WCP Online Newsletter

The day the Cheoah was born again
by Harrison Metzger (email)

Contributed 09/23/2005  Responses:  0

What if a new Class IV+ whitewater river appeared in the Western North Carolina mountains where there had only been a dry river bed before? What if the first flow on this river happened the second weekend of Gauley season, after weeks of non-stop hype on Boatertalk? What if 500 paddlers showed up, despite a shuttle system mandated by the U.S. Forest Service and equipped to handle half that many? And what if the dam operators sent 1,500 cubic feet per second of water down the nine-mile gorge instead of the 1,000 cfs that had been planned?

That's what happened Saturday, Sept. 17, when the Cheoah River in the far southwestern corner of the state was allowed to flood its bed for the first ever scheduled whitewater release. Only a handful of us had previously run the river, mainly in 2000 when the first test releases where held. American Whitewater and Western Carolina Paddlers fought hard through the dam relicensing process to get flows restored to this river that had been dewatered for more than 75 years to provide electricity for Alcoa.

The day the Cheoah was reborn lived up to the hype, in the opinion of this paddler. The rapids were long, complex and pushy, more akin to Gauley than Ocoee as one boater observed. Others described it as an entire river like Roach Motel on the Upper Ocoee, or nine miles of the Tallulah's Gauntlet with trees growing in the current. There might be some hyperbole there, but the Cheoah won't disappoint most skilled hard boaters looking for a challenge and play.

Chris Bell, WCP president and one of the main reasons the river is running, agreed to drive a group of us over there in his van hauling his canoe trailer. There were three open boaters: myself, Pat Stone and Eric Muller and three kayakers: Chris, Mike Bloodworth and Doug Bonnoit. We were met in Robbinsville by my paddling friends, Pat Glazier in canoe and his girlfriend Beth in kayak. We also saw a couple of other WCP folks who came to watch, Chuck Clonninger and Rod Baird, the man who has been fighting for years for whitewater and fishing flows on the Cheoah. Also showing up were WCP boaters Robin Knupp and Terry McGee, as well as lots of other folks who boat rivers and creeks across the South. It was like a big Gauley parking lot party, without the beer.

I won't dwell on the shuttle fiasco, as it has already grown to mythical status on Boatertalk. The short version is the USFS mandated boaters park at Robbinsville High School, about 20 miles from the takeout on Calderwood Lake, and ride a shuttle provided by NOC. NOC had one of its two buses break down and was overwhelmed by the number of boaters. Some who arrived late were turned away. Later the Forest Service relaxed the rules and let some people drive to the river. The result was a lot unhappy campers, although most people were patient.

We arrived at 10 a.m. and waited two hours to board the bus to the narrow temporary access the Forest Service has built just below the Lake Santeetlah Dam. Here we found the Cheoah gushing over the dam and racing warm, clear and emerald green downstream through thickets of alder and sycamore.

At first it is just strong current and picking a channel. Then the first small ledge and a sticky hole. It stopped me, flipped me and stucked me back in. After a couple of missed roll attempts, I dog paddled like a puppy to shore through one of the last pools before the action really starts. Thank goodness it was my only swim of the day.

One thing about putting in the dam is you get a lot of warmup. The gradient picks up, but it doesn't seem that steep at first because the downstream visibility is often blocked by small trees and the heavy flow fills in the river bed. After Joanne's store, where we had put in on previous runs, the Cheoah enters a series of braided channels that are heavily overgrown as the gradient approaches 100 feet per mile, about the same steepness as Wilson Creek Gorge. And here is where the going gets tricky.

You maneuver through strong current trying not to wrap around any vegetation. All of a sudden, the channels converge and the Cheoah instantly switches from technical strainer dodging to pushy bigger water with large waves and holes. Then back to more braided channels as the sequence repeats itself several times.

Without trees in the current, these rapids would be as challenging as the larger rapids on the Ocoee. But the trees make that upper stretch very challenging and at times nerve-racking. For instance, once we picked a wrong channel and the brush started to close in. Just as I launched off a 3 foot ledge I heard a whistle blow and looked down just in time to avoid an 8-inch diameter tree blocking the drop. One kayaker in our group lodged under it for an instant. All the while we were trying our best to stick together amid the crowd of boaters.

By the time we reached the class III approach upstream of the 4-foot riverwide ledge hole, my nerves were a mess. I carried this drop which I had run several years ago, then got back in just in time to face Takeout, a large Class IV. I hardly recognized it, thanks to the work of Bob Hathcock of NOC and volunteers who had cleared out most of the trees out of this tricky series of big offset holes. Their work opened up a creek line down the right, which I gladly took to miss the meat at the top. That line then dumps you into a heavy water wavetrain at the bottom. Ironically, this rapid seemed small compared to many we ran in the last two miles.

About this time one of our group walked off. Then Doug had a rough swim in what I think is the Land of Holes and also had to exit the river. Chris retrieved Doug's boat, but it was on river left opposite the road and there was no good way to get across that rapids to retrieve it. We were down to six.

For about three miles the Cheoah mellows to class III and III+ drops, wave trains and some big holes that are easy to punch or miss. But then, after you pass under the Forest Service bridge, the character changes back to Class IV+. Only now it is the rapids more than the trees creating the challenge.

The last two miles drop about 220 feet. With 1,400 to 1,500 cfs, (or even with less water) this creates heavy rapids that are uniquely continous for the Southeast, but still require lots of maneuvering. Your read and run skills will be tested as you bomb down churning, turbulent drops leading into Bear Creek Rapids, the start of the real steepness.

This is where I had taken out during a previous canoe run in 2002 at 800 cfs. Today I was determined to paddle to the lake. We all got out to look, but when we got back on it was only Chris (image) and I (image).

He ran everything; I carried the entrance rapid and put in just above the 10-foot waterfall. I saw three or four kayakers flip right before I ran it, but it turned out to be fine. I entered on the left side of the righthand slot and crashed through the bottom holes headed right into an eddy; Chris entered the same slot from the right angling left and also had a good run.

Just below, part II of Bear Creek Rapids is a large ledge with the center current dropping down a chute into a hole that is parallel to the current. I decided to sneak it down the right, a drop like the sneak at Woodall Shoals. I thought I was home free as Chris took off downstream. But there's more to Bear Creek Rapids than the first two big drops.

Rounding a bend I dropped into a big frowny hole that grabbed me and turned me all the way up on one side of my canoe. I threw my weight downstream and got surfed, thank God, into a small eddy on the right. Whew! I got the water out and paddled down the rest of the long rapids to meet Chris and Pat S. (image) and Eric (image) who had gotten back in to finish the run.

From here down to the lake, the Cheoah pulls out all the stops. The rapids are big, booming class IV wavetrains with twisting drops and offset holes. The most straightforward rapid is the one under the bridge at Tapoco Lodge. It is kind of like Hell Hole, or a smaller version of Fayette Station on the New Gorge. I had a nice line down through the rodeo hole at the bottom.

Things get more intense after you go under the bridge. These are big, pushy drops with holes galore, but there are also some well defined eddies to catch for respite. Now away from the road, the Cheoah rushes downhill between tall granite cliffs through this last canyon down to the lake. There are about three or four big rapids here, with the last one dumping right into the lake and a neat little surfing hole on the right. After saving my energy much of the day, I dropped in sideways and did some 360s, yelling in triumph as the my adrenalyn filled body finally relaxed.

As soon as you hit the lake, you see Cheoah Dam towering upstream, pouring the cold, bottom-fed water of the Little Tennessee in to meet the Cheoah's warm waters. It's supposedly where Harrison Ford jumped in The Fugitive and it is impressive, even if you hate dams. After a short paddle down the lake, we arrived at the takeout at 6 p.m.

Bob Hathcock, who took a lot of crap for the shuttle fiasco, was driving vans out of there until near dark. Even though he had spent two days leading volunteers in brush removal, he didn't get to paddle the river. He deserves the thanks of every boater who paddles the river. NOC will run shuttles for free on Oct. 1. Although they too took a lot of criticism, these bonus fall releases would not have happened if they had not stepped in to provide shuttles.

We all hope by next spring when the first of 19 yearly releases start that the Forest Service will have adequate parking in place so mandatory shuttle are no longer required. We should all work to make sure that any management plan is as non-intrusive as possible on boaters while protecting the river, and make sure that any fees collected are nominal and are used for improvements on the Cheoah. Folks not comfortable paddling their own boats will soon be able to take guided raft trips on the Cheaoh. The river is expected to become a Southeastern destination river, drawing whitewater tourism to Graham County and joining the Tallulah and other rivers American Whitewater has fought to free from dammed bondage. Every one who appreciates free-flowing Appalachian whitewater should experience it one way or another.