Little (New R. trib)
Riner (Route 8) to Copper Valley (Route 787)
| Difficulty | I-IV |
| Length | 13.2 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Gauge | Little River at Graysontown, Va |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 141 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | January 16, 2025 |
River Description
Eric O'Connell wrote:
A silent jewel. With good water condition, this is a wonderful whitewater trip. There are 3, possibly 4 class IV rapids. The first 5 miles is truly boring, the next 3/4 mile is what you came for, then the last 2 miles suck. If you can make it down from the Rte. 8 bridge with no boat scraping then you are in for a great day, but if the water level is low at the bridge, go elsewhere. This is a fun trip for intermediate to lower advanced paddlers for 3/4 mile and beginers for the rest.
If you need any scouting info on Shoulder Snapper (IV), Bear Falls (IV+), Bear Cub Falls (IV-), or the one that has no name and is just a frightening IV++ in high water, please e-mail me at oeric@swva.net.
See Also:
Classic Virginia Rivers, Ed Grove (1992 ed), p. 298.
Virginia Whitewater, Roger Corbett (2000 ed.), p. 464.
Exploring Virginia's Waterways, Ed Gertler (2022 ed.), p. 335.
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportA long rope can help guide your boat around the left side of the falls. One person in my party had a shorter rope. Their boat anchored at the end of the rope and filled with water. Another person in my party successfully ran the center of the falls in a Dagger Legend 15.
This is a beautiful stretch of whitewater. My OT Guide 119 was hard to maneuver since it was a 1/3 full of water after the falls!
Ran this on 10/27/07. Graysontown gauge was 1200 cfs in AM, thought there would be plenty of water. Dropped fast, and we were able to get by well enough, but I wouldn't want to boat it any lower. Next time I paddle this, I am going to ask a landowner for permissiom to launch, and shave off miles of flatwater. It might move quicker at high water, but at lower flows it's not much fun. Very pretty scenery. Saw deer swimming across, great blue herons, and red-tail hawks. If there was a public access about halfway through, this would be a really cool trip.
Looking upstream at Shoulder Snapper.
Taken from a scouting rock for this drop. The double-knuckled pourover rock left of center has a nice 2' foot boof at whatever this level was.
Bear Falls @ 700cfs on Graysontown gauge, which is many, many miles downstream.
Looking back up at river left ledges across from Shoulder Snapper. Didn't realize this was the Snapper until I looked over on the right. The river gets divided by a large island, and the right side upstream didn't look like we could get through there on this day.