I’m no river god, but I’m not a beginner, either, and I was visually intimidated. I was so intimidated it took me about fifteen seconds to make up my mind to line through on river right, a pleasant half hour or so of dragging and pushing through willows and reeds. At this rapid, the only channel is split into equally narrow halves by a tree full of debris. Just feet below that, the river hits a wall and peels 90 left, then goes over a couple of rocks, then finally a over a fairly modest pour-over but with a hole that could flip a boater who by that time would be likely off his line. I’d call this rapid a IV at the level I was at, definitely the most intimidating on the entire run, excepting the Falls.

Not far below was Gnarly Little Rockbar Rapid, listed as a II in the FS guide. A remark in the guide about “boat dragging” led me to scout it, and I’m glad I did. At this level, and maybe because things have been rearranged by the floods, I couldn’t see any line. Maybe more rocks have piled up in the recent floods. This rapid drops several feet in maybe fifty yards. Nothing but rocks and more rocks, so I decided to line on river right. It was fairly easy to line except for a drag over the last bit. I don’t think any boat of any size could get through at this level without getting stuck. There was enough current that foot entrapment looked like a serious threat, so I felt comfortable lining.

Ironically, this was probably the only rapid without a vegetation problem, and still not runable!

Below that, a lot of the so called IIIs were washed out to the point of being negligible. It was read and run below the Gnarly Little Rockbar.

My last worry was a rumor that at Tangle Creek, the whole river bed was blocked with flood debris. I could believe it… the debris is just everywhere! On the other hand, all the water had set pretty good lines through the vegetation. Luckily there are no big trees in this watershed, so I figured it would be willows or maybe a sycamore down here and there.