Hiwassee

Ryan M. and myself set out to find this majestic waterway as we were told she was flowing at around 1000 cfs.  Being in the area, we took advantage of the seldom flowing waters.  We hiked down a steep incline at wolf creek, up some railroad tracks, and then down the tracks towards turtletown creek.  The hike was terrible, but the water made up for it.  Hollywood bowl and Wu did not disappoint even at a lower flow.  The narrows are definitely something a person should get to experience.  This is a special waterway that should have flow.

Flow appx. 1500.  Low-Medium flow. Friendly Level. My flow estimates are based on the discharge of 4300* cfs subtracting 2800* cfs coming out of the flume line with 2 generator running. There were no mandatory portages for wood that day, although there is always some in the river. The most obvious channels through every rapid were clear.

We had a group of 9 ppl. 3 small rafts (10.5ft or so),1 kayak, 1 open canoe. It was a great level for these boats.

The put in at Turtletown creek is favorable to me, because you can drive down very close to the river, and gives you a half mile to a mile of fun warm up rapids. Although, having a shuttle drive helps a lot, because it's a good haul. Note: Bring a chainsaw for the road in if you can, it would be a bummer to get close and have a tree blocking the road. We cut 2 out.

Hollywood Bowl is fairly easy to recognize as you can hear a louder rapid approaching. It is best to ease into this rapid because there are multiple lines that do not look appealing.

There is a great scout Rock center-right that allows for a good staging point above the rapid.  (See photos) Note: at higher flows this rock is increasingly harder to access, although it still can be done at moderate water levels.

The second rapid comes maybe a half mile downstream of the first, and it is a fun, splashy wave train. The big rocks toward the bottom do not have enough water going over the top to create pourovers at this level.

There is a long wave train closer to the right bank that is just above the confluence to Coker creek. I always liked calling that one 'magic carpet ride'

The narrows section begins shortly after the confluence with Coker creek as it enters on river right. It is a beautiful, intimate stretch with more fun rapids that I remember from my earlier runs a decade ago.

There is one standout rapid that splits a large bedrock island and the main flow goes right. There is a far left creeky line that one raft went through and reported a fun drop. The main channel zig zags through large bedrock shelves, and my Uncle used to call to that one 'Mardi Gras'

Once the narrows widens back up, it is mostly slow water all the way to the Powerhouse.

I'm told that there will be 550 cfs in the streambed 'until further notice' due to repairs, however I cannot find the website where this is announced. We ran part of this section yesterday at 550 and really enjoyed it. Class III is a realistic rating at low water, though this was not anywhere near as low as you could go. We launched below Hollywood Bowl by way of the steep trail from a 4-car pullout. We roped our boats down the first part because all the freshly fallen leaves were slippery. Hollywood looked IV-ish from below.

The existing writeup on this section says it is reminiscent of section III of the Chattooga but I disagree. It is more like a Cumberland Plateau run with ample lovely sandstone, rather than the hard striped schist typical of the Chattooga. The Narrows does have some potholing in the walls and the Chattooga is riddled with potholes.

We were amused to discover that in the slow water upstream from the Appalachia power plant input we could the surf compression waves and make headway going upstream.

We saw a lot of Ruth's Golden Aster (endangered) on the rocks at one of our stops. The forest is mixed deciduous and has great colors in the fall. We also saw a mimosa/Albizia (introduced) growing at the water line. The shrubs growing in the water are alders and they are not obstructing the main channels.

The main negative is the long gravel shuttle. We took out at the put-in for the class II run (less than a mile below the powerhouse and on river right) because we've heard that the gate at the powerhouse is sometimes closed, and that paddlers have sometimes gotten locked in behind the gate. If you plan to use the powerhouse as your takeout and the gate is locked, you just added nearly an hour of gravel driving to your day to take a vehicle back to the other takeout. If your car gets locked in at the powerhouse you are a long way from anywhere and your best option is probably to boat out to a telephone and get someone to pick you up.

There's an effort to get releases on this run and recommend that those releases be scheduled in July-August, when the region is typically dry. It would further be really nice to have clear and accurate information about when the powerhouse takeout gate will be open and when it closes. Overall a lovely run and the long shuttle will be shortened by good gate info.

One last thing. Castillo's Mexican in Etowah is good.

Katie Schmidt and I did an exploratory baseflow run and site visit as we were developing a proposal for flow restoration. We toured the access sites and paddled from above Hollywood Bowl down a few rapids in packrafts and hiked back out to our car at Wolf Creek.

An ideal winter descent at a medium flow of 1,650 when maintenance on the hydro plant led to a partial shut down (3,100 release) and resulting spill.

Big flows on the dries dished out big fun. Lots of surf, and still plenty of eddies. This was a trip that included French Broad River Academy students and staff, and AW staff, as part of a project exploring options for flow restoration.

The last drop of Hollywood Bowl

This is the line just left of Hollywood.

WARNING:

When putting in at the Turtletown creek confluence be aware the train track is active and runs regularly. Do not cross the train bridge to put in. There is not enough time to get off the bridge if the train comes around the blind curve.

I was at the Turtletown confluence with the Hiawassee Dries a few weeks back. A construction crew is working on the water diversion tube there. Due to their construction equipment and scafolding, they are locking the gate at 5pm in the evenings when they go home from work so don't get locked in. They said the gate would be wide open all the time once their construction is done.