Rocky (Cape Fear trib.)

Just wanted to update that the flow can only be accurately seen by looking at the pier on 15/501. We scraped but still had a great time at what showed as 5cfs on the hwy 64 gage. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean 5cfs is runnable, but that you need to consider about 6-12 hours from the 64 gage to this section. In researching what happened I see that Tick creek read high (620 cfs) the night before and rocky river at 64 peaked at around 150 cfs two days before. No way to calculate bear creek but this also contributed. This all combined gave us right around -12' or slightly lower on the paddlers gage on 15/501. At this level scraping was about equal to what middle haw would be around its minimum but with significantly more excitement in terms of gradient drops and the bigger rapids including the class III drop runnable. I mention this so that others will understand that this is running much more than what people think it is and I think this is seriously under run considering what a great section of river this is. Similarly if you manage to hit this run when it's at it's stated cfs minimum, also consider the time from 64 to this section. I've done this with 314cfs on the 64 gage after a night before reading over 1000 and the next morning in this section was definitely more than 314 and was a wild ride with one sticky spot towards the end and large waves of boogie water right after 15/501 similar to ocean boulevard on the haw but bigger waves. My personal reference will be to check the pier if the day before got at least the minimum and/or tick creek is reading high. The description of seeing water when driving over the bridge at 15/501 and seeing water is accurate.

I think it is worth mentioning that the above mentioned roundhouse cut rapid is the most difficult and should be scouted the first time. It's about a quarter mile after the creek that enters from river left after the river bends right. You should probably get out river left well ahead of the horizon line to scout. River left has a decent drop that develops a hole at higher flows. To the right of that is a nice chute at lower levels and to the right of that is a drop that is easiest to find from above but runs into the chute perpendicular so is a good flip risk. I've seen flips and swims here, but it's manageable if you anticipate the counter flow. After this spot are some good play waves and the run ends with a really nice wave train that doesn't quite reach class III, but has some big waves to boogie on through.