Boone Fork – William Mauney
| River: | Watauga |
| Skill: | Intermediate+/Advanced |
| Trip Date: | 09/25/2011 |
I haven’t personally run either Boone Fork or the Upper Watauga, but I had always wanted to paddle Boone Fork. American Whitewater announced earlier this week that there is a dispute on the lower sections of Boone Fork and Upper Watauga, where the Twin Rivers community has blocked access to sections of these streams close to their listed take outs. Despite what we all understand to be the law in North Carolina with “Navigability in Fact”, local authorities have been notified to block access on these streams in the disputed reaches. Anyways, I figured I could help out by providing some media courtesy of William Mauney, who was kind enough to give permission to share his videos of Boone Fork. He is native to the area, residing in Banner Elk, North Carolina and states that this is perhaps his “favorite run being only 15 minutes from my home”. He has done his part, submitting a notarized affidavit to help the cause with American Whitewater. Enjoy these videos by William Mauney and please share with anyone that you might know who paddles the Upper Watauga or Boone Fork since American Whitewater is looking for affidavits to make the case to keep these runnable. Even for those who don’t paddle these rivers and don’t plan to, a negative outcome can result in setting precedent to cause more losses to access in our own local rivers.
William Mauney’s Video of Boone fork and Red Roof Section of the Watauga: While the Red Roof Section of the Watauga is not part of the current case with AW, there are also reports of this stretch having access issues.
https://vimeo.com/109241147/description?
William Mauney’s Video of Boone Fork:
While I am not local to these streams, it is an area that I visit yearly with my family on vacation and I’m familiar with the rivers since I spent two years of college at nearby Appalachian State where I spent lots of free time swimming and jumping off waterfalls in the area. I have since I started paddling regretted that I did not get into kayaking at the time since it offers many opportunities for paddling.