 foot ledege drop, best run boofing right, to set up for the next drop.
Hiding Place Falls
Some troughy entrance ledges that can be very shallow precede this 12 foot drop that can be run right or left. On the left there will be some bounce!
Turkey Tail
At the top is a kinder smaller less undercut notch from the Green, fanning out onto a domed ledge dropping 10 feet. I like to boof with slight right angle, and finish right. There are a number of lines, but there is a pin bottom left to be aware of
Hidden Abashment
This drop lands from nine feet onto rocks. There is a line on the left that is currently unpleasant due to the mountain laurel and ill place pin rocks, but you wont have to get out of your boat
Snakedance
This is out of context. It's long and complicated, so take a look your first time. At levels of 4-8 inches, seriously consider walking, no matter how fun it looks. The undercut is sicko.
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportRan it 12/30/2018 at around 5' on the visual gauge. Sketchy riverwide log in the ledge beneath the notch drop (easily seen from the trail), and all kinds of various wood on the runout. We were able to boat scout, eddy hop, and duck most of it, might be more of an issue at higher flow. Had one or two log portages near the end
Steeper than it appears. Note that this is only the bottom part of the drop. about 4' on the gauge
The waterfall is over 60 feet high and there have been several deaths and injuries from climbing on the rocks. During periods of extreme cold, the falls freeze over.
Snakedance @ 1.5 feet
@1.5 feet April, 2011
2.2' of rain had fallen at the Coker Creek rain gauge (see flow beta) in a fairly short period of time about 20 hours before we put on. It felt like a medium-low to medium flow to me. It had been an unbelievably wet fall and early winter in the SE - tons of rain during what is often a dry spell. Cool run! Looking forward to returning some day .......
Ken don't you know it doesn't matter what the first person to run the rapid named it. Its name is what the streamkepper says it is.
Although never publicized except by word of mouth, other names for the rapids on Coker Creek have been in use for several years now. Bubble Notch has been called Turkey Tail, The Clapper is also known as Hidden Abashment, and Slidosaur as The Serpentine Beast or (yet another) Snakedance. As for Reynold's Rock...well, it can go by several names, depending upon whether or not one makes the turn. I bestowed a whistling 'Whew!' epithet to it my first time down.
Ken
Brian running the Notch. Pretty meaty hole at this level.
Launch time.
This is the left and center side of the drop
This is the left drop. This is the sweet line at anything above 2 inches
a good shot of the left line
the right line, which is a little smoother than the left at low water.
You can see the big pourover. Boof right or straight down the middle with speed.
Cool drop. Real cool