Rottenwood Creek

Friday, Oct 27, three of us newbies gave Rottenwood a go. We believe the level was around 4 feet. We didn't make it as far as the gage. Confederate Life was a good Class II run on the river right line but a scary as hell looking line on river left that we figured might be a Class IV.

Due to some short sightedness on equipment we did not finish the run. One of our friends was in a recreational kayak and it soon became obvious it wasn't going to work in the fast current and constant action of a creek. I am also to blame as I did not have contacts in that evening and was wearing glasses that had quickly fogged up, so seeing what was coming next was proving difficult. We hiked out and decided to come back better prepared next time.

Also of important note, there is a tree across the river along with a good size pipe just 40 yards upstream of Insterstate North Parkway & 285. You can see both from the bridge where there is currently construction going on and the road formerly crossed the creek on this bridge. Friday night they were right at the level of the water and by Saturday morning the water level had dropped and they were 3-4 feet above the creek. I saw some eddies with fast upstream flows and creating whirlpools along the eddy lines.

We're regulars on Nantahala, love Cartekay, and have hit a few others like Chattooga 3.5 at lower levels but all of these are pool drop style rivers. I wanted to share this little story for others in our skill range thinking about stepping up a skill level the next time the water rises. Going there with inappropriate gear, without a guide and not bridge scouting first was foolish.

The next morning I parked at the Hooch and walked upstream. I was privy to some of the things we would have had to get through including this river wide strainer. The rocks and pour overs (that's the normal low level of the stream) and obstacles we missed down stream looked like fun but I had no regrets about our decision to walk out and come back another day.

UPDATE: Nov 16. The level was a little higher, I took some pictures and built up a webpage. Here is the link and I hope you'll learn from our lessons. :)