Southern Fried Overflow

It was Thursday night. Matt and I were sitting at my house watching Golden Eye and we were about to head to the bar downtown. Before we left, I checked the rainfall data and noticed a huge spike in water levels. We didn’t go downtown. We started planning and organizing. At 2:30am, we left Columbia with the greatest of intentions and pointed west towards Brevard NC.

We arrived at Headwaters Outfitters at 6:00am and slept for about two hours in the car. We woke up at 8:30 and drove up the valley to the West Fork of the French Broad.

The West Fork was a lot of fun. There's 3 sizeable slides and a couple other easier rapids. It was our first time and we didn't have a guide, so it was pretty fun to do the ol read and run. We took some video, and I might upload it on here later if Matt ever gets around to editing it.

We arrived at the takeout around 11am and rallied down to Georgia to run Overflow Creek. This is one of the most classic creeks in the SouthEast. I like to compare it to the Green River Narrows, on crack. The foliage was amazing and had us all completely jaded from time to time.

Luckily we had a decent guide who had run it a couple times, but his descriptions of the lines were sparse at best. We made it down in one piece, and I'm so glad we were finally able to get on this Southern Fried Classic.

Dropping into Singley's Falls

Matt, running Hemlock Falls (I think) - this was a sketchy drop with several sideways and backwards descents. Luckily we got through it safely.

Matt and I at the Put-In

Some sweet little mini gorge that I dropped into blind. Such great scenery.

Overflow was run for the first time by a guy named Alan Singley, and he did it by himself. I think that man deserves a beer for that undertaking. Oh yeah, he did it about 30 years ago, before the invention of the modern creek boat. Thank you Mr. Singley.

It's been raining quite a bit here in the SouthEast. With the Green River Narrows Race quickly approaching, it's difficult to stay focused on dialing those lines in. I'm finally feeling more confident about my line over Gorilla and I'm getting really excited to go out and race this coming Saturday. Meet me at the Monkey!

(all photos by Rob Siegel)

the best place to enjoy the fall foliage is from the lip of a big waterfall

After the skunking of a lifetime on the Green, Jonathon and I drove over to DuPont State Park in Brevard to run Triple Falls. There were quite a few leave-gawkers watching us, but I think we put on a good show. The leaves looked really good and jah was praised.

where's waldo?

jonathon, givin'er

Happy Fall.

Rain? What? - Cullasaja/NFFB/Horsepasture Redemption

After one of the largest rain events I've ever witnessed in the southeast, Matt and I hit the road to run some fun drops in Western North Carolina. We got to run the Upper Cullasaja and the North Fork of the French Broad last Friday, and then we had a spectacular day on the Horsepasture on Sunday.

The Upper Cullasaja was cool, but I don't think I'll ever run it again. The first drop (Triple Drop) was awesome, but could very easily work as a park-n-huck. The rest of the run is kinda junky, and punctuated by one giant portage about 1/4 mile through, and then the run ends with some flat water.

The NFFB was fun. I haven't run it since last spring, so it was nice to get back out there. I ran the left line at Boxcar Falls (Blind Date) and it went a lot better than I was expecting. I think they call it Blind Date because you just sorta melt into it and you don't really know what to expect.

Finally on Sunday we went back to the Horsepasture River for a redemption run. Last spring, Matt, Jonathon, and I went there and didn't have the smoothest of days. This time the three of us went back and it was much better. Matt did however end up pinning in a sieve in the first rapid and destroying his boat, but Jonathon and I had a smooth day after Matt hiked out.

There's something about the Horsepasture: Every time I go there, it's incredibly painful between all the hiking, portaging, and scouting, and I always beat the hell out of my body, but whenever I leave all I want to do is go back. The next time I go back in there, I'll take more photo/video, but until then check out this video that Matt made from last weekend:

Horsepasture/Culli/NFFB from Matt Porter on Vimeo.