Cotaco Creek

This is a fun tight run that never gets over class IV at reasonable levels. Probably first run by Ricky Pollard and Terry Yancey. The gage is on river right at the put-in bridge. Minimum is about 4' below 0 (the step), though we have banged down it at -6'. I walked out at 1.5', and 6' is about as high as most will want, since the majority of the rocks are covered at this level. 0' - 3' is probably about right. What is more serious at higher water are the trees. There are a few to portage on the steep section, then you have to negotiate a forest of smaller trees towards the 3rd mile. This gets very dicey if you happen to catch the run when there are leaves on the trees, since your downstream view is often blocked. We cut out most of the trees in the steeper section late in 2000. However, after the mega 10'+ rain of August 2001, ther are a lot of whole trees that are now leaning over from the bank. On the bright side, the flood did wash out a jam in the tree section towards the end.

The run starts out as amusing II-III. Then it gets more serious just upstream of where Hog comes in from river right, but nothing is over IV and there are no major undercut issues. You know the action is beginning when you get to Debate, a 6' slide type rapid that can be run on either side. The debates occur at higher water because this is the last good place to walk out (go to river left and walk a bit upstream). This is followed by Hogs Tooth, a 5' drop which is much better in the center slot. Deep V is the biggest drop, just downstream of a right turn, and may be a scout. It is narrow and at good water is a happening thing. This rapid may push you right at the bottom into an undercut that is not a big problem, but has potential. We think that a new rock has been moved by the flood to the top right side of Deep V. At low water the rock makes things decidedly more difficult, and it may well do the same at decent to good levels. There is a tight drop with a log in Coondog Corner w

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