New Nolichucky
| River: | Nolichucky |
| Skill: | Intermediate+/Advanced |
| Trip Date: | 11/17/2024 |
Trip Report Nolichucky River November 17, 2025
I have been paddling the Noli for over 25 years and just love it for its beauty, remoteness and challenging rapids. On a sunny Sunday in November, I had the opportunity to paddle the New Noli with Martha Mount and Trey Moore who led us down.
To begin, this is a new river with different routes, different features and different hazards. There are still hundreds of feet of railroad track in the river. If you think that you are familiar with the river, then forget it and treat it like a new river. In addition, the level is an unknown as the gauge in feet is based on a river bottom that has changed and there is not currently a way to convert it to cfs. While I expected a very low water run given how dry it has been, the level felt more like 1400-1800 cfs but that means nothing. It is mostly read and run if you are a solid class 4 paddler. If not, then go with someone who knows the run.
As I already posted, the Noli is in serious trouble as CSX is rebuilding the tracks with seemingly little regard for what they are doing to the river. They are mining river rock. A lawsuit was filed on November 18. Please read my earlier posts on who to contact.
Overall, many rapids are steeper and there are some new drops. A few examples:
Quarter mile – it is a different rapid. There is a significant drop on the left that warrants scouting and in my case walking around as the hole is sticky if you are not right on your line. The river has shifted so much that we were on the left and paddling left to right in front of copper rock. There used to be very little water to the left of copper rock and now copper rock is close to the middle of the river.
Rooster Tail – it is a new rapid named tres ledges (this is not quite right). It looks nothing like rooster tail and has 3 drops
Hole in the wall – we ran center right which would have resulted in window shading in the past
The river will continue to change as track construction continues. Enjoy the river but be careful.
Mort