Scrapey Upper Richland Creek
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 03/04/2023 |
We had a good, scrapey morning adventure on the upper part of Richland Creek. I have done further downstream in the past and had high hopes for the upper part, just southeast of Asheboro, NC. Unfortunately, it did not rain as much as I had expected the night before, but many thanks to Alton Chewning and Michael Merletto on indulging me on this exploratory run. I punished them even more than necessary by suggesting we start on Vestal Creek, about a mile or so before Richland Creek. Normally, I would only subject myself to such frustration, but they handled the experience better than anyone could have hoped for. Note that this putin, which is off Pine Hill Rd is not ideal due to many possible strainers and a property owner that is not keen on people parking by the bridge. I would suggest starting at Old Humble Mill Rd.
After a mile of wheelchairing and mostly hiking the shallow gravel, the confluence with Richland creek proper gave way to a much wider stream, with proper rapids (had there been about a foot more of water). We finally had reached a spot deep enough for a roll. There was some more scraping and eventually we reached the first major rapid just before Old Humble Mill Rd. This has a nice, tight S-Turn rapid that drops about 4 ft over 20 ft or so. After passing the bridge, we hit some major scraping again, with me opting to go left of an island, donating more plastic to the creek and Alton and Michael portaging till there was deeper water. After this, we found our first mandatory portage with a metal pipe and large tree blocking the whole creek. We managed to portage over the tree, but this would likely be a required portage well ahead of time with proper flow.
This gave way to the best part of the whole trip, where portages became less frequent and a noticeable change in terrain, with a rocky mountainous landscape and mountain laurel draping over the sides. It was not long after, we found our first play hole, which was a ledge drop of about a foot. Not quite enough power to drop a bow or stern, but almost. We then found another nice S-Turn rapid that was just enough fun to keep us going without too much major scraping. A bit further down was a good wave train (I assume with more water). A few more ripples and then we reached the most fun of the whole trip.
We had reached what used to be an old mill dam with remnants of the wall on river right. According to the nearby zipline’s website, this is called Mendenhall Falls. River left is the picture spot for those visiting the zipline place nearby. This rapid drops in a series of 2 ledges river right and a nice powerful slide on the left and totals about 8 ft over about 15 feet. I opted to go right after the others set safety and filmed and then came Michael and Alton to the left. This was followed by another drop of about 6 ft that was not quite runnable at this level but would have several options with water. We finished things off with a fast, very shallow channel to the right and another small series of ledge drops before reaching the takeout at Fairview Farm Rd.
A great trip with great company and some good exploring. Special thanks to Paul Yow, who is the only other person that I know that has done this section and provided as much beta as he can remember. I suggest others come back after a good rain since this would be some quality whitewater for anyone up for a lesser known spot and possibly some portaging.