Crab Orchard Creek

10/15/14 crab orchard creek, flat rock ford to oakdale. 7000 cfs on the emory at oakdale gauge. We put on at the parking area on WMA road and you can see in the picture that we had low flow. We left our shuttle vehicle under the 299 bridge in oakdale and it seemed like it was an okay thing to do. you can break the run into sections and access the river at white oak rd/pine orchard rd bridge (we saw this from river level so i dont know about parking) or downstream where camp austin rd parallels the the river (easy access just downstream of the dream house on the river with the creek flowing through).
The rapids were a mixture of whites creek, the nantahala, and town creek (AL). Flat water to start with for a bit and then some good easy rapids and low angle slides. The longest rapid i remember was in this section and it was a long, wide open slide. Numerous class 2-3 rapids, even a class 3+ with a sieve on river right. I never encountered a 'rock jumble to congested to run' (sorry Monte Smith) and the river mellows in its mid section with a few pools and some downtime. After the bridge there are many more class 2-3 rapids, these lack some of the technical nature of the early section. Mill creek falls is a notable beauty on river left, its worth getting out of your boat and walking the sort distance up to see. Not long after the falls the creek splits into channels as it approaches the emory, stay to the right (the river left channel had a few huge downed trees). The contrast from the tiny crab orchard to the big volume emory is pleasant, even at lowish flow there were wave trains and moving pools all the way to the take out. Overall this river is intermediate fun, with over 30 class 2-3 rapids and most can be boat scouted from above.
Wood was a factor throughout the entirety of the run. The wood was more worrisome than any rapid and is what necessitates intermediate skills. We encountered no less than 10 logs across the whole river, but we only had to get out of our boats a couple times. This being the first time it has run this season it will clean up with more rain.