Blackwater

We ran this today and it was a bit bony. In the morning the gauge was reading just below the minimum level of 230 cfs. At the end of the run it was running at 160 cfs. We put in at the end of Beall road at cortland. There is a several hundred foot portage to the river from the parking area. It isn't too bad since it is mostly flat and downhill. It is a little rocky and shallow at the minimum level at the start. I would suggest a minimum level of 300 or so. Most of the float had adequate water.

The river is flat and slow moving most of the float. It took us about 6.5 hours to float to the Davis water supply dam from Cortland. The scenery is great and the river is very remote. There are only two or three river wide logs blocking the river. The are several logs partially blocking the river which you can float around.

After the fishing pier be aware of the rapids, especially after the power line. There is a 3' convex slide at this lower level with no real good place to run it. After this there is big drop where the river drops about 6' in a short distance. See someone's photo already posted. We portaged this class three rapid. There are two large rocks in the middle of the rapid which make it difficult to run in a canoe in low water levels.

There are three smaller rapids on the stretch near the CVI trails and this is the largest of the three. This is at about 300 cfs.

This is a fun float when it's running, but the full trip takes quite awhile to complete due to the length and twisting nature of the flats. If you want to cut out the flatwater and just float the faster stuff, then simply put on at the end of Camp 70 Road and float into town. You could even run shuttle with a bicycle this way. The rapids going into town are a lot of fun!

This is the put in for the Blackwater from the Wildlife Refuge. You can't paddle this at this level. This is about 300 yards down a gravel road from the parking lot.