Piney River

A group from Knoxville was paying attention to the streambeam.net gauge as well as the rainpursuit.org site and caught the Piney at a fabulous, stout medium level in late Summer. Bridge gauge was holding steady at 3.5ft for about an hour when we left the takeout and it had dropped to 2.5ft, five hours later, when we finished. At this level in the steeper section quite a few of the rapids had current with a velocity similar to the Ocoee Olympic section and waves and holes to match. Very few slow pools in the steep section immediately below the confluence with Mocassin Creek but in most cases there was at least some slower water for a recovery below the big drops. The remainder were a lot of class 3's and 3plus rapids that came at a steady pace all the way to the takeout.

Our group scouted blind drops for strainers and portaged a few trees. A brief opinion-- I have read other comments that you can run this in 3 hours but I suspect that a 3-hour run would require optimal conditions: very familiar with the run and its strainers, at least 3.5ft of water and fewer strainers requiring a portage. If those are not your conditions then consider 4 to 5 hours for the run to be more likely.