Nolichucky bubble: high water FB run
| River: | Nolichucky |
| Skill: | Intermediate+/Advanced |
| Trip Date: | 08/11/2018 |
River: Nolichucky Sat 8/11. FB9 Sunday 8/12
Particpiants Sat : Marta Mount, Scott Daniels, Gary Bills ( allK1), Bob Wiggins and Len Prosniz in the shredder. Sun: Scott, Bob and Len
As most of you know, lots of rain lately in western NC with river levels fluctuating widely. We were aiming for the Noli Sat and by 6am levels had dropped to a nice 1700, despite heavy rains in the Asheville area the night before. At the campground Gary mentioned it had risen to 2200 but that seemed fine. When we put on it seemed a bit high. At On the Rocks, Bob and I had a narrow escape from the hole. At the entrance to the crux of quarter mile, the large flat rock one stands on to contemplate hungy jack was under about 2 feet of water. We eddiedout on river left and decided to walk quarter mile. Martha graciously asisted. Scott and Gary ran unimpeded it turns out down the right bank which is fairly straightforward at high levels. We put back on at rooster tail. The rest of the run was a blast, almost all rocks covered. When we got off we learned that while we were on it the river had risen to 3500, then started dropping by about 4PM, so perfect timing.
We learned several things : 1)Putting the shredder on top of the kayak and dragging both down the railroad tracks works really well 2) At high levels (say above 2000) river right route just off the bank is pretty straight forward but you have to start off on the right at the very top of quarter mile 3) Beware of bubbles
Sunday FB 9 was at 4100, highest I have paddled it. A beautiful sunny day – I think it gets easier at this level – again virtually no rocks, lots of wave trains, a few holes but no real problems. A swim would be problematic as river is very wide with a lot of flow. We did take out at stackhouse so I cant comment on kayak ledge or frank bell's. We were down at stackhouse in about 1 1/2 hours, so I got back to chapel hill in plenty of daylight.
All in all a great weekend