After learning of Chestnut Creek on the AL Whitewater site, I decided to see it for myself. Waited for about 1.5 to 2 inches of rain in the north Autauga County area and we decided to go. We rode two SOTs. Charlotte Thompson, my wife, accompanied in true February furvor.

The explaination by Mr. Patterson on the site is mostly accurate, the only differences we noted were the Mountain Creek take out is off of HWY 31 South at Chilton County Road 529. You travel this road to an intersection where you turn left and proceed to ford. The Mountain Creek ford is a good take out. (We were on no paved roads after turning off hwy 31.)

The run was also well described by Mr. Patterson We found a good rapid at the put-in and a couple of surfable waves before the good rapid just below the red brick house. This rapid did cause Charlotte to swim, as she was not paddling very aggressively and was swallowed by the last wave at the bottom. There were two notable trees that were impeding the flow and safe passage at this level. The creek is relatively narrow and had swift current for the entire trip.

Of notable mention the creek divides into two almost even flows around an island at about the 2/3rds point in the trip. The route to the left had a tree blocade and the route around the right was navagable and contained some standing waves. GO RIGHT.

We had a lot of fun on Chestnut Creek. The level is best described at the north side of the HWY 31 bridge as flow running over (1"-2") over the base of the pylons in the middle of the bridge and not flowing over the base of the pylon nearest the bank (see picture). High water could definetly be dangerous as there would be possibly no eddies, and sweepers galore. Our trip took about 2.5 hours with the swim and paddle recovery, two tree ordeals, a little surfin', and a coke and cracker lunch.

Brad Thompson