Laurel Creek (New River trib. below Hawks Nest)

Chris Gorman 2003-09-22 22:43:30

You can see this whole reach when you are driving to the New river dries. It looks un-runnable, There are numerous 20 footers landing on rock. I talked to a local boater about it and he said that a huge flood a couple of years back washed alot of rocks into the New (which made the put-in waves) but ruined the landing zones for the waterfalls. Maybe in another million years the water will pound it's way through the rocks below the waterfalls, but until then looks like a lot of portages (but it is roadside).

Date: Sep 23 2003, 14:14 GMT

From: BoyGenius

Laurel Creek on Friday rocked the party big-time. TONS of runnable ultra-technical boulder water. We only carried 2 or 3 big drops (Captain Crunch was one of them) which all seemed to involve falling 20-30 onto rocks or a must-make flat landing. It was definately the steepest creek that I've run where I didn't have to walk around ANY log-strainers. Just tons of fun. It was also my first experience running the new Prijon Creeker 225 down any longer, technical rapids. That boat is so much fun!

Stephen Wright

This run was made popular in the old Falling Down video. In july of 2001 an epic flood reshaped the creek and the road beside the creek. The creekbed has been in a state of flux since that event.