Tallulah

The upper Tallulah is an excellent run despite being largely overlooked over the years. The run is just over a mile of continuous class IV/V whitewater with plenty of cool boofs and slot moves, all within feet of a small gravel road that allows easy access without interfering with the scenery too much. The entire river is located along tallulah river road and you can choose however much or little of it you want to run, but the best section is the mile from the 3rd bridge over the river to the 1st (in the order you will cross them driving upstream).  The best part is this run holds water very well, requiring only a small rain to get going and holding water a day or two after everything else has dropped out from a bigger rain.

Directions:

From Clayton go west on US 76. Take a right (North) on Persimmon Road. Go a few miles then take a left (west) on Tallulah River Road. The best takeout option is the first bridge over the river. Drive up as far as you want to put in, scouting on your way up.

Despite all the hype and arm waving on this run it is not the killer creek that people keep making it out to be.  We used to clean the trees out and it is hard and dangerous like any other class V but it is not any worse.

Here is one account circa January of 1999. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

'Figured you'll hear about it soon enough, so I thought I'd put in in writing so everyone gets the same story...

Rusty, Clint, Kevin, and I were paddling the upper Talullah with Rodwell's friend Chad and Chad's friend Jason. We were scouting most rapids, as the water was fairly high and the lines were getting more difficult as we worked our way toward the takeout. We scouted a long continuous stretch of 4ish stuff that was starting to look 5ish in some places because of the narrow lines, pushy water, lodged logs, sieves, and undercut rocks (just about runs the gamut of undesirable elements).

W

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