The Purty Bird: An Exploratory PFD of the East Fork of the Pigeon
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 07/06/2013 |
Participants: Rick Steeves, Mark Kieran, Garrick & Alyssa Taylor, Kathryn McNeal, John McDonald
As the epic Week of Rivers 2013 approached its final weekend, we all spent the final Friday night listening to the accustomary rhythms of rain pounding on our tents and roaring down the creek (or bubbling out of the spring, I suppose, if you were camped in the field). And I would guess that many, like me, spent much of the waking hours of the night and early morning wondering if there would possibly be any rivers low enough to paddle on the final weekend. Huddled in my tent, I started thinking about contingency plans – what I’d do if I packed up camp and left Saturday, how content I’d be just to let my first six days on the river represent this legendary year. Squishing and slogging through the morning meeting, wet and weary paddlers seemed much more indecisive about where to go on this day. Even the excitement of rivers whose gauges indicated good levels was met with the fear of the flash, given how extensive this weather system was.
It seemed, at the time, that the Greenbrier section of the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon was a good choice for the day. As this is one of my favorite runs, I jumped at the chance to head there with a small group. But our excitement was tempered when Garrick, driving the lead vehicle, had to pull off at a gas station after seeing the level had risen 700 cfs in an hour. After much discussion, we decided to continue on, and started thinking about fallback plans in case the Greenbrier was too high. But less than twenty minutes on the road, I checked the gauge again and saw it spiking over 4,000, still rising 750 cfs per hour.
So we bailed on that plan, and tried to think of an alternate. Garrick called for an update on Spring Creek, which had been at 12” earlier in the morning, but was now rising to 2’. The next suggestion was the Davidson, a new river for most of us, so we headed up and over the mountains to take a look at it. When we got there, though, the water was high and the strainers below one of the rapids looked rather sketchy, so we decided we needed a plan C.
As we drove to the Davidson, we all noticed that the East Fork of the Pigeon had a good amount of water in it. Every now and then, when we could sneak a peek at the river from the road, we’d see some large wave trains. So after reading the scant information on the East Fork on the AW website, we decided to give that a try. It was described as a class II-III run, probably not as exciting as anything we had paddled all week, but we figured it beat getting skunked and returning to a soggy campground.
We drove down 276 from the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Waynesville, and stopped at the first bridge we came to on Hungry Creek Road. We took a look at the river there and decided we’d try this access point as a put in. After running shuttle down to Burnette Cove Road, we hopped in our boats and paddled off on this new stretch of river with relatively low expectations and no knowledge of what was to come.
But my, were we pleasantly surprised with this hidden gem of a river that we lucked upon. The action started immediately, with long, continuous, splashy wave trains, with the occasional easily avoided hole scattered about. Some of the holes and waves made for good playspots. It was as if the Nantahala, Pigeon, and Ocoee Rivers had a love child, with the East Fork inheriting the clear, cold water of the Nanty, the big splashy waves of the Pigeon, and the long, continuous nature of Ocoee boogie water. The water was swift and we made great time bombing down river, sharing looks of surprised contentment with our new river.
The action mellowed out a bit as we progressed downriver, but remained fairly fast and continuous, with some more excellent playspots. There was one mandatory portage at a bend in the river where two trees blocked the path and a pavilion on shore teetered precariously over the river’s edge, with one of its four corners hanging out over the edge of the bank when the bank eroded away at some point. We named this “Where’s My Gazebo?” rapid.
A little farther down river, there was a riverwide ledge with a few breaks in it, and trees clogging each of the channels just downstream of the ledge. On this day, we ran it to the right side (returning the next day, we ran down the center channel) without much trouble, though a couple of tubers that we saw were barely able to clear one of the strainers. Though the rest of the run was relatively clean on this day, our return trip the following day introduced us to another river wide strainer that should be portaged.
When we came to the takeout, we were all pretty happy with our find, but since there was still daylight left to burn and a few miles of the river unexplored, Mark, Rick, and I decided to put on farther upstream, at the Big East Fork trailhead, which serves as the takeout for the class V Big East Fork section (and is the launching point for a nice hike up to Cold Mountain via Shining Rock, especially when the Parkway is closed). Garrick, Alyssa, and Kathryn were driving home that evening so they helped us with shuttle so that we could just leave Rick’s car at the original put in, now downstream of us.
The start was a little intimidating, as you look upstream and see some pretty steep class IV rapids and have to paddle through a giant tunnel under the highway after lowering your boat down a couple of steep slopes (about a class III+ put in). Mark actually hiked upstream a ways to paddle some of the class IV action. After passing through the tunnel, we came upon the most difficult rapid on the river – a creeky class III+, S-turn type rapid. Immediately downstream of this, the river split into two channels, with wood across both. The left side seemed safer, though much shallower, so we bumped down it, to be rewarded with a nice creeky rapid where both branches come back together.
From here the action continued, with some creeky rapids in the class II+/III range, mostly mellowing out in difficulty as we progressed down river. There were a few playspots up on this section as well. There was a lot of wood, most of it easily avoidable, but one mandatory portage followed by a duck under a third tree in this sequence. All the wood was pretty evident from far enough upstream to be able to get to an eddy to scout or walk it.
The most significant hazard on this section was a low water bridge on the right hand side of the river. This bridge is not as easy to see as most of the strainers were, and would pose a serious danger if you paddled into it. It is easily avoided on river left, by either catching an eddy and hopping out of your boat, or even knuckle-dragging your way around the bridge and into the main flow of the river.
Finally, we came to the takeout at Hungry Creek, which was our original put-in. We wondered if any of the local homeowners had seen us paddle off downstream earlier in the day and magically reappear from upstream.
Rick and I were so happy with our discovery that we convinced some others (Paul, Amy, Morgan, Jonathan, and Nathan) to share it with us on the way home on Sunday, and I think they all agreed that the East Fork is a fun hidden gem, and a great way to cap off an unforgettable Week of Rivers.
Some details:
We put on the river at about 950 cfs on the USGS gauge, which was an awesome level. Perhaps a little scrapy in two or three spots along the top section, but otherwise plenty of water. This translated to something on the order of 2.3-2.4 feet on the gauge at the Big East Fork trailhead tunnel, and 2 feet on the bridge at the Burnette Cove Rd. takeout.
The water quality on this run is simply stunning, especially given that was running so high. It was so clear that you could read the text on your paddle blade after completely submerging it vertically in one of the deep pools. Sad to think that this crystal clear water eventually becomes what we know as the Dirty Bird.
Several options exist for put-ins and take outs. Of those we used:
– Big East Fork trailhead to Hungry Creek Rd.: Creeky class III+ to III to II+ as you move downstream (probably 3-4 miles long)
– Hungry Creek Rd. to Burnette Cove Rd.: Splashy, fun, continuous wave trains with some good playspots. (probably 5 miles long)