Running a seldom-seen section of the Rocky
| River: | Rocky |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 02/08/2020 |
River: Rocky (Cape Fear River Basin)
Section: Pittsboro-Goldston Road (Chatham County 1010) to Chatham Church Road (Chatham County 1953)
Length: 4.4 miles
Paddlers: Bobby Simpson, OC-1; Bob Brueckner, K-1
Weather: mid-40s, overcast, mostly calm
Level: Crutchfield Crossroads (17.8 cfs), Siler City (228 cfs) and Tick Creek (34.0 cfs) Also several perennial and intermittent creeks
By Bob Brueckner
The water level was higher and the rapids were more interesting on this trip than the one I did with Paul Ferguson in December 2018.
Bobby Simpson and I had plenty of surfing options beginning at the remains of an old dam about two miles downstream from the put-in. Run the rapid on the right. At this level, you should be able to find a low Class II wave or two to paddle. This old dam had been covered up when the the lake filled in behind the 25-foot high Woody Dam (aka Hoosier Dam) in 1925.
There are a few Class I rapids for a half mile before some Class II rapids begin to emerge, many of them with surfing opportunities. It was in this section that Bobby’s canoe found the perfect spot to surf. The same rapid repeatedly shoved my kayak off the wave.
As we neared the old dam site, the river began to narrow as the roar of one of the steeper rapids grew. This time the drop was cushioned, and I didn’t hit any rocks I ran right and hit an eddy on the right.
Try to catch the nice, big, smooth surfing wave in the middle of this Class II rapid that I missed.
The Rocky then takes a sharp left and narrows. Water slants off a large rock on the right and produces a series of standing waves.
This trip provided better surfing options than what I found in December 2018 in which we had about about 200 cfs when you add the USGS gauges at Tick Creek (113 cfs) and Siler City (20.7 cfs) to several perennial and intermittent creeks.
Most of this section runs through forest, with a few houses poking through the trees. In 2018 the river banks were largely devoid of plant life, but on Saturday the banks showed signs that there had been more vegetation in the warmer months of 2019.
The Hoosier Dam (aka Woody Dam) was removed in fall 2018 to improve the habitat for the endangered Cape Fear Shiner and provide about 18,500 stream mitigation units, according to Wildlands Engineering.
The hydropower dam had been built in 1922 and stretched 235 feet across the Rocky with an average height of 25 feet, according to the Unique Places website.