Roaring Paunch
Barthell to Big South Fork (3 miles)
| Difficulty | IV-V+ |
| Length | 6.8 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 300 fpm |
| Gauge | South Fk Cumberland River at Leatherwood Ford, Tn |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 756 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | June 19, 2007 |
Roaring Paunch is Kentucky steep creeking hair. Go here only if you are a good boater with the skills to manage serious whitewater. The gradient is steep, there are undercuts, and sometimes trees. This isn't the Green Narrows or Grassy Creek but it is significant whitewater. If you read to trip report below, realize that this group was on it a low water and might not be up to the difficult rapids.
We drove down to Blue Heron on the Big South Fork of the Cumberland, dropped a bike, and decided to put-in at Barthell. At the old mining camp in Barthell, we drove through an iron gate and across the creek to find muddy water flowing at a medium level and some parent type locals. A brief encounter revealed: (1) we were on private property; (2) the gate would be locked soon; and (3) the creek was very tight in places and had many huge boulders blocking the stream. We of course decided to find another suitable parking place outside the gate and put on the creek.
The first 0.20 mile was rather flat and had a little moving current. We then came to a class II/III with a couple medium sized spinning waves and things were beginning to look promising. A riffle or two, some short pools, bigger boulders, and a couple of class III rapids continued for another 0.30 mile or so. Then the boulders got really big and we came to a horizon line.
We got out and scouted a class IV/V drop from the bank and discovered: (1) there was a good line; (2) the creek was suddenly really steep; and (3) wood. We decided to walk down the convenient railroad tracks and check out the next few drops. There were a couple of decent drops, several sieves, and a beautiful 10-15ft 'Box' type drop.
Because of the wood and the character of the bank, we decided to bushwack off the tracks to below this section and continue downstream.
We pushed off, ran a couple of class III/IV drops and found ourselves above a horizon line with gigantic boulde
...Apr 18, 2022
Does anyone still paddle this?
Apr 26, 2016
Be very careful if you paddle the upper section from mine 18 to barthell, start with 1,2 and maybe a 3 but when you get about halfway thru they are several fun drops but one drop is about 4 foot and goes into a 3 foot impassable cave, we wedged a kayak here and almost lost it, had to camp overnight,I would recommend only for very experience paddlers that are sound in technical situations, make sure you have a throw bag.
Nov 16, 2009
Ed Gertler tried this in the early 70's - had a bad day!!
