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Run: |
Upper East Fork Little River |
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Section: |
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Class: |
II (IV) |
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Put-In: |
Bridge on Gilbreath Mill Road (in
Georgia) |
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Gradient: |
25,25,20,70,30,20 |
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Take-Out: |
GA48 or AL 117? or Lake Lahusage, AL |
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Length: |
5.5 to GA48, 6.0 to Lake Lahusage |
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Precip. Gages: |
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Shuttle: |
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Delorme Gazeteer: |
21F9, 21G9, 21G8 |
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Water Q: |
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Primary Gage: |
None |
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Links: |
Required Level: |
Visual |
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PICTURES |
Indicator Gage: |
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TRIP REPORT |
Required Level: |
350 minimum, 450 good, 900 high? |
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Notes: |
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How did this
happen? On a sunny day in March 2011 I am approaching the point of no
return to ride the slide thru Camp Juliet Low on the upper East Fork Little
River. About 150 yards downstream my friend is waiting at the end of
this rapid. What is this rapid doing here? There is nothing but
mellow Class II above Camp Juliet Low and nothing but mellow Class II below
Camp Juliet Low after a dinky 4 foot spillway at the end of a girl scout
swimming pool in the river. I mean like where did this twisty slide
beam itself from to settle here on top of Lookout Mountain? I suspected that
something was going down at Camp Juliet Low. My USGS quad showed 2
contours lines close together here sandwiched between two others not too far
upstream and not too far downstream. So earlier this winter I drove
into the camp and politely asked the guy at the entrance house if he would
mind if I scouted the river there. "You can't run thru the rocks
there". It was clear that he did not want me to drive (or walk)
any further so I left knowing now there was something interesting down
there. But a 150 yard slide! No way! Who ordered
that!! Take main route down
the right side of the Town Creek slide. Narrow it
down by about 50%, more than double its length, and replace the
hole at the end with its baby brother. Add a few twists here
and there. Run it thru a girl scout camp on Lookout Mountain. Until
I learn its local name I will call this thing Slide Winder. My plan is to keep my
boat pointed downstream and ride the main flow. Avoid the ZFS (zones of
funny slide). Unfortunately we are running today at a medium low level
for this small creek. The West Fork gauge about 10 miles northwest of
Camp Juliet Low read 500 cfs about the time we
started. So there are lots of ZFS in this slide. Maybe 150 cfs here today. Probably better at 300 cfs. But maybe not. At some point there will
be a transition from "thrilling class IV" to what the Bama Boys would call "stout class IV" and what
I would call "screaming class V". I decide to enter
Slide Winder very slowly. Bad idea! You should ride the main
flow at roughly the same speed as it is moving. So it
slings me over a hump that scrapes me slower then drops me back
into the main flow partly sideways. I recover well and feel the
acceleration peel my boat downslide fast. Now my plan is
working. The main flow at this level stays mostly in the middle until what
I call the crossover about 2/3 thru this rapid. There it banks off the right
bank and like ricochets across the channel at 45 degrees to bounce off
rocks on the left bank. I ride it thru there OK. A
small wall of water slows me down then the steep part of this rapid is
over. Probably about 25 feet down in about 300 feet of
slide. The rest is relatively slow and the baby hydraulic at the
end is not a problem. This run starts off
badly. Better to put in below a dirt road bridge that the
flood earlier this week has partly destroyed. Far better to put in
further downstream where another dirt road is next to the river
left bank. But those are probably private roads gated
off. We are in Georgia upstream from the Little River
forest management area. The forest is mostly clear cut on both sides of
the river in the first mile making it tough to portage logs blocking the
current. Except for Slide
Winder this run is not very scenic. The major flood of September
2009 uprooted numerous trees and bent just about everything
growing on many sections of the East Fork riverbank.
Fortunately the river right bank is easy to
walk to portage Slide Winder. At our level it was
safe to stop near where that rapid starts. At higher levels I
would stop further upstream if I were you. There are no eddies in
Slide Winder. Shuttle: From Mentone
AL drive east on AL 117. Turn right on Dekalb
CR 635 about 1 mile after crossing the bridge over the Middle
Fork Little River. Drive south about 1/2 mile to
the bridge over the East Fork Little River. This takeout
is more comfortable than taking out at the GA 48 highway bridge.
But it is also 1/2 mile further. Drive back to AL 117, turn right,
drive about 1 1/2 miles east on AL 117 / GA
48, then turn left on GA 157 in Cloudland GA. Drive about 5
miles north on GA 157 then turn left on Gilbreath
Hill Rd and drive about 3/4 miles to the Gilbreath Creek bridge. There is a old mill spillway on the
upstream side of this bridge. Gilbreath Creek
joins Gamble Branch about 200 feet downstream to define the start of the
East Fork Little River. |
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