Put-in

The Reedy Creek put-in is in a the James River Park and is accessed from a parking lot at the intersection of Riverside Dr. & Hillcrest Rd.  Drop boats in the parking lot near the fence gate, but do not drive across railroad tracks.  From the parking lot, walk the road across the tracks and through the fence gate on the other side.  Continue across the gravel road that parallels the fence and follow a gravel path through the meadow and to the boat ramp.

From the put-in paddle out and ferry across the slower current to a narrower channel which opens to the main body of the James. The James is a very broad river and has many different lines that run parallel to each other. Typically during a run, you choose which rapids to run or carry back up and run different lines. The rapid descriptions are not necessarily in the order of which they are run.

The first feature is a low head dam (Hollywood Dam) that makes an L shape from the far left side of the river to Belle Isle. There are four breaks or lines through the dam (from river right to left): First Break, Variation, Grumman and Hollywood Dam Drop.

The rapid ratings listed herein are for levels between 5 and 7 ft on the Westham gauge. The difficulty of these rapids increase with additional flow.