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By Justin Owen

It has been a great water year so far in the southeast, something that has kept me very busy. This is a good thing, because the social life in my camper (located in the backwoods of Tennessee), leaves a lot to be desired. To this point, about every hour of daylight has been spent boating or scouting new stuff. One such drop definitely got in my head over the last few weeks.

Since I was in high school I have frequented Fall Creek Falls State Park, as I am from the area. Cane Creek passes through this wonderful resource. It snakes through the region creating a spectacularly scenic whitewater gorge. Above the traditional putin there is a 70 foot waterfall, and a 30 foot cascade leading into it. Last spring Pat Keller knocked of Cane Creek Falls… the 70 footer. This left the cascade as the last first d in the gorge. Cane Creek Cascade is not what most would consider a clean drop, but after seeing it with no water, I was sure that it would go. Weeks went by, and every time I wanted to kill some time, I found myself back at the park.
After many hours, I decided that this drop would go best at low water. The level that I was looking for was a little less than minimum for the gorge. If it was too high it would be hard to tell where you are going, too low and it would be a scrapefest. I finally got what I was looking for a couple days ago. Fortunately Adam Kamptner and Stephen Wright offered to go with me on a hot kayak assault… what is needed if you plan to bag this high profile waterfall. The line went as well as I could hope for. While my boys set safety, they also shot video and photos. All of the variables came together to make one day that I will never forget.

If you are from the area and you want to run this drop, I think that it would be frowned upon by the rangers. If you must, hit me up (jaowen21@gmail.com), I have all the beta and have researched the best times and ways to get away with it. We definitely do not want to mess up access to this river!

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Justin Owen

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