Gragg Prong
Roseboro to Lost Cove Creek
| Difficulty | IV-V |
| Length | 4.6 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 250 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | January 14, 2024 |
River Description
Feeling the need for speed? The Gragg Prong of Lost Cove Creek offers paddlers the chance to put the top down and feel the wind in their hair. The creek boasts a number of large, clean granite slides, one of which rivals Oceana in size.
The Gragg Prong starts as class III through a tight rhododendron tunnel and follows FS 981 for a short while. When the tunnel opens up, the gradient increases dramatically. First-timers should scout anything they can't see the bottom of. In most cases, scouting is pretty easy. While all the drops are relatively clean, some features can interrupt the progress of a moving boat in a few of the drops.
The biggest drop, Dragstrip, comes at the end of the steep section. It comes after a long, multi-tiered, multi-channeled slide with an overhanging rock at the top on river left. Some folks scout this drop and the Dragstrip in one trip. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail on river left makes covering the distance down to the Dragstrip easy. The horizon line of the Dragstrip is not entirely obvious from river level because the entrance is occluded by foliage and some large boulders. Fortunately, there are last-chance eddies on both sides of the creek. Both left and right lines are possible. The right line at high water involves a pretty dynamic direction change. The left line at low water is a bit thin. There is one more rapid of importance after the Dragstrip. Be on the lookout for wood in the rest of the Gragg Prong and Lost Cove Creek down to the takeout. Beware of wood on Lost Cove! The beavers are dropping a LOT of trees into the stream.
As if one might need other reasons to paddle this section, the gorge is decorated with spectacular, successive Catawba rhododendron, mountain laurel, and rhododendron blooms in May and early June. The water quality is superlative.
Shuttle directions: The takeout is the confluence of Lost Cove and Wilson Creeks in the settlement of Edgemont. Be aware that the land on the side of Lost Cov
...River Features
Put In
Gragg Prong Falls (Dragstrip)
The biggest drop, Dragstrip, comes at the end of the steep section. It comes after a long, multi-tiered, multi-channeled slide with an overhanging rock at the top on river left. Some folks scout this drop and the Dragstrip in one trip. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail on river left makes covering the distance down to the Dragstrip easy. The horizon line of the Dragstrip is not entirely obvious from river level because the entrance is occluded by foliage and some large boulders. Fortunately, there are last-chance eddies on both sides of the creek. Both left and right lines are possible. The right line at high water involves a pretty dynamic direction change. The left line at low water is a bit thin.
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportPost Helene scout trip...not as much damage as one would expect here.
Managed to catch Gragg at a high flow on January 2nd, 2024. It was pretty full on. There were some nasty holes and then Dragstrip was insane. I did decide to fire it up :). Soooooo Goooood!!! The runout below Dragstrip was also sick.
Got my PFD on Gragg Prong at a low flow on Nov. 12, 2022. Such a sick run if you can catch it.
Medium flow
Dwight Nalbone finishing Drag Strip on the Gragg Prong
Brad Running 'Pong' of Ping Pong
Reid running the 'Ping' in Ping Pong Rapid
Dwight Nalbone coming down Drag Strip
Nathan Galbreath - Ran Gragg Prong ran yesterday (12/1/2010). It is an elusive run, but oh so worth it. It rained pretty hard from 7 AM until midnight the day before. GP level would have been perfect around 7 AM. I was not able to get to the putin until about 10:30 AM. By then, the boofing had dropped from primo to lower runnable. However, the water quality had gone from brown/flood stage to crystal clear! Wilsons Creek was at exactly 1 foot on the bridge gauge when I passed it at 10 AM. Gragg Prong was about 2 inches above the long flat concrete shelf bridge support on the river right side of the put in bridge. Leland's books says that if you can scrape down at the top, you are good to go. In my opinion, that characterization is a little too generous. Based on my experience yesterday, I think the water level needs to be at least 2 inches above the long flat concrete shelf--otherwise the run is so scrapey that it detracts from the fun. We rode the last good bubble down. There were more groups arriving when we took off around 12:30, but they were skunked. The water had already dropped below the concrete shelf at the put in.
Our whole group ran drag strip on the left and everyone had good lines. No close calls or mishaps, just a good clean run. Keep your eyes peeled for wood. There were at least 4 mandatory portgages formed by riverwide logs. Nothing sketchy. The portages were all in relatively flat sections and easily visible from upstream (2 of them were in the run out at the bottom). There were also several spots where you could just barely sneak under or around fallen wood. Stay alert.
Because this run is so far from everywhere, you have to hustle to catch it. If you feel comfortable on the north fork french broad, you will have no problem on this run at lower to medium flows. It is mostly solid class IV.
Got a lap on the GP yesterday. Wilson vis was at 1 foot. It ws a low level but everything was runnable and fun. If your willing to take a low water run it runs a lot more often then you think.