WCP Online Newsletter

Cheoah Gala and high water weekend a blast
by Canoeman

Contributed 05/09/2006  Responses:  0

On Saturday, April 8, American Whitewater, Western Carolina Paddlers and other boaters gathered at Tapoco Lodge in Graham County to celebrate the rebirth of the Cheoah River, the Southeast's newest large water class IV destination river. The honorees included WCP Conservation Chairman Rod Baird and President Chris Bell. WCP was well represented, filling more than one table at the $100/plate fund raising dinner.

Kevin Colburn of AW presented Rod and Christ each with a William Neely Mystery Move print as thanks for their leadership in the successful effort to restore whitewater flows to the Cheaoh after more than 80 years dewatered by dams owned by Tapoca, Alcoa's power generating division.

As conservation chairman, Rod studied historical flows into Cheoah tributaries to show that there was plenty of water going into Lake Santeetlah for boaters, fishermen, lakefront property owners and the power company. As part of the settlement agreement, the river now has constant flows to maintain fisheries, so the Cheoah never again will be a dead trickle through a brush-choked channel. That will provide year-round tourism benefits to Graham County in addition to the 18 scheduled days of whitewater flows each year. When big water commercial rafting start, that will also benefit the sparse local economy.

Chris, a UNC economics professor, was also honored for his work debunking power company assertions.

"The power company had some pretty high powered help, and we didn't agree with their analysis, so we brought in our own high powered economist," Colburn said.

The work of Rod and Chris laid the foundation for a Federal Energy Regulatory Decision that finally gives recreation equal footing with other uses of the river. After Tapoco walked away from the settlement talks and tried to cut a deal without paddlers, the FERC stepped in prohibited the power company from charging recreational users from water (unlike at the Ocoee). The final decision even allows for additional releases if warranted by demand. This was a huge success for paddlers.

The fund raising dinner was followed by a party with two kegs of Highland brew and a live band, Big City Sunrise, jamming into the wee hours. Needless to say, it was fun.

THE RIVER (and my run of it)

My sixth canoe run of the Cheoah started with a combat roll in a long rapid just below JoAnn's store called Southern Revival. I hesitated a nanosecond in the very fast approach to a large diagonal hole, got surfed across the river and rolled up to finish the rapid full of H2O. Better than a swim, which on the Cheoah would be long and brutal!

Me and my partner Pat Stone had a great rest of the run. Release was supposed to be 850 that day but it was clearly a lot more water. The big hole at the bottom of the stretch called Holy Rollers filled most of the channel and was tricky to miss. At Takout, the longest Class IV of the upper miles, a kayak was pinned in the left line. But there was enough H2O for us to thread our canoes between a couple of snaggly rocks right of center, setting us up for the pounding converging flow at the bottom.

We refueled with lunch at the bottom of Land of Holes and continued on. Below the bridge, where things steepen up, I wasn't paddling as precisely as at the top, but I was a lot more relaxed. Got knocked sideways into the bottom right hole at Bear Creek Falls, but my big old open boat blasted its way out backwards and right-side up with me in it!


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and

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Whew!

Did I mention that an added benefit of running the Cheoah is Killboy takes cool photos?

White Highway and Tapoco Lodge Rapids were a riot and seemed quite fluffy. I ended the day pounding my way through the first two holes in Yard Sale only to get a HUGE stern ender/squirt in the bottom hole. Mikes Melear and Nail were perched on a rock and saw the "hole thing" and gave me the horns as my bow can down with a splash, so it must have been good. Thanks for having a rope ready and glad I didn't need it. Yard Sale is named that for a reason.

Pat's run of Yard Sale, while less outrageous, was cleaner. In fact his whole run was so smooth that he will soon have to rename his Ocoee canoe a "Cheoah." After a short lake paddle, we took out 100 yards from where I had camped on the shore of Calderwood Lake the night before.

Turns out the Cheoah was pumping at about 1,200 cfs that day, a very fun and challenging level. I plan to go back on May 28 and possibly May 28. What a great river!