Allen Creek

Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area to SR 337

Reach banner
DifficultyV
Length3.8 mi
Avg Gradient237 fpm
GaugeLookout Creek Near New England, Ga
Flow Rate as of 14 minutes
109 cfsbelow recommended
Reach Info Last UpdatedApril 14, 2024

River Description

Half mile hike in to the put-in. Check out the abandoned stills on river right.

The creek starts off with some easy slides and ledges but do not miss the first big drop 'Asleep at the Wheel'. Asleep at the Wheel starts off as a series of shallow short slides. Then the river quickly drops into a narrow slot & chute and screams off a 14 foot ledge onto exposed bedrock. A good portion of the water shoots left into a cave, but boaters with good control can miss this experience.

Rocktown Creek enters on river right before the action really starts. Apparently highly motivated boates can carry up the drop and run the falls. Portage Asleep at the Wheel on river right, but bring a rope. Make sure to get out before the river enters the slots.

The river follows up with a few easy rock gardens, before approaching the second big drop. To my knowledge no boaters have run the second big drop because it essentially falls 15+ feet straight onto a rock shelf. While it would be easy to launch off the top ledge the landing would be painful and almost certainly involve some injury. As far as I know this is the only drop on Allen Creek that has not been run by a canoe or kayak.

Allen creek continues to drop off the mountain with lots of blind boulder gardens and ledges before reaching No Shoulder a rapid partially featured in the video Steep Creeking. In the video the boaters portage the meat of the drop and run the last ledge. No Shoulder consists of a slot that drops about 6 feet onto what looks like a sharp rock. This is followed by some ledge like drops. The most successful line for No Shoulder has historically been to run up on the left side of the slot and drop flat into the crevice on the downstream side of the midstream rock. If you pull this off the next ledge is a piece of cake.

Once Past No Shoulder, Allen creek still has some good creeking rapids and a series of long shallow slides for the next half mile. Be careful running these rapids be

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River Features

Put In

Distance: 0 mi

Asleep at the Wheel

Class: V+Distance: 1 mi
Waterfall / Large Drop

A long waterfall and slot canyon with a rocky landing and an undercut cave on river left.

Suicide Ledge

Distance: 1.2 mi
Portage
Hazard
Waterfall / Large Drop

A big 16 foot ledge that falls onto exposed bedrock. Walk the rapid on the right.

No Shoulder

Class: VDistance: 2 mi
Hazard

Two big boulders create a large crevice in the ctream and force the river to drop about 6 feet onto a rock. Run by boofing off the left boudler.

Take Out

Distance: 4 mi
Take Out

EW
Eddie Wilson

Nov 26, 2007


The takeout shown on the map is Harrisburg road bridge not state road
337 as the title implies.