Grassy Creek

Grassy Creek is a long time favorite of the Russell Fork crowd, a very fun, very doable steep creek -- continuous and technical ledges and slides with easy scouting.

First run by Jeff 'Jabber' Adams and James Stapleton in the early 90's, it's run fairly frequently now. At low to mid levels it is Class III-IV, but large water pushes it to a solid Class V. There are no major undercuts or seives in play on this run, but the bed narrows to 4-6 feet in a couple of rapids and there are very pinny spots below medium level. A couple of spots collect wood, so should always be scouted before running.

The putin is off a wide spot on Highway 80 just below the Gateway Motel (right side as you're heading toward the Breaks Park from Kentucky). The creek runs into Kentucky where it meets the Russell Fork. The takeout is at Ratliff's Hole, a half mile downstream. You should note that the takeout is the regular Russell Fork takeout. Grassy comes into the Fork well below any of Russell's big rapids, just shoals to the takout. The takeout is located at the river access on HWY 80, about 2 miles east of Elkhorn City.

Although the run is pretty continuous, there are 5 significant rapids, in order of appearance: Split Tail (Lickety Split), Double Drop, Confluence into Hatfield's Revenge, Big Bang, HyperSlide into Chokehole.

The first couple hundred yards is fairly gentle, boulder garden, slide, small ledge combos. After a 5 foot diagonal ledge drop (best run on creek left) you'll be nearing Split Tail. This is the one to carry, if you're going to carry one. A wreck in this one would lead to serious injury. Easily portaged and scouted from creek right. In this rapid, the creek bed pinches down to about 15 feet wide to begin down to about 6 feet at the end. The stream flow is split by a knife of rock in the creek bed. At low and medium flow, enter in a left side seam, sliding about 30 feet through a trough, then dropping 6-7 feet into the narrowest part of the bed,

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