3 Days in Tennessee

After heavy rains last week, Don and I headed west to look at river levels. We stopped in Hendersonville around midnight and checked out the Put-In slide for Big Hungary Creek, which looked good to go, but we continued rambling until we got to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Once in the park, we found the level of Big Creek to be just under 4 Feet, which seemed a little high for our first run down the upper section.

The next morning we drove about an hour through some God-forsaken roads to check out the Ramsey Prong, which was at an optimal level.

(that's me at the put-in boof - photo by Don Lowry)

After a successful expedition style run down the Ramsey Prong, we returned to Big Creek to find an ideal level and we hiked about a mile up the trail to run the lower part of the upper section to scout it out for a top to bottom run the next day.

While we were on Big Creek, I participated in one of the most epic rescues that I have ever seen or heard of. There was a guy stuck underneath a tree in the middle of a drop and he spent about 20 minutes underwater. We used Swiftwater Rescue Skills to pull the tree out of the river and free the victim. While he was under there, he had a pocket of air in front of him, so he was able to breathe most of the time, but he was also very hypothermic. We hiked him off the river and then hiked back up after dark to recover our boats.

The next day, we decided to skip Big Creek and we headed to the other side of the Smokies to paddle the Little River. Our good friend, Matt Porter joined us this day and there were good lines all around.

(Here's my line at The Sinks, the put-in rapid for the Little River - Photo by Matt Porter)

(Matt's sweet line through The Elbow, the take-out rapid)

(a little Sink's montage I put together - photos by Matt Porter)

After two laps on the Little, we called it a day and headed to the Tellico that night. The following day, Don and I ran 4 laps on the Tellico, with one huck of Bald River Falls (Tellico Trib.)

(lots of bad boofs that day, Baby Falls, Tellico River - Photo by Don Lowry)


(Don setting up for a nasty hole ride and swim at Baby Falls)

(myself at Bald River Falls - Photo by Don Lowry)

(Don at Diaper Whiper with Baby Falls in the background)