Staton's Creek

It is critical that if you are not familiar with this creek that you are very aware of the consequences of this run. Do not take the drops on this creek lightly. At lower levels most of the drops are relatively innocuous, however several are known to cause problems. 'Log Flume' has an extremely tight move, like an s-turn with 90 degree angles that has flipped several very experienced boaters, broken many paddles and scraped the skin off more than a few knuckles. I have run Statons many times and had my first incident this weekend, Saturday, October 7th. The fifteen foot vertical falls now has a very large log running the length of the entire drop right smack in the middle. Make sure you run river right, but beware... going to far right and you may land on rocks. This hole is extremely sticky at the right levels, (not just really high levels). It worst at really high levels, but gets retentive again at particular levels as the creek drops. I ran the right side of the drop on Saturday, but did not get a good boof because I was concerned of going too far right and running into rock problems. I had a good 45 degree angle but was immediately sucked backward. Knowing the dangers of this drop and the retentiveness of the hole, I admitedly panicked and instead of looking where I wanted to go, was staring at the rocks to my right because I could not get a good paddle stroke in. I yelled for a rope and was quickly brought to safety. It is likely at that level, (somewhere between 200 and 250cfs) that I would have popped out fine, however easier said than done sometimes. Please be careful and if you are running this creek at unfamiliar water levels take a look for yourself before taking the plunge. Needless to say, despite all the great water, I took it easy and ran the Maury on Sunday... be safe,

Brett Mayer-Aschhoff