| Difficulty | I-II |
| Length | 5 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 20 fpm |
| Gauge | Beaver Creek at Solway, Tn |
| Flow Rate as of 56 minutes | 53 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | August 2, 2006 |
This run has smelly brown water, but so does Crooked Fork. The difference is Crooked Fork has good rapids, and this one is very low gradient. The stream moves suprisingly well though, with continuous class 1 riffles and occasional features. The scenery is better than you would think, and its cool to float on moving water with riffles 15 minutes from downtown K-town. It has a relatively remote feel considering its in West Knoxville. I am sure the water quality is no good, but it can't be as bad as some of the runs those Metro ATL boaters hit like Sweetwater and the Metro Hooch. The watershed at the putin is 86 square miles, which is pretty sizable. You can run this after a half inch of rain in Knoxville anytime of the year I would think.
Here is a description:
Putin at Solway Park, right off Solway road. You can carry down to the creek at the bridge. There is a side-surf spot there and a usgs gauge on the river left wall. From here don't expect much, as this is a complete beginner run. The only exception is the occasional strainer that must be dealt with. There are frequent shoals, riffles, and eddies, with a nice surf wave at 1.6 on the Swafford gauge a few miles in. Before passing under Swafford bridge there is a class 2 chute and some nice s-bends. Below here there are maybe 2 more class 2 rapids. You hit the lake at about mile 4.25 and have a half to 3/4 mile lake paddle to the takeout, which is on river left at the first point where you see a gravel road come down to the lake. This is TVA land and can be used as an easy take out. Just carry up the old road about 300 yards and you are at the small parking area.
Access: Use Solway park to park at the putin, launching at Solway Road bridge. Takeout is reached by going towards Hardin Valley Road on Solway from the putin, and taking a right on Sam Lee road. This will eventually turn into some other road, but after about 3 miles, take a right on Couch Mill. This will go about a mile and then you w
...River left of the lake after 3/4 mile lake paddle. Could be less during low lake levels
Sep 15, 2020
Even though the below comments to Beaver Creek are 10 yr old, they still deserve a response, especially since the creek has recently been designated a water trail for Knox County. I'm the owner of the obnoxious dogs at Coward Mill Rd bridge and would like everyone to note that there is currently no public put-in there. At the bridge, I own the land on both sides of the creek and, due to vandalism, have posted no trespassing signs numerous times but they always disappear. I also own the land along the railroad track. If you want creek access on my land, at the bridge or along the railroad track, yes please ask! We are nice people but don't like trespassers since being robbed and since that land is used by some as a dump site, from refrigerators to dead animals. My dogs are supposed to bark to prevent theft! There's an attitude of entitlement and disrepesct in the previous comments that makes me want to put more no trespassing signs up! I wouldn't carry a canoe through your yard to a creek without asking your permission.
May 10, 2010
Ok, I finally got my first chance to run the upper section of this creek with two friends in flat water kayaks (and me in my solo whitewater canoe) just yesterday, Mother's Day, May 9, 2010 and it was an excellent overall day on the river! We put in just down stream of the one lane bridge and dam at Coward Mill Rd with the obnoxious barking dogs across the creek and took out just down stream of the Solway Rd bridge where the gauge is located and was still showing about 6.1 ft when we passed it. We did a lot of scraping at a guestimated pretty much minimal running level of 135 cfs. It was reading 141 cfs when I left the house after the 9AM reading on USGS Water Resources at SOLWAY, TN and it read 130 cfs when I got back home after a late lunch/early dinner at Hidalgo's Mexican Restaurant in Oak Ridge. I won't run it at any lower than this, for sure! Class II rapids were definitely more prevalent and more enjoyable on this upper run than they were on the lower run and strainers were not as frequent as I had expected. Although, there was one good sized tree limb lying across the majority of the creek flow right around the Hope Church area just upstream of the Pellissippi Pkway bridges where I had to portage in my open boat since I didn't want to risk going under it while one of my kayaker buddies got sucked into it sideways and swam with minimal to no injuries, thank goodness, and our third party kayaker went successfully under it. Then came the overall best class II rapid of the day just between Hope Church and Pellissippi Pkway which got the flat water kayaker without a spray skirt (the one who didn't swim) the wettest all day! We named it the 'Praise the Lord' rapid (because of it's locating near Hope Church). Next up for us is a full run of both upper and lower in a day trip after a solid rain and around 200 cfs of non-scraping rock flow!