Pigeon

A Report From the Pigeon:

a local rafting company manager was in a shredder yesterday with us three hardboaters and he pointed out new rebar lying lengthwise in the playhole after LOST GUIDE RAPID. It's normally called 'ROOSTER TAIL RAPID' -- the next rapid after LOST GUIDE. I didn't know its name but he said that's what everybody calls it. The rafting mgr said they normally allow their customers to jump and swim this normally safe rapid but now with the rebar they can no longer do that. He pointed out that if someone were to roll at this popular playhole it could do some serious damage to one's head. I skirted the meat to the right yesterday and was fine. My two friends from Knoxville ran the meat and were fine. It was about 3000 CFS so we didn't really see it but the mgr. assures us that at regular flow it's visible and quite a problem. So, he requested that we spread the word to all hardboaters: 'Catch an eddy way before ROOSTER TAIL if you swim LOST GUIDE and it's probably best to not play in that wonderful hole anymore.' You can still run the meat of the rapid and not get hurt --- well as long as you don't flip in the meat.

By the way, the bottom hole at the Rooster Tail rapid is still good to surf, the top hole is the one with the rebar in it.

He also said that the river widened a bit after the floods and therefore the Pigeon holes aren't as good as they used be.