Tuckasegee, East Fork

The online Toxaway/Rosman gauge was reading 4.42ft. Burrell's Ford was 981cfs. Had a pretty solid rain in the days leading up so the region was primed. All the falls went great. Warden Falls more bark than bite, really fast. After we got to Plinko we portaged on a goat trail river left. If you can find the path its pretty clean. Alot of fun to be had on this one & hope to do it again someday.

Ran on 3/27/21 No idea the level because the gauge at rock bridge is out but I'd say it was the low side of good. All the slides are tons of fun! The cascade section has manageable drops but I wouldn't want to mess them up, sieve central in there. we portaged I think 4 times. All rapids and wood were noticeable. All the slides and the first cascade section where Lichen Falls come in from the left had no wood on this day. We portage right around the big log jam I believe is known as 'Plinko'. Scouting and portaging on this section is a workout. Eat your Wheaties!

Jeff Creamer and I paddled the Upper Tuck in packrafts and it was a blast. We hiked up from the takeout 4-5 miles to the confluence. Everything went very smooth in packrafts! We walked the tight gorge rapid below the slides. This is a delightful, beautiful, and unique run. On this day the Burrells Ford gage on the Chattooga was 275 and falling, and we paddled the North Fork French Broad later in the day at 3 inches on the gage.

Someone needs to fix the links for the gauge descriptions. sends to a vaping site....

We ran the Tuck 07/13/2013 the week after it had hit flood stage. The run was not as technical as in lower levels but it was running @ 4300 according to the put-in manager and we had one hell of a good time. It began and ended with some fun holes with waves running over the boat and over my head. Wow.

I did this run with Andrew Bell and this mad man named Scott and his wife 2 years ago and it was probably the most fun Ive ever had. The rooster tale at the bottom of Warden's is so much fun to hit and will send you sailing over the hydraulic!

Super fun run and the write-up above is well done. We hit it on 11/16 the day following 3' of rain in the area and the Rock Bridge stream gauge was around 2.1 or so (best guess) when we were there --- and felt that that could be called 'low'. After paddling/walking the lower parts of Greenland Creek in, from the confluence with Panthertown Creek it took us 3 hours to make the run on the Upper East Fork of the Tuckaseegee proper. No one had seen it before, so there was a bit more scouting than would have been otherwise. Everyone reluctantly passed on the big slide but wished it had a bit more water in it. FYI, there are a few more big drops down from Rock Bridge before the Tanasee Reservoir that I've hiked but it was before I thought about kayaking much. That land is private. Wonder if anyone has run 'em. The footbridges crossing Greenland Creek and Panthertown Creek aren't old anymore, but are brand new wooden affairs, and still have that 'new bridge smell' (not kidding).

See more pictures of this run at a website I deleted, will get pics back up some day.

See more pictures of this run at [http://www.alexjharvey.com/cascades.htm#Upper Tuckasegee]( http://www.alexjharvey.com/cascades.htm#Upper Tuckasegee).

For more info on this film and additional footage of the river go here.

If you look carefully you can pick out a paddle blade and shoulder.
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You can see the first log in the unrunnable sieve in the background. I am looking at the map here, as we only had an hour of light left and had never done the run. Good thing it tapers off quickly after this drop, with no scouting left.
These drops aren't real hard but you gotta strive for the small eddy on the right afterwards or you will die.
This rapid is right above the first part of Plinko. There is a powerful pocket hole against the left wall when the water is high. Eddy out afterwards on the right.
The creek comes cascading in on the right in this picture, just out of view.