Hiwassee

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.