Piney River

4/1/17 rafted the Piney at about 3.5 on the far left side of the gauge, flow was quite brown. Ct, G, and Josh in maxi me, Eli OC1, it went so smooth. There is still wood below the river right slide about 1/3 of the way in, its the rapid that usually has wood, you can run it down the left to avoid but its technical. it was less than 3 hours to do the whole run. We bumped a bit but the level was great for a raft.

I'm one of the 'upper Midwest paddlers' who ran the Piney in the 70's, with Fred Young, Mark Hall, and Jackson Wright. This was one of our favorite rivers when we came to Tennessee on our college holidays. I especially loved the drive to the put-in, being a flatlander. We could see the valley far below, and knew we were going to descend there from the top of the plateau! The Piney is a beautiful Class IV river, a classic and top 10 in the country, in my now more well-traveled opinion.

Great run! 3.8'' that am and 3.2'' when we got off. I would call it high or medium high as it was pushy, continuous and plenty deep with wave-trains to the end. Moccasin Creek needs a gage, but it was 8'' over the cement 'bridge'. We spend 2.5 hrs on the run and 2 hrs just on shuttle as the road is slow, though passable in any sedan.

No wood on Moccasin, one log across the right hand channel (where most water goes) just below the 'slide' 2 drops before 'hungry jack.' Marked the spot with orange tape, ran down far left into next fun rapid. Lots of dangling wood from bank in run-out of Piney but all easily missable at this level.

This is a great, incredibly scenic and under appreciated run that I would consider a step up from Tellico / Daddy's / Spring / White's Creek or Clear Creek due to the length, isolation and continuity but a great warm-up to Caney Fork, North Chick, Island etc.

The individual rapids are fun but the number of them and length that it carries that same class 3 difficulty is impressive.

The action is solid 3+ from that first 4' ledge down to the ledge, the slide, the tougher rapid above Jack with the logs on right and Hungry Jack (4+?). Some big water fun stuff below Hungry Jack then it drops down progressively to 2-3 then 2 with occasional 3 to keep you on your toes. Overall a class 4 run at this level due to the remote nature and long day. Bring your breakdown, food and headlight! A pinned boat could mean hiking further than you would enjoy. Trail starts at Duskin Creek.

The scenery is magnificent - 100' Hemlocks tower over the river and rock walls up to 60' high flank the sides off and on with waterfalls cascading down them. No trash, but an old rock road can be seen crossing occasionally making me wonder who lived up here. So glad I took the day off Bear to check out this class 4 gem I will definitely visit again. Clay

It isn't just a couple of trees, but possibly hundreds dropped into and across the river.

This was our first sighting of wood. As you can see on the right of the photo, the 4/27/11 tornado snapped LARGE pines and dropped them in/across the river bed.

Some early history – The Piney River was first paddled in 1972 (late 71?) by Martin Begun, other members of the East Tennessee White Water Club, and guest boaters, mostly from the upper Midwest, who traditionally came down to paddle with ETWWC on winter/spring holidays. Friends from that initial trip related details of the first descent to me on my first Piney run in spring 1973. Martin B scouted the whole run by foot before paddling it. The first descent was an “epic” with high water, a big group of 17 (starting out), and lots of carnage. They were in composite K1s or C1s, mostly homemade since both groups had active boatbuilding programs. Kenny Cooper broke his boat in one of the drops and had to walk out. “Hungry Jack” was (I think?) named for Jack Wright after a trashing. Don Jared painted the first gauge on the bridge at the take-out. The Piney quickly became a favorite run but ETWWC didn’t publicize it. For several years after, the only groups on the Piney were people from the first runs and a few others. When I paddled it in spring 1975, we were again the only group on the river even though none of the other creeks further south on Walden Ridge had been discovered. Over the next 10 years, plastic boats and the warm water of the Ocoee contributed to a sharp rise in both the skill and number of southeastern paddlers. Two guidebooks on Tennessee whitewater, one by Mayfield and another by Sehlinger, helped to popularize the Piney during the early 80s. When I paddled the Piney in 1987 with Lee Belknap and others, it was fairly well-known. The initial rating of class IV-V was as much a statement about boat design and boating skills at the time as it was about the difficulty of the run. The Piney shuttle map is on the front cover of the Tennessee Gazetteer (1989 DeLorme version) except that most is obscured by a logo. The Piney was discovered at about the same time as the Caney Fork/Bee Cr combo and these three were the first Plateau creek runs other than Obed tributaries. Both the Piney and Caney Fork are true classics that should be enjoyed by everyone with the skill to paddle them.

John Tansil

4-11-05

ran the Piney 4-9-05 with a gauge reading of 3ft--it was equal to about 1.8 or so on the old gauge

I'd look for a new minimum of about 3.25

Paul B

Got to run this for the first time today (4/9/05). Lots of fun and will definitely be back