WCP Online Newsletter

North Fork wildlife
by Harrison Metzger

Contributed 06/23/2005  Responses:  0

I love the North Fork of the French Broad. In the past few years I have gotten to run some of the region's best class IV rivers and creeks, including the Cheoah, Tallulah and Watauga (love those Cherokee names!) But the old North Fork is still my favorite, for lots of reasons, including the vast array of critters that live there.

I got to run the gorge just twice after the recent heavy rains of Arlene, once at 7 inches in my canoe and again last Saturday at 2 inches in my Superfly playboat. Just me and Terry McGhee had the river to ourselves that day.

The Superfly performs like an edgy kayak, but it is still an open boat and is short and slow. It performs well if you do, but you have to be on your game all the time. And this day I was, catching every eddy, running dry lines on all the big rapids except Boxcar which I carried because it was too low for me. Terry hit a bunch of rocks and bounced off the "fin" on his descent but saved himself with a good strong stroke at the lip of the bottom drop.

Downstream at a class III-IV rapid I went flying into a sharp eddy and saw something move in the clear water against the smooth bedrock bottom. Something big. A Hellbender Salamander! This puppy was about 14 inches long, just lollygagging in the sunny water next to my boat for a couple of minutes while we marveled at it.

Now I have seen a "water dog" before in the pool at the bottom of Boxcar, but this was the first time I've ever gotten to see one up close. They are really ancient looking creatures, dark brownish green, little tiny eyes you can barely see. Amazing.

Continuing downstream, we caught the river right eddy at the bottom of the Clog next to Black Widow hole. Again I saw something move. This time it was a Copperhead, about 30 inches long, swiming in the eddy right where I usually pause to dump water out of my boat! We looked at this beautiful snake from a healthy distance, then bopped on down through Vortex, Submarine and all the other fun smaller rapids. The snake was still in the same spot later, according to some boaters we saw running laps on "the loop."

There are lots of awesome creatures out there if you keep your eyes open. And there is no better place to spot them than this pristine wilderness jewel of a creek that I am blessed to have in my backyard!