3” of rain here at Rock Island means rivers are running!

December 2, 2004

Everything is going around here, and big. Yesterday,
Clay, Corey, and I went to the North Chic at the highest level I have
run it yet. This is the classic river around here (near Chattanooga).
We put on Cain Creek at about noon and the first couple of miles is down
a very low volume creek with a couple of nice drops and lots of boogie
water. The creek empties out into the North Chic and the river triples
in size. About 8 miles of non-stop action that can be run in a playboat,
but most take creekboats. There are a few really nice playwaves and one
stellar hole that is good for all of the new moves like Phonix Monkey,
McNasty, Lunar Orbit, big loops,etc.

We had a very non-eventful day with good lines and
we were pretty conservative, walking Vortex, more because of lack of desire
to plug into the madness below than fear of what could happen. That is
OK, I needed to walk it once to know just how much of a pain that is.

Today I have a call in to Clay to run Sieve City at
high water like we did this time last year. I have my eye on a line that
will start with a 15 foot water fall (high volume) and the landing is
in the middle of the big rapid, which will in a matter of a few seconds
put you into the bottom monster holes. The whole thing is backed up by
an undercut wall that looms for anybody not in their boat. Looking at
it from 100 feet over the drop looks very runnable and fun. We’ll
see if I get Clay hooked in to go before it gets much later. It is about
¼ of a mile from my front door, cool.

Look for photos tomorrow, or a note saying that we
bagged it.

🙂 EJ