April on the French Broad
| River: | French Broad |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 04/22/2023 |
CCC Trip Report
French Broad River, Section 9, April 22 and 23, 2023 – trip coordinator Wayne Jones
Flow: around 2,500 cfs on Saturday falling to 2,400 cfs or so on Sunday
French Broad Section 9 is just north of Asheville and is a popular destination for both Asheville boaters and others from around the region. It can have a pretty stable flow and be fairly predictable from several days or even weeks out. A week before the trip, the level was 2,500 and then jumped up and fell back down after a rain event. That stability is a useful attribute. Anything from 1,200 to 3,500 cfs is a good introductory level.
There are 2 sections; the first 4.1 miles from Barnard to Stackhouse, and the second 4.1 miles from Stackhouse to Hot Springs. The first section consists of a nice long warmup portion, followed by many class II-III rapids, with the most challenging being Big Pillow. The second is from Stackhouse to Hot Springs, which includes Kayaker’s Ledge (III+) depending on flow, and Frank Bells (IV), with a lot of flatwater in between. Both day’s trips went from Barnard to Stackhouse as planned, but a small group of 5 opted to paddle down to Hot Springs on Saturday. By the way, camping at Hot Springs offers a great opportunity to take the option to continue down from Stackhouse, just as long as you leave a car, and then you can work things out at the end of the day from there. You can paddle right up to the campground!
We ended up with a group of 15 paddling on Saturday, including 2 first timers, and then a group of 9 on Sunday. We had weather that was perfectly acceptable for paddling in Spring in the mountains of NC; everyone wore drysuits.
Brothers Chris and Scott Newlon came from Chapel Hill and Virginia for a restart to their paddling careers. As a trip coordinator, you need to feel comfortable with the participants on the trip; you are not vouching for them, but you should be on the lookout for red flags. I generally pose something like this to someone I know nothing about: “Since I don’t know you at all, I am going to be impolite and ask some intrusive questions about your paddling background and equipment…” I mention this because Chris was asking about clothing for the trip, and whether wetsuits might be suitable. Now, you just don’t tend to see many wetsuits these days on the river, so this concerned me a little. On the other hand, 40 years ago you did, which is when Chris and Scott started paddling, so that made sense! They styled it of course, and were happy to get the opportunity to paddle together.
We did have 2 first timers on the trip, and not only that, this was a notable step up in difficulty for each of them. There is nothing quite like watching a paddler start out nervous and jumpy and then progress to settling down, concentrating on the fundamentals and happily enjoying the results. Bill Moore and Erika Robbins both had a pretty exciting, tremendous flip-free day. Big Pillow proved to be not much of a challenge to them, and then further down at the Ledges, they were still holding strong, where I have seen so many paddlers lose their focus in the past. This river is a perfect setting for that step up in your paddling career. There was confidence-building, and also some lessons learned and skills to focus on. It was an excellent weekend with several new faces for me on a river I love. I can’t wait to do it again. Paddlers:
Steve McConnell
Bill Moore
Kate Wilkerson
Chris Newlon
Scott Newlon
Erika Robbins
Matt Czajkowski
Morton Barlaz
David Johnson
Anna Ploghoft
Brian Timmons
Bradley Westbury
Martha Mount
Joe Mount
Mark Kennedy
Wayne Jones