Pine Creek (South Fork Cumberland R. trib.)

This run is too short and sieved out to be a classic, and the water quality is as bad as it gets. (straight piping upstream

But, it has some great drops on it and if you need a fix and nothing else is going, this will do the trick. This is a good run when the North Cumberland plateau is the only place that got significant rain.

The run is a little under a mile, and at levels of around 5 feet on the USGS gauge, it is class 4-5. Above 5 feet it is solid 5, but nothing really seems class 5+. At lower flows, there are some sieves that surface, but the run is easier with a more class 4-4+ feel to it, with maybe one 5.

A good putin is where a little tribuatary comes in on river right, flowing under the road through a culvert. You miss one good class 3 above here, but there is a gigantic logjam currently blocking the top, so the culvert region prooves to be a prudent spot to launch. This stream has lots of wood, sieves, undercuts, so be very careful and pay attention. All the rapids are dangerous, but most are not very hard.

The first third of a mile is mostly class 3-4. There are around 4 rapids that are bouldery non-steep affairs with some pins and nasty spots. All boat scoutable.

The next third of a mile is the steep stretch, with 6 main drops dropping around 130 feet total, for a 400 ft/mile gradient. That's serious shit on the plateau, so scout everything and don't miss eddies. You will portage at least once.

The first drop of the steeps is what many call Friendly Falls. This is the easiest and most relaxing drop. It is a low angle shallow bedrock slide tilting slightly right and dropping off of an 8 foot ledge. The ledge is diagonal upstream to the right, with a v notch at the far right. The more water you have the further left you can go and away from the notch, though at lower water its fine to go in the notch since that's where the water is and you are not likely to get beat down in a hole. The second drop is about 5 feet and

...