Low Water Flat River (State Forest Rd to Lake Michie)

We had high hopes for being able to pick anywhere in the Durham/Chapel Hill area to paddle Saturday morning. The day before, rain seemed to hover around the Hillsborough area for the bulk of the day and we had hoped to hit either New Hope Creek or Little River. Due to the extended drought though, it became apparent later in the evening prior that we were limited on where the heavy rain would hold without dropping too much before an early morning run.

Paul Yow had come from out of town in the Uwharrie area and all of us were itching to get on some local rapids. Luckily the Flat had held just enough for an early start time. Paul, Jim Clarke, Aaron Vaughn, Steve Johnson and I got to the river take out at 6am and we put on about 30 minutes later. Level was a bit low, about 3 ft on the USGS gage and dropping, but we weren’t picky after not having many options lately. We put in at the low bridge at State Forest Rd and eddied and played our way downstream with Steve splatting every rock he could. We got some surfs in, attainments and some purposeful flips and rolls.

Things picked up as we entered the gorge area, and we did some more playing. We played on the wave that I think is called fluffy bunny or something like that and then continued downstream left at the big rock. It wasn’t particularly fluffy for us, but provided some mellow entertainment. After that we thought we were about done and somehow I forgot there was one more bigger rapid just downstream of the gage. I wouldn’t quite consider this drop class III at our level, but if you follow Paul Ferguson’s book, this is the one he refers to as the class III dop. We played some more at a wave below that drop and headed to the take out. It was a fun run and we all had wished for a bit more water, but we probably caught the second best local water (Tar was kicking at the time).

For those not on Facebook, we received a warning about not having permits displayed on our cars at State Forest Rd. Paul Ferguson mentions this is needed in his book, but I hadn’t heard of anyone having problems with this before. Unfortunately, I had purchased one previously for $18, but when looking it up, it’s now jumped to $60/year and my pass had expired in May of this year. Luckily the sheriff who put a note on our cars was very friendly and just issued a warning. I personally would just stick to the upper section in the future and not deal with the price, which seems pretty steep. For those who want to purchase a permit to park at the put in, it can be found at: https://app.outdooraccess.com/?#/listing/16084 . I’ve also contacted them to see if they can offer a lower price and a kayaking specific permit since the current one is for fishing/kayaking. One can fish almost any time on the river, but as far as whitewater is concerned there are only maybe 20 days in a year that there is sufficient water to paddle this section.