Rock Creek (Sale Crk. trib.)

Ran this on Sep. 18, 2012. We put in with 4' at the valley gauge. It was 3.25' when we took off three hours later.

This is highest I have ever run Rock Creek and it was solidly class IV-IV+ throughout with several class V. I had previously been on it at 4' but that was some 10 years ago and today's 4' is higher.

New put-in information: What used to be the pine plantation put-in on Hall Creek is now a Chicken Facility. We simply parked our vehicle at the end of Clifton Bend Rd. and walked down a trail which eventually hits up with the old trail leading to Hall Creek. We have done this twice now and there have been no problems.

Hall Creek had 1 portage for trees about 1/4 mile above the confluence. There might be a few other portages and low-medium levels.

The first mile was amazing at high water. It contained huge surfing waves, diagonals, and 5 ft wave trains.

The first major rapid, a river wide sloping ledge, about 1.5 miles in, was run on the far right. One must definitely watch out for this one at high water.

The major set of rapids, about 1/4 mile below the Cumberland Trail bridge, should be considered class V at this level. The first was run far left with a relatively easy entrance but included an intimidating runnout. The drop after this one was huge at 4' and every bit of class V. We ran river right through the entire drop but I do not believe that is the best line at lower levels. Watch out for the hole at the bottom. A long sequence of Class IV+/V continued below where one boat was lost on our trip. We sneaked the last major drop on the right.

No wood on Rock proper.