Happy Creek

This is a trip that you do for the exciting whitewater, not for the scenery. Much of it can be scouted from SR 604 and US 522. Harmony Orchard Road is the place to put in. Above there, the creek is extremely narrow. Below, the landowners object to your putting in at their private bridges (as one of them told us), and the Department of Homeland Security will not be happy if you start on their property (we asked them). But no one objected to our paddling through their territory.

The trip starts out in the woods, and although the rapids are technically no more than class II+, their continuousness, the paucity of eddies and the narrowness of the stream, which makes partial strainers inevitable, result in this stretch being class III in challenge. The creek then flows through open fields, under a private bridge (with adequate headroom) and then through a culvert (that requires a portage). This part is easily scouted from the road, but eddy out well above the culvert, as the calm looking water is actually rather fast flowing. Soon you return to the woods, and then at 0.8 miles, pass the DHS/Customs Service'’s Canine Enforcement Training Center -- those sniffing dogs at airports. A half mile later, the gradient rises to 150 ft/mile, and there are several class III+ rapids in the half-mile approaching Sloan Creek and US 522. There is also one spot, visible from the road (you can pull off to scout it), which is class IV, where most of the water drops steeply towards a boulder on the right, as the stream cuts sharply left. There are eddies above on river left, and you can portage or sneak on the far left. We were lucky enough to encounter only one complete strainer in this first 1.8 miles.

An alternative put in is 200 yards below the confluence with Sloan Creek (which adds almost 50% to the catchment area, but sometimes less to the flow because of a dam just upstream), below the large grassy area alongside US 522. The gradient is somewhat lower here, but the st

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