Upper New Hope Creek
| River: | New Hope Creek |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 12/18/2023 |
Aaron Vaughan and I ran New Hope Creek from Hwy 86 to Erwin Rd. We hiked a bit upstream to go under the I-40 tunnel since I’ve wanted to do this for some time.
One almost S-Turn was found right at the 86 bridge and some easy boogie for the next half mile or so and a couple portages for wood. We then passed under a railroad bridge and boogie picked up a bit from here before reaching flat. We got out and scouted the Falls of New Hope rapid, which is a class III drop that starts at a small natural dam ledge, followed by a 4 ft slanted drop with some little holes in the outflow. I boofed off a rock river right to avoid a swirly hole in the middle and punched the little holes in the outflow.
We then had to boat scout one spot in the class II+ boogie that followed where there is some zigzagging through trees to find a clear path down. We passed the mt Sinai rd bridge and just barely made it under a river wide log about 100 yards later. We then ran the old powerline rapid, class II and had to boat scout since it is hard to see the bottom of the drop. Some flat and easy boogie followed before reaching the normal Turkey Farm Rd put in. About 20” was showing at the concrete bridge, which is low, but still runnable. The next rapid of note was the concrete low bridge. We ran the bridge drop and had to paddle hard to not get pulled into the hydraulic, but there was no incident. Nice class II+ boogie came next before reaching the big rapid.
We got out river right and I planned my line which would be river left this time since the hole didn’t look bad. I ran the drop and gathered Aaron to continue downstream. We boogied on through with mostly mild rapids and a few II+ drops thrown in before reaching the take out.
For reference, Cane Creek gage was at 48 cfs when we put on and we felt more water would be better, probably 100 cfs, perfect. In either case, great day on New Hope.