Tuckasegee River Gorge (Dillsboro to Barkers’ Creek)
| River: | Tuckaseegee |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 06/14/2014 |
Trip Report: Tuckasegee Gorge (Dillsoboro to Barkers’ Creek), Saturday, June 14, 2014
Saturday on the Tuck, we had beautiful weather: sunny and hot! Ahh, summer! We had a little bit extra water from rain in the watershed the night before, for a water level of 1000 cfs, enough to pad out the boney sections, but not enough to make the river too pushy for novices. Just right.
We had 9 kayakers and 5 in a raft, with a range in whitewater boating years of 0 to 33. Kayakers: Rich Ruhlen, Martha Mount, Joe Mount, Bill Hussey, Bonnie Semora, Chris Cardwell, Liz the Doctor from Knoxville, Jim McVey, and myself (Mary Ellen Griffin). In the raft: three guests of mine from Asheville, and Jim’s teenagers, son Jeff and daughter Amy.
We put in at the new C. J. Harris Boat Access on North River Road, 0.1 miles upstream of the Dillsboro Inn. The boat access is still not listed in Google Maps, but Dillsboro Inn is, which is partly why I am naming that landmark. This new put-in has a large parking area, changing rooms, pit toilets, and a concrete boat ramp. It puts you into the river at a large flatwater section, so that people have an opportunity to warm up.
This put-in is also upstream of the “Class III” ledge that was exposed when the Dillsboro Dam was removed. There is an easy place to pull over on river left, get boats out, scout the dam, and walk it if you wish. We all scouted, and 6 kayakers walked. The portage is an easy portage, maybe 20 yards tops. I led the way over the drop, at the green tongue about ¾ of the way toward river left. Greg was guiding the raft, and his instructions were to “follow my line.” We found that the raft crew had trouble implementing this plan. They went over the drop about 3 yards closer to the center of the river from my line, and got stuck on a large block rock that is just below the drop, as I watched close by from a downstream eddy. Nobody was ejected from the craft. They couldn’t hear my shouted directions above the sound of the rapid, but were nevertheless able to get the raft unstuck by getting to the back of the raft, and peeling off backwards to river right. An epic journey! Martha and Joe Mount came on along down drop with aplomb, and our group was off down the river.
The rest of the trip was relaxing and fun. We were a very congenial group. We had one kayaker for whom this was a first river trip: Chris Cardwell. Well done, Chris! Chris has been working on his roll at CCC sessions in Chapel Hill, but this was his first trip on moving water. I had him going through his paces with eddy turns, peel outs, and ferries. I am a demanding coach. He had a great day anyway! Chris, I’m looking forward to seeing you in a week or two at WOR!
Bonnie and Bill have paddled in the past but this was their first time out in a couple years. Bonnie got her sea legs back quickly. Bill did well despite some outfitting problems—some missing lug nuts let a little too much water into the boat. Good to see them back out, and they also expect to make an appearance at WOR. Jim McVey is comfortable on this river, and his 2 teens, who have done a little bit of hard boating, were happy to have a relaxed day in the raft. My rafting guests from Asheville also had a wonderful time. Kelly and Greg both took turns captaining. Greg mastered the technique of bump a rock and pinion around to spin through a rapid; and take the meat route through the more dynamic rapids, to bounce through the holes. Maybe we can get our raft friends interested in kayaking down the road….
Two unnamed kayakers had a couple swims each, some good practice with self-rescue Thank you to Rich, Martha, Bonnie, Liz, and Jim especially for helping with safety and support, helping get both swimmers and gear to shore.
Other highlights of the trip included time for intentional swims and roll practice at the jump rock at the nice little beach about ¾ of the way down the river. The group brought some mighty fine snacks, many of which were sampled as we took our break there. Thank you, Liz, for those fabulous strawberries!
We rendezvoused at the put-in at about noon, and were done and loading up cars by 5:30 PM. That is about right for a typical novice run on the Tuck Gorge, from Dillsboro to Barkers’ Creek.