Beaver Creek

Put in at Solway Bridge just upstream of the bridge and gauge there. Paddled under one downed tree somewhere before the Swafford Bridge and swam there in the cross-current because of the angle I had to take to get under the tree while ducking down in my canoe to go under it. Other than that, it was an uneventful and pleasant paddle with occasional class II rapids and a few series of riffles along the way. After a 5 1/2 mile run, I took out at the TVA take-out (followed the AW recommended run to a T) where I had parked my truck at the gate up at the top only to find after walking up the long hill that the gate wasn't even locked (even though it has like 3 padlocks on the chain and appears at first glance to be fully secured). I opened the gate and drove my truck all the way down to the water's edge to re-load for the trip back home. Pretty convenient if it stays that way all the time, but the flat water paddle at the end of this run was pretty brutal. My next run will be the upper section from Coward Mill Bridge to Solway Bridge, which is just short of 4 river miles and no flat water to have to deal with. Hopefully it has more sections of rapids than the lower section does.